Megan Lee wins lawsuit against Soul Shop, draws oddly resentful comments

MeganLee

Megan Lee won her lawsuit against Soul Shop Entertainment regarding the nullification of her contract.

The court concluded that Soul Shop couldn’t make Megan promote, and that they weren’t allowed to sign contracts compelling her to do so without her consent. The Department Of Justice stated, “[What Soul Shop Entertainment did] is a violation of personal rights, autonomy, and freedom, and we cannot acknowledge such tactics.”

Soul Shop have said they will appeal the case to the Supreme Court if necessary.

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The result isn’t necessarily surprising given that other artists under the label have had similar issues, but a lot of the comments from netizens both domestic and abroad did confuse me.

5:5 income is such a good contract ㅋㅋㅋ she’s not even famous, who would give a complete rookie a 5:5 contract ㅋㅋㅋ

This was a common refrain from a lot of people, and I don’t get it.

She signed in Feb. 2013 and debuted a year later, so they hardly had to train her since they basically just signed her off YouTube. And while she didn’t come in with an overly impressive resume or a gigantic fanbase or anything like that, the reason she got favorable terms was not out of the goodness of the company’s heart, it’s because she had more leverage than some tween who would need to spend the next 5-10 years training and being fed/sheltered under the company.

Seems very obvious to me why she gets a better deal than most.

Also … this seemed oddly unselfaware.

Soul Shop’s contracts are known in the industry for being fair. If their contracts are ruled to be unfair, then every contract in the industry needs to be revamped ㅎ

Maybe? Or maybe just don’t treat people shitty is the lesson?

I normally try to avoid commenting elsewhere now, but I responded to a comment … because it made no goddamn sense to me.

MeganLeeComment1
MeganLeeComment2

It wasn’t an idiotic rant, and it was that seriousness that made me think he was serious with this apologia shit.

Like it’s just an odd story to get so defensive about for the sake of the poor widdle companies.

1) Megan won as a foreigner in Korean court. Why is this the chance to complain about the person leaving and not the company?

2) If the only reason you’re able to keep your own artists is because they have nowhere to escape to, maybe the mirror is the problem and not everybody else?

3) Why do people victimize the company when they lose their suits? People act like we’re on a slippery slope here in terms of K-pop, where if you give artists a little better treatment, companies won’t be able to make money anymore and thus NO MORE K-POP. Annnddd meanwhile everybody jerks off to announcements of record profits for SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment or whoever and start saying shit like, “OMG! UNTOUCHABLE! DAEBAK!” It’s like I’m living in some kind of dystopian future where corporations are the religion with this bizarre cult worship shit.

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Anyway, I still question the career move for obvious reasons, as it’s not exactly Kris or Luhan going back to China to make bank or whatever else. However, even assuming she did do this solely for money and not because of abuse and fraud, I don’t see the issue with it. I just don’t.

Companies have proven time and time again in this industry that people/artists are nothing but monetary assets to them, which is their prerogative, but consequently, if artists treat companies in the same way (“use” them for fame, production, whatever), I have no problem with that attitude either. Reap what you sow.

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