After having been hit with plagiarism accusations for six of the seven songs on her new album, H-Logic, Mnet, the managing company for Korean singer Lee Hyori, is finally scrambling to address this issue. A representative from Mnet recently came forward to make a statement about the situation:

We were already aware that the guide version of the demo song was up on YouTube before the release of her 4th album. Bahnus had already made these songs 4 – 5 years ago and had sold them. However, the problem was, he then made recordings of the guide and distributed the demo CDs. Also, it is also said that the vocalists who recorded for the CD all possess a copy of it… Bahnus has already secured the documents containing evidence for the recording time, the name of the vocalist, and even the daily records of the entered recording studio. Since YouTube and various portal sites possess copyright infringements, a request has come in to delete the leaked source. The leaked source has announced infringement of the copyright law by the composer… During the sales of the 4th album, we have revealed this truth in the description of her song Swing. There is no need to receive a copyright approval because this ballad does not have a title and its author is anonymous.

Mnet is essentially defending the company’s “rights” to the songs. After having looked over this several times, the argument seems quite shaky. A handful of the artists plagiarized have already stated that they are preparing to take legal action, so Mnet better be ready for an onslaught in court. It’s unfortunate that Hyori is getting caught up in the middle of this, but this is what happens when you’ve got huge companies that think they can walk all over relatively “unknown” artists.

Source: allkpop