I thought that anything standing in the way of the continued rise of TVXQ would be crushed. While that may have been my melodramatic way to express my belief that TVXQ is special beyond just a regular group, it looks like “the universe” is beginning to work it’s magic. SM is in deep $hit.
News just broke that the company standing in the way of TVXQ being allowed to freely express themselves as a group of 5 (especially in their home country of South Korea) is being investigated for unfair contract terms. I won’t get too overly excited until there is more than just allkpop attached to the source of this news, though.
The Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) made the announcement of the investigation into SM, according to translated reports.
When SM’s founder Lee Soo Man suddenly announced his resignation from official duties, AND news that AVEX (Japan) divested completely from SM, we all should have known something big was coming. Word probably came down about the investigations and upcoming scandals within SM.
What’s worse for SM is that the unfair practices against TVXQ may be the tip of the iceberg. Other groups like SNSD and Super Junior as well as 53 other celebrities that fall under SM Entertainment will have their contract terms investigated, according to the translated reports.
Anybody under contract with SM will have to undergo an investigation period to see if their contract terms are slave contracts. In other words, the KFTC will investigate if SM has illegally signed these kids up in violation of the established fair contract terms.
This is the stated reason why a conclusion to Junsu’s, Jaejoong’s and Yoocheon’s case against SM has been delayed, the translated reports say.
In addition, members of Super Junior also sued, raising additional questions about the practices at SM like the dreaded 13 year contracts, unfair treatment of artists and the unfair distribution of income between the artist and SM.
Who the hell signs a kid (and yes they were legally children at the time) to a 13 year contract and controls every aspect of their lives and free-time anyway? On top of that, once that kid (or kids) starts to generate a kabillion-jillion dollars, why not make sure that they are happy and well compensated so that the good relationship can continue?
As everybody knows, you cannot sign away your legal rights as citizens of a country. For example, you can’t legally sign a contract to make yourself a slave when slavery is illegal. Another example, you cannot legally hold somebody responsible for breach of contract if that contract was meant to kill somebody else. Murder is illegal. Get what I mean? Even if a desperate, naive kid (or his family) willingly signed something, it can still be illegal for that kid to be held to the terms of the contract.
We’ll update you with more information, including whether or not this information is true that we’re hearing out of Korea.
Stay tuned.
Source Mat:
SSTV
DBSKnights
allkpop (I know… I know…)