Dispute
over Moral rights that have not yet ended
Korean
professional baseball and cheering culture,
Korean
Professional baseball, which had been postponed due to Corona 19, has opened
from the 5th. On the first day of the opening, fans' reaction was so hot that
2.16 million people watched a baseball game. Baseball broadcasters and baseball
teams have continued to gain popularity by preparing a LAN support event (which
means online cheering). Baseball fans say it's exciting to cheer indirectly,
but on the other hand, they miss the field cheering. Korea's baseball field
cheering has an unusual cheering culture, led by cheerleaders and singing and
dancing all together. American sports broadcaster ESPN said that this kind of
cheering culture is one of the attractive points of Korean baseball.
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| 🔺 sports.news.naver.com a screenshot advertising LAN support event of Korea |
Raising
the issue, moral rights of cheering song,
Previously,
professional baseball teams paid for the fee through the KBO (Korea Baseball
Organization) and used popular songs as cheering songs. During this process, the
teams arranged the songs so that the fans can easily sing along. Authors point
out that this is an act violating the “moral rights”. The Moral Rights is the
right to prohibit the use of a copyright when it is considered that the moral infringement
to the copyright holder has occurred by the change of works. Therefore, it was
argued that changing the lyrics or short editing to use the song for cheering
could violate the copyright holder’s character.
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| 🔺 pixabay.com |
As
a result of the lawsuit between the authors and Samsung Lions in February 2019,
The authors lost by the reason that it was difficult to acknowledge the claims
of the authors. According to the ruling, the court judged the sound source to
be a combined work that could be used separately as lyrics and melody. In the
case of lyrics, if it becomes a completely new lyrics, unlike the original
song, it is a separate new work and the authors cannot claim the copyright of
the lyrics. As for the music, the degree of change was not big, so it was
difficult for the public to notice the difference from the original song. After
all, the key to the decision is that the usual and essential changes made in
the process of using a musical work as a cheering song are not copyright
infringement.
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| 🔺 scourt.or.kr Court of Korea |
It
seems that it will take more time because the lawsuits are proceeded for each
author and each club. SK Wyverns, NC Dinos, and Hanwha Eagles are also in
litigation with copyright holders. Other clubs are also struggling because they
are in litigation or have not been reached an agreement with the copyright
holder. The KBO stated that the best way is that each club owns their own
songs. However, as for Lotte, it is unfortunate in many ways to easily give up
cheering songs such as the “Busan Gull,” which represents the club.
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| 🔺 pixeleye.co.kr Gulls in Busan |
Baseball
commentator Huh, Gu-yeon once said that the baseball field is the largest
singing room (karaoke) in the world. It’s all thanks to cheering song that
everybody sing along cannot be overstated. I hope that the dispute will be
resolved well and that the cheering song at the baseball field will resound.
