Dispatch reveals that the copyrights for FIFTY FIFTY's Cupid were illegally obtained by The Givers' Ah Sung-il

Dispatch released an article on July 17, 2023, noting that the copyrights of FIFTY FIFTY's track Cupid were illegally bought and acquired. In a previous article, the publication revealed details and information about The Givers, ATTRAKT, and the relationship between the two companies and their collaboratively created K-pop girl band FIFTY FIFTY.

The same stated that Ah Sung-il, the CEO of The Givers, acquired copyrights from the original songwriters, Adam von Mentzer, Mac Fellander, and Louise Udin. The three songwriters are from the Swedish School of Music. The report said that all of this was done without the knowledge of his partner, ATTRAKT's CEO, which made the former get over 90% of the song's profit. Additionally, with the new information that the obtainment was also illegal, netizens are furious.

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The Givers' Ah Sung-il reportedly illegally obtained copyrights of FIFTY FIFTY's Cupid via sign forgery

Dispatch released a lengthy article on July 4, 2023, explaining several unrevealed aspects of the relationship between FIFTY FIFTY, The Givers, and ATTRAKT. Among multiple things, they revealed that Ahn Sung-il had bought off Cupid's copyrights from the Swedish composers. Since this was done without the knowledge of his collaborative partner, Jeon Hong-joon, it already makes it an illegal act.

He had supposedly bought the copyrights for roughly $9,000, which is much less compared to the profits the song is currently making. Therefore, 74.5% of the Swedish composers' share of the song's copyrights was transferred to Ahn Sung-il. This brings him a whopping 95.5% including his own share in the copyrights.

FIFTY FIFTY's Cupid Copyrights distribution (Image via Dispatch)

While all this is unfair to the other participants in the song, Dispatch revealed aspects of the copyright issues about FIFTY FIFTY's Cupid. Dispatch analyzed the documents that Ahn Sung-il submitted to KOMCA to declare that the Swedish composers had sold their copyrights to him. At the time, they noticed that the composers' signatures weren't to the point.

On further analysis, Dispatch realized that it wasn't personally signed by the composers and Ahn Sung-il had forged their signatures and bought the song's copyrights. Dispatch also revealed that the first time Ah Sung-il submitted the documents to KOMCA it was rejected due to the lack of originality. However, he submitted the documents again, reforging the composers' signatures, which doubles up Ah Sung-il's criminal act.

Faked signatures by Ah Sung-il (Image via Dispatch)

Additionally, they also took a closer into the copyrights shared amongst the song's participants. It was then that they realized FIFTY FIFTY's Keena, who accompanies Cupid's songwriting, reduced her profit percentage from 6.5% to 0.5%.

Regarding the signature forgery, Dispatch sends the documents to an appraiser to verify their doubts. The following is the statement put forth by the Appraiser Yang Hoo Yeol.

"The signatures of the three composers in the two documents can be considered different handwriting overall. For example, the first letter on the signature of the confirmation of distribution change document shows that the signature starts with something similar to 'A'.”

He added that it began from the lower left and moved upwards and upon hitting the peak, it rotated clockwise. The appraiser noted that the second letter was shaped similarly to the letter "d" and that the stroke curved into forming the letter "e." He added that the writer's pen finished in the "upper right direction."

Faked signatures by Ah Sung-il (Image via Dispatch)

He concluded that when compared to the original documents that had the Swedish composers' signatures, they began with what he believed was the "A." He added that while the stroke's directions were similar, there was a difference between the angles, writing, and the composition of the letters in the signatures.

"The ending is more similar to an "m." The end of the stroke, which is a personal and unique feature of signatures, trails down and to the left," he noted.

This is not only a clearly illegal act but also violates several requirements and necessities put forth by his service contract given that he'd been hiding information from ATTRAKT's CEO. He is supposed to be working side-by-side with Jeon Hong-joon. Additionally, he had also failed in his roles and responsibilities to promote and protect his artists, FIFTY FIFTY.