Source Music & Belift Lab Sue Pro-NewJeans YouTubers? US Court Approves Identity Access
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Identities of Malicious YouTubers to be Revealed to Source Music & Belift Lab
Previously, Source Music and Belift Lab pursued legal actions against 7 YouTube channels for hate comments and defamations against the two agencies’ artists, especially LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT.
The controversial YouTubers include Cute Rabbit Jjang, EnterPick, People Box, Da Issue, NewJeansFam, Issue Tan, Wangjam Issue, 2 of whom are allegedly “pro-NewJeans” (now rebranded into “NJZ”), according to their channel names.
In the latest development of this lawsuit, the US court has confirmed that Google must grant Source Music and Belift Lab access to the identities of the aforementioned YouTubers, showing a lean towards the 2 HYBE labels.
Particularly, Chief Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California stated, “The request is neither excessively intrusive nor overly burdensome, as it seeks only the necessary information.”
It is known that Google was required to provide account IDs, creation dates, names, dates of birth, genders, phone numbers, email addresses, and even access logs associated with the channels within 30 days of court order.
However, despite Google and the affected individuals being able to file motions opposing this, but, no objections were received as of February 5, 2024, hence the eventual confirmed identity access grant.
Further Lawsuit in Korea
On the other hand, all 7 channels mentioned above are accused of posting videos that include damaging claims against ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM. According to the court order filed by HYBE and the labels, the channels alleged LE SSERAFIM of “masking its members’ vocal abilities from the public” and ILLIT of “copying from other artists”, among other accusations.
Back in August 2024, Source Music and Belift Lab first filed similar claims against the 7 YouTube channel with Seoul’s Western District Court, but the cases were unable to proceed due to the identities of the channel owners remaining unknown.
Now that the 2 agencies have been granted access to the YouTubers’ identities, they may be able to continue their cases in Korea.
