5.26.2020

When will the cheering song be back?





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.

🔺 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.

🔺 pixabay.com


    Court decision,
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.

🔺 scourt.or.kr
Court of Korea

    When will the cheering song dispute be settled?
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.

🔺 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.









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