Kang Daniel Finally Freed From LM Entertainment's Basement

[dallinferno.livejournal.com]

Courts Side With #KangDaniel To Suspend Exclusive Contract With LM Entertainment https://t.co/AXykp6ucLu pic.twitter.com/eg2YGUpbaE

— Soompi (@soompi) May 10, 2019

Kang Daniel's fan can rejoice for he has finally been freed from LM Entertainment's basement! The courts have ruled in his favour and allowed the suspension of the exclusive contract. He will now be able to carry out individual activities without LM Entertainment interfering. LM Entertainment of course already announced their intent to appeal the court's decision.

Hello.

This is lawyer Yeom Yong Pyo of Yulchon LLC, the legal representative of singer Kang Daniel.

On March 19, Kang Daniel filed an injunction to the Seoul District Courts to suspend his exclusive contract with his agency, and on May 10, the courts have reached the verdict to accept his request.

As a results of the Seoul District Courts’ decision to accept his request, Kang Daniel will be able to pursue independent activities as a celebrity.

The courts found that the joint business contract LM Entertainment signed with a third party on January 28, 2019 was a contract that transferred the majority of management rights for Kang Daniel to a third party. As Kang Daniel had not been contacted for prior consent, LM Entertainment’s actions not only went against the exclusive contract, but they also broke the trust that is the foundation of the exclusive contract. Therefore, it was decided that LM Entertainment’s actions made it difficult to maintain a relationship between the agency and Kang Daniel.

As a result, the exclusive contract between Kang Daniel and LM Entertainment has been suspended, and LM Entertainment must not interfere in Kang Daniel’s activities, and they must not negotiate or sign contracts on his behalf or require him to pursue activities on their behalf.

Source: Soompi 1 2, Top Star News 1, Naver 1

Comments

[babyjenkski.livejournal.com]

I wish him all the best. His fans are really waiting for him and his future activities.

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

Good for him!
I haven't been following Wanna One closely, but isn't he insanely popular? the agency really fucked up.
Hopefully Daniel can set his own agency with people dedicated to him on his terms this time.

[dallinferno.livejournal.com]

According to various polls etc, he's genuinely the most popular male idol in Korea.

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

That's huge, a solo debut is bound to do well if he doesn't wait too long
I hope the appeal from LM Ent is shut down quickly so Daniel doesn't waste too much time in legal battles

[hibaalhadid.livejournal.com]

he's like the male Suzy in terms of popularity

[otraera.livejournal.com]

Yes be free !!!

[juhli.livejournal.com]

Happy for him! This was faster than I thought, even when the company wants to appeal the decision. at least he's allowed to carry out activities in the meantime.

[dongsaengkiller.livejournal.com]

I’m so happy for him! His fans must be ecstatic! LM really is full of dumbasses. How do you loose Daniel? That’s easy money for the next decade. All they had to do was keep him happy. Dumbasses

[hpn88.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your escape! This company is genuinely so stupid. They could have made millions.

Real talk though: I feel like he's best in a group, what will his music sound like. I means he's not especially vocally talented or that good of a rapper...he's really a dancer.

[ultraflyy23.livejournal.com]

He’s got a decent voice and mad charisma. He doesn’t need to be a vocal powerhouse to be a good soloist lol he just needs good producers

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

I'm so curious about how this will play out. The agency's had 0 problems with Jisung's promotions and he's had multiple comebacks and a tour already even with enlistment confirmed and being one of the least popular in W1.

Is it a matter of someone convincing Daniel he can get more money and wanting to back out, did he royally fuck up reading his contract, did the agency do something different on his contract vs jisung's since he's the real money maker, or did jisung just go along with the contract as is? this isn't just about social media account access.

there's a lot of missing info to form a proper opinion for me but hopefully this works out in Daniel's favour and he's not taken on a ride by this other company he's working with now.

[dallinferno.livejournal.com]

Afaik LM Entertainment sold the majority of management rights for Daniel to a third party without his permission.

Jisung probably went along with whatever was happening since he wasn't a really popular w1 member to begin with and this was probably his only chance to release solo music before enlisting. But LM Entertainment did try to copyright his name so if he ever left the company he wouldn't be able to use "Yoon Jisung" aka his own name ... Idk if they ever went through with it but I know they tried.

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

this is hella long but I'm expanding on my original questions above you can skip lol there's no tl;dr edit: ahhhh its just a wall of text let me fix it.

the third party issue I remember and the last that was brought up about it was LM had signed a contract to get additional resources from MMO after the transfer of contract was complete since they're a smaller agency. there was never anything more made public than LM saying it was MMO who the contract was with and Daniel's lawyers not naming names but refuting it. my questioning/not being able to form an opinion on the whole thing is why Daniel decided to dispute it in the first place after agreeing to sign the transfer contract initially and then lodge a dispute and refuse to re-nogiate the contract before it came into effect. He was with MMO all pre-debut and through Wanna One, if the third party was MMO as claimed what would cause him to not want that to continue that relationship and not state why?

Daniel seems sweet but doesn't really seem business literate enough to have raised this issue on his own. I've seen it happen a few times where someone comes in (either an agency or a random third party with connections) and charms an artist and fucks up their whole career trajectory by turning them against their original companies. and LM/MMO themselves aren't deserving of praise or defence, the fact that he never had a lawyer with him when he read and signed the original contract with LM is awful (apparently most idols don't have legal representation when they sign things). idt he has anyone properly advocating for his best interests on either side.

basically I just hope whoever was in his ear pushing for this termination/whoever he signs with actually has his best interests in mind and don't just see $$$$.

as for the Jisung thing:

most agencies trademark a stylized version of their artists names to protect the artists brand it doesn't conflict or interfere with the use of it as his legal name. Should he leave the agency and still perform all he'd have to do is add a space between Ji and Sung or re-negotiate the hand over of trademark and he'd be in the clear to promote.