As the internal strife involving the group FIFTY FIFTY intensifies, The Givers has once again made its stance known.

On July 5th, The Givers released a statement claiming, "At present, Attract is blinding the public with distorted facts, not focusing on the essential elements." They clarified, "The claim by Attrakt that they paid and hold the rights to a song fee of $9,000 (about 12 million won in Korean currency) is an example of neighboring rights, which are the rights of the record producer. The Givers holds no rights in this respect."

The agency stressed that they legally hold the copyright to 'Cupid' through proper negotiations with the authors, finalizing a copyright acquisition contract, and paying the due amount.

The Givers explained, "Such processes took place before the release of Cupid, and in the course of global promotion that would be utilized in various aspects such as lyric and composition modifications, mixing into several versions, and collaborations with other artists, it was executed through The Gives' publisher to simplify lengthy processes such as procedural approvals. It is a right clearly acquired in the company's work process, and besides the share of An Seong-il, who actually participated in the work, the foreign author's share is owned by the publisher, The Givers."

They continued, "We possess a separate invoice for securing these rights, not the song fee claimed by Attrakt. In the invoice for the song fee owned by Attrakt, it is explicitly stated as 'Music Production Fee,' whereas in the acquisition fee invoice paid by The Givers, it is stated as 'Music Intellectual Property Rights Fee.' These are clearly different contents, and these materials will be disclosed in court."

Furthermore, The Givers noted, "Attrakt's claim that The Givers bought the copyright for the song fee they paid is an obvious falsehood that cannot stand. If such logic were valid, one could conversely ask if Attrakt holds the copyright to all songs through payment of the song fees for past albums. In fact, when Attrakt was struggling to secure songs due to insufficient production costs, The Givers first purchased the songs without problems, and then returned them when Attrakt secured the funds. We cannot help but express deep regret and considerable discomfort about these false allegations that are not based on facts."

Lastly, they sent out a stern warning, "At present, Attract is only partially disclosing materials that fit their claims, omitting the overall context and situation. We ask them to stop continuing to inflict secondary damage with false claims and edited materials. This statement is the final warning from The Giver Bus, and after proving the facts in accordance with legal procedures in the future, we will talk about all the related contents again."

Earlier on July 4th, a media outlet reported that An Seong-il owns a 95% stake in the copyright of FIFTY FIFTY's hit song 'Cupid.' According to the report, 'Cupid' was composed by Swedish music school students and rearranged into K-pop by An Seong-il. The copyright shares were divided into An Seong-il (SIAHN) 28.65%, Mr. B 4%, Song Ja-kyung (Kina) 0.5%, and 'The Giver Bus' 66.85%. An Seong-il paid the Swedish students $9,000 and transferred the copyright, and while the CEO Jeon Hong-jun refunded the song fee to CEO An, it was later revealed that The Givers then went on to purchase the rights.

Attrakt then entered the fray, claiming, "As far as we know, the rights to 'Cupid' are not owned by The Givers, but by An Seong-il. We paid a music production fee to An Seong-il, who then gave us the rights to the song."

In response, The Giver had clarified that they had legally purchased the rights to the song and warned Attrakt to stop spreading misleading information.

With this new statement, The Givers has again insisted that the allegations made by Attrakt's agency are "blatantly false." As a result, the dispute has now escalated into a full-fledged legal battle, with both agencies gearing up for what is likely to be a protracted and contentious fight.

While the exact truth of the matter remains to be revealed, one thing is clear: the fallout from this dispute is bound to have major implications for FIFTY FIFTY, its members, and the wider K-pop industry.

It is now critical that the court provides a fair and unbiased resolution to this situation, to not only resolve the ongoing dispute between the two agencies but also to secure the rights and future of the artists involved. Fans around the world are holding their breath, hoping that the controversies will soon be settled and that FIFTY FIFTY can return to creating the music they love.

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