A South Korean music-producing YouTuber, known as “Newple,” has accused a Chinese music service provider of registering his created song without permission, leading to grievances. Newple revealed this on his YouTube channel on October 29th in a video titled “Is This Even Possible?” He explained that a Chinese company, referred to as “A,” had unlawfully registered his song’s copyright in China, claiming that it was initially distributed without his consent on TikTok. Newple highlighted that the song had been widely used and even reached the 8th position on Chinese music platforms, “B Music” and “C Music.” The YouTuber is upset about an imposter account profiting from his work and mentioned that his song’s copyright had been registered on the Chinese music service, “A Music.” He initially refrained from copyrighting the song to avoid generating income but had clearly stated his role in composing, writing, and producing it when uploading the video. Despite his efforts, the song spread rapidly in China, and the Chinese company “A” took the liberty of registering the copyright in their name. Newple expressed his frustration, feeling that his time and effort creating the song had been devalued. Legal experts noted that Newple has the rights to his creation, even though he used AI to produce the music. Copyright belongs to the creator from the moment of creation, and the registration process does not affect ownership. In China, the fake registration does not hold legal authority, but it might have resulted in criminal penalties if carried out within South Korea. Newple is considering reporting the incident through YouTube or organizations like KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) to protect copyrights. Furthermore, Newple intends to reclaim the copyright through legal procedures and has pledged to donate the revenue if successful in a court dispute. In a conversation with this, Newple mentioned his plan to confront the company that took his copyright, as he has learned valuable lessons from this experience. He acknowledged the potential consequences of not registering copyrights, even for YouTube videos, and expressed his intention to donate any proceeds to a cause if he prevails in a legal dispute.
