SM Accused of Plagiarising Graphics in Recent EXO Teaser Video

[rowling-wolfe22.livejournal.com]

SM Entertainment is being accused of plagiarizing EXO’s recent teaser video after a Swedish graphic designer noted that they have used graphics by him and two other graphic designers without permission.

Graphic designer Erik Söderberg shared a post pointing out the similarities on his Tumblr on January 14. The post was originally started by the user orisonofkyungsoo on December 5. The post shows a comparison between graphic art by Erik Söderberg and two other international designers – Carlo Vega and Alexander Nusic – and graphics that appear on EXO’s teaser video titled “EXO 2015 COMING SOON.” The teaser video first aired during the 2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 3, and was uploaded on YouTube soon after the live broadcast.


Currently, the original teaser video on SMTOWN‘s account cannot be accessed “due to a copyright claim by eriksoderberg.se.”



The video can still be found on other YouTube channels, however.

SM Entertainment has yet to respond to the accusations.

UPDATE:

A Twitter user recently asked Erik Söderberg why he blocked EXO’s video, to which the designer responded that the video contains work used without permission, and that while he and “at least one more artist” contacted SM, he ended up having to contact YouTube directly when no action was taken by the agency. Overall, the exchanged remained extremely positive, the Twitter use thanking Erik Söderberg, who in turn apologizes if he upset any EXO fans.



Source: Erik Soderberg's Blog, KMusic-Live, Erik Soderberg's Twitter
Via: Soompi

Comments

[rey.livejournal.com]

not even 2 months into 2015 and sm already be messing up smh

[babyonions.livejournal.com]

SM really wants a monopoly on the plagiarism tag

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

VM Production, the company in charge of the production for the EXO teaser, uploaded a notice that they obtained the rights to use the graphic sources from the original copyright owner, Sodersberg, and said that they're confused by his accusations.

http://osen.mt.co.kr/article/G1110053748

my theory is that Sodersberg wasn't aware that VM Production was doing the work under SM, and thought SM plagiarized his works, when in reality SM and VM production had a contract.

So SM didn't completely screw up, VM production and Sodersberg just didn't have enough communication on what this was gonna be for.

[ababobaby.livejournal.com]

you patch things up so quickly it amazes me

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

:D

[ggumd.livejournal.com]

+1

[violentiak.livejournal.com]

Ah, this makes sense. Thank you for doing the research.

[babyonions.livejournal.com]

Oh, this makes sense, now I feel bad lol

[bauci.livejournal.com]

idk did he miss that he got a nice bonus, since they must have gotten the permission before December and in January 12th he's still unaware?

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

What ababobaby said. You always seem to have an ear on what's really going on lol. Thanks!

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

ahh ty for this

[violentiak.livejournal.com]

Really now, SM. You have to start using employees who, you know, actually do their job themselves.
They are a huge company and have huge audience, do they really think you can get away with shit like this? Sometimes it makes me think that the company demand their staff to create something amazing in too little time, so that they're almost driven to go "the easy way".

[stereotastic.livejournal.com]

mte. their clothes, concepts, music could do way better with their own people creating them. they easily buy songs from foreign artists and it bugs me because sm artists themselves have so much potential to create their own artistry.

[velveteenkitten.livejournal.com]

There seems to be a huge amount of these "It's plagiarised!" accusations, followed by "Oh, nvm, we just didn't let the relevant people know we had purchased rights yada yada...".
Get it together kpop.

[velveteenkitten.livejournal.com]

And relevant foreign agencies.

[bauci.livejournal.com]

this pattern just makes me think that when accusations come to light sm throws cash at them and they ~remember~ that the rights were actually bought. Makes me wonder what else they have bought and forgotten to pay for.

[velveteenkitten.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, the old "I was going to pay for these, honest. I just left my wallet at home."

[ckino (from livejournal.com)]

So
Messy

[consequences.livejournal.com]

lmao the motion graphics were too good to be true after all

As a designer, this is supremely upsetting, and I'm glad Erik is fighting back. If I still had any respect for this company, it's all gone now.

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

Nice to see an EXO-L not losing their shit over someone doing something "wrong" to their oppars!

SM(essy) strikes again. You can definitely see the similarities. Just pay the artists and keep it moving ffs.

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

lmao at SMessy or more like SuperMessy 8D

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

lol that's even better SuperMessy Ent is right!

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

They didn't even try omg.

[astronomatic.livejournal.com]

update: he found his missing $$$

EXO fans - the video is back online and everything seems to be sorted out. Happy that Seo Dong Hyeok solved this fast and correctly. =)

— Erik Söderberg (@eriksoderberg) January 14, 2015 (https://twitter.com/eriksoderberg/status/555384500386279425)

[love-allure.livejournal.com]

lmao

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Messssssss

[lydiasummer.livejournal.com]

booo i thought they were going to come out and call it a homage

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

Do people not read the comments here? Like, literally the 3rd comment in clarifies everything lol.

[hyungmoney.livejournal.com]

lmao ikr

[ggumd.livejournal.com]

mte

[shiroki-tenshi.livejournal.com]

tl;dr.

Or is it "just scroll to the bottom and jump on SM-hate bandwagon"?

[bauci.livejournal.com]

why not? ppl jump on yg plagiarism claims even faster. fair wank for all the companies!

[shiroki-tenshi.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I don't recall many of YG plagiarism issues if any (save for Taeyang and "ENL").

But I was more referring to the SM hate (with all of those lawsuits and scandals it saw last year), hence why I edited my comment to say 'hate' instead of 'plagiarism' lol

[bauci.livejournal.com]

mostly choreo related stuff with yg and some of 2ne1 tracks

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

My friend produced the tracks Lucifer and run devil run and he still has not gotten all of his money.

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

for real? that sucks.

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure they're joking but I'm not sure if you are lol.

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

i thought they might be, but wasn't sure.

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the problem was. Clearly their was miscommunication, but did they:

1. not pay him in a timely manner
2. throw money at the problem after it was discovered
3. not clearly inform him what his work was for (+pay issues?)

I know in Hollywood, people are often paid 6 months+ after for their work.

[llamadistrict.livejournal.com]

not surprised tbh

[steelsigns.livejournal.com]

smh at this blatant stealing

[heirani.livejournal.com]

My father works with an Korean company and I study intercultural communication.
It's something like many east asian countries only wants to talk with the 'biggest' in the company and those under doesn't really matter even though somebody 'lower' might be responsible for what they want

could be the case or just that he was paid after