JYPE Addresses TWICE's "MORE & MORE" Background Set Plagiarism Allegations
TWICE was recently suspected of plagiarizing the artwork of artist Davis McCarty in the newest music video for "MORE & MORE." McCarty's stunning, vivid rainbow crystal creation and the artwork featured on the music video appeared to be very much alike.
In the last sequence, the music video in question is before TWICE members set out of their dance break. The ladies stand on a platform in front of a natural landscape, showing the rainbow figure, floating on a lake, which appears identical to the artwork of Davis McCarty for the Baltimore's Light City Art Walk back in April 2018.
In his now-removed post, McCarty labeled the similarities of the two artworks and claimed that on the MV as "blatant breach of copyright." He addressed his followers and fellow artists to help him reach out to the JYP Entertainment, and they were asked to share the message.
"Holy S**t!
All-time best selling, Korean K-pop band TWICE STEALS #PulsePortal design and creates a replica for their music video! It already has 15 million views since its launch today on Youtube.
This is blatant copyright infringement. ART FRIENDS CAN YOU HELP GIVE ME SOME GUIDANCE?
On the rainbow side - It is super magical to realize that something I sketched in my journal just influenced the world again. PLEASE SHARE!"
When the information reached JYP Entertainment, the firm issued a statement stating that they had been made aware of the similarities and had asked producers of the music video to fix the problem with McCarty seamlessly.
The agency stated:
"We found this morning that one specific piece from the music video "MORE & MORE" was identical to an existing piece. We requested the video producer to speak to the actual piece's designer for a straightforward solution to the issue.
Since JYP is an agency entrusted to publish the creations of our artists, we intend to set up a review program to avoid future incidents like this from occurring."
Netizens were quick to react to this issue and conveyed their disappointment to TWICE's design team.
"Yeah, it's almost the same. Bit sad and shame on a team of set designers. If only the actual artist was informed how much for it, think about how much money JYP has, do not even know why the committee didn't contact JYP to compensate for it," a netizen wrote.
"It is nice to know that, as per this quote from JYPE, the original author at least gets some compensation in the end," said an online user.
"While initially, the MV prop designer would not have copied the concept. Not many people know how it really hurts, particularly for small artists when their works are copied, and the replicated version becomes more famous and earns more money from their actual hard work and effort and imagination, and they did not get the recognition they deserve," another one said.
"I'm pretty sure jyp won't work for them anymore, coz jyp always puts credibility 1st .. this may destroy the career of idols because they already have many haters as themselves," said a fan.
"JYP is really the perfect way to treat partnerships with all its shareholders. I 'm glad they recognized it, and I'm going to agree with this guy given the fact that he's not even in Korea, plus the guy has already deleted his post so they might just disregard it, but they haven't," a netizen added.
