BTS and their company HYBE are being sued by a Florida man for piracy.
The lawsuit involves the reality K-pop series I-Land, a survival genre show in which BTS appeared. Bryan Kahn, a Florida resident, is suing BTS and their studios, saying they ‘stole’ his ideas for a show and worked on I-Land.
Also named the defendant in the lawsuit is CJ E&M America, the US-based subsidiary of South Korean entertainment giant CJ E&M. Big Hit created the show through a partnership with the company. I-Land is a reality K-pop series that spans from June to September 2020. It aims to find the next K-pop stars by taking them through a K-pop training program.K-pop group HYBE ENHYPEN is made up of seven contestants who reached the final round of the show.
In the lawsuit filed by Digital Music News, Kahn claimed that he came up with the idea from the start. His TV show is called Island Hip Hopping, and he signed up for the treatments for the show with the American Writers’ Association in November 2013. Kahn said after creating the method of conditioning. He spent a significant portion of his time living in Asia, from 2013 to 2020.
While in Manila, Philippines, Kahn said he shared his ideas about the show with Eric Aguilar. Aguilar was recruited as a manager at Risk Emergency Defense Security Solutions in Manila. Kahn stated that Aguilar “verbally and via communication by text message, confirmed that he had transferred treatment rights of the Island Hip Hopping series to Netflix CEO Rita Magnus.”
“At the end of 2019, Netflix has been cooperating for many years with Defendant CJ E&M to produce and distribute content,” the lawsuit claims. I-Land is the YouTube series in question, “a reality TV series in which contestants compete for the chance to produce, perform, and sell original music – as well as the opportunity to work with HYBE.”
The lawsuit also said the defendants made an agreement with Samsung to run ads advertised during breaks, featuring BTS and Samsung Galaxy S20 phones. Kahn says he confronted Aguilar about the possibility of the breach as early as February 2020. Kahn said the last time they talked about it was March 13, 2020.
“Based on the actions above, it is clear that the defendants have stolen and violated many times, and continue to steal and violate the Plaintiff’s protected copyrights,” the petition wrote. Kahn is asking the jury for trial and he is claiming damages and defendant damages, or a maximum statutory damage of $ 150,000 per work breached.