Who are Dolphin kidnappers? Management crew addresses controversy surrounding alleged unauthorized upload of NewJeans’ MV

Dolphin Kidnappers, or Dolphiners Films, is in a legal dispute with HYBE LABEL's subsidiary ADOR for allegedly sharing unauthorized parts of NewJeans’ (NZJ) music videos. On March 28, 2025, Dolphiners Films issued an official statement regarding accusations of them sharing unapproved parts of NJZ's old music videos on their social media pages and YouTube channel.

Dolphiners Films is an advertisement management agency founded in 2015 by CEO and director Shin Woo-seok. The agency develops and creates cinematic ad films, while they have only helmed music videos for one K-pop group in the past, which is NewJeans.

Director Shin Woo-seok is known to have worked on music videos, including OMG, Ditto, ETA, and Cool With You. However, on September 2, 2024, Shin Woo-seok revealed that ADOR allegedly asked him to remove all the videos and clips of NewJeans’ music videos, including the ones on the Ban Hee Soo channel.

On September 3, 2024, ADOR refuted claims stating that Shin Woo-seok shared some excerpts containing edited content, which was disagreed to be shared by the advertisers. Furthermore, the company stated that they only requested to take down specific clips they violated the contract.

Now the rumors regarding the same have resurfaced, and Dolphin Kidnappers shared a statement denying the same on March 28, 2025.

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Dolphin Kidnappers’ statement over allegations of uploading unauthorized NewJeans music videos

In September 2024, ADOR filed a civil lawsuit against Dolphiners Films, aka Dolphin Kidnappers, and CEO Shin Woo-seok, accusing them of breaching contract terms and causing damages through illegal activities.

In response, Director Shin Woo-seok filed a defamation case against ADOR CEO Kim Joo-young and other officials. The director claimed that the HYBE LABELS subsidiary had violated the Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection Act.

Due to ADOR's injunction against NewJeans's independent activities, allegations against the South Korean advertising agency have resurfaced on social media. To address the issue, Dolphin Kidnappers posted a statement on March 28.

According to The Dong-A Ilbo, the statement read:

“We deeply regret that false information regarding our management is being spread online. The current speculation and fabricated claims directed at the Dolphiners Films are absolutely not true.”

The advertisement management crew again refuted the claims and stated they would take strict legal actions to reveal the factual information.

They stated,

“Dolphiners Films would like to make it clear once again that we have never uploaded New Jeans' music video without the consent of the advertiser. Dolphiners Films is currently filing civil and criminal lawsuits to reveal the facts and correct various one-sided false claims, including this matter.

They added,

The Dolphiners Films is upright in terms of the facts. We will do our best until the end to ensure that the efforts of our numerous staff members are not denied, and we will wait for the court’s decision.”

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In other news, NewJeans, aka NJZ, is currently in a legal battle with ADOR. On March 21, 2025, ADOR won the injunction preventing NJZ from signing commercial contracts with third parties with their consent.

On March 24, the girl group filed an objection against the court's rulings. Furthermore, the ADOR's lawsuit on the exclusive contract validity with NewJeans will have its first hearing on April 3, 2025.