{"id":583393,"date":"2026-04-14T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/583393\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:00:12","slug":"hybe-seeks-x-user-identity-for-copyright-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/583393\/","title":{"rendered":"HYBE Seeks X User Identity for Copyright Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/bts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BTS<\/a>\u2019 record label has taken the first step to sue an anonymous X user who allegedly leaked songs, lyrics and artwork from ARIRANG before the release of the chart-topping comeback album.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBigHit Music, the HYBE subsidiary that serves as BTS\u2019 label home, initiated U.S. legal proceedings on Thursday (April 9) to discover the owner of the account @jwngkcck. BigHit claims this user posted portions of ARIRANG on X (formerly Twitter) in early March, ahead of the <a href=\"http:\/\/\u201cBTS%20ARIRANG%20LEAK\u201d\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">hotly anticipated drop<\/a> of BTS\u2019 first album in six years.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/newjeans-court-reveal-youtube-user-criminal-defamation-case\/\" class=\"c-lazy-image__link lrv-a-unstyle-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/New-Jeans-press-credit-Siyoung-Song-2023-billboard-1548.jpg\" alt=\"NewJeans\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"\" width=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe court petition, obtained by Billboard, asks a U.S. judge to issue a subpoena requiring X to disclose this user\u2019s identity. BigHit intends to use the information to bring a civil lawsuit against the user in South Korea, where the label says it will seek financial damages for copyright and trade secret infringement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cBigHit and BTS invest extensive resources into planning and executing the most effective release of albums, songs, lyrics and associated material as possible, so as to have the greatest possible impact on potential listeners and the market when the media are released,\u201d reads the court document. \u201cThe leak of BTS\u2019s album destroyed the element of surprise that applicant was building up towards its release, negatively impacting its reputation and sales.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe alleged leaks in question are no longer available on the @jwngkcck X page. BigHit says the user removed these posts \u2014 and changed their display name away from \u201cBTS ARIRANG LEAK\u201d \u2014 after it submitted copyright infringement reports to the social media platform. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tReps for BigHit and X did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday (April 13).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHYBE and its subsidiaries routinely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/newjeans-court-reveal-youtube-user-criminal-defamation-case\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">turn to U.S. courts for help<\/a> when they want to identify and sue anonymous internet users in Korea. That\u2019s because U.S.-based social media platforms, like X and YouTube, are only subject to subpoenas issued by judges here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe bulk of these cases arise when HYBE wants to pursue legal action in Korea for defamation, which can be either a civil or criminal violation in the country. The K-pop juggernaut has, in the past, asked U.S. judges to unmask users who spread false rumors online about major groups like NewJeans, SEVENTEEN and TWS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tARIRANG was released on March 20 and has spent its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/chart-beat\/bts-arirang-third-week-number-one-billboard-200-chart-1236221190\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first three weeks at No. 1<\/a> on the Billboard 200. The album\u2019s lead single, \u201cSwim,\u201d debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains in the top 5 of the chart.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubpass.co\/billboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2HpFicp.png\" alt=\"Billboard VIP Pass\" style=\"max-width: 100%;height: auto\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BTS\u2019 record label has taken the first step to sue an anonymous X user who allegedly leaked songs,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[23517,88,11338,344,2932,6655,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-583393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-copyright","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-genre-k-pop","11":"tag-k-pop","12":"tag-lawsuit","13":"tag-legal","14":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}