Former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin appeared in court on November 11 as a witness in a damages lawsuit filed by ADOR against director Shin Woo Seok and Dolphiners Films, who directed music videos for ADOR and NewJeans, including "Ditto" and "ETA." The hearing, the third session of the case, was held at the Seoul Central District Court before Civil Division 62, presided over by Judge Lee Hyun Seok.
This marked Min Hee Jin’s first appearance in court since September 11, when she was involved in a lawsuit against HYBE concerning contract termination and the exercise of a put option for stock transactions.
During the session, Min testified that she had given prior verbal approval for the release of a director’s cut of NewJeans’ "ETA" music video. Asked whether the consent of Apple TBWA, the official advertising agency for Apple, was required for posting the director’s cut, Min stated, “Copyright itself belongs to ADOR, and Apple is a partner. I have the authority to approve creative rights.”
When questioned about ADOR’s claim that penalties should be paid despite the video being taken down following ADOR’s objection, Min described the claim as “unreasonable,” adding, “To unilaterally draft a contract and then claim damages for a supposed breach is an abuse of the law. It’s odd that all staff make verbal agreements, yet HYBE applies this standard only to Director Shin.”
Min firmly rejected ADOR’s suggestion that Dolphiners Films received preferential treatment, calling it “baseless and slanderous.”
The dispute stems from Dolphiners Films posting the director’s cut of "ETA" on its own YouTube channel in August last year. ADOR questioned Shin about his authority to upload company-owned NewJeans content. Shin later removed all NewJeans videos from another unofficial fan channel he ran, called the Ban Hee Soo Channel, after ADOR requested deletion of the related videos.
ADOR countered that it only requested the removal of the "ETA" director’s cut and did not instruct the deletion or halt of any other NewJeans videos, accusing Shin of spreading false information.
Shin, in turn, filed a lawsuit, claiming that ADOR’s statement labeling the upload as “unauthorized” damaged his reputation. ADOR subsequently filed a damages lawsuit against Dolphiners Films in response.
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