Ministry sides with cartoonist for 'Black Rubber Shoes' unallocated profits

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Monday that late cartoonist Lee Woo-young was hit with unfair practices and that his surviving family members should be paid the unallocated profits for his “Black Rubber Shoes” (1992-2007)...

Lee Woo-jin, the younger brother of late cartoonist Lee Woo-young, illustrator of the “Black Rubber Shoes” (1992-2007) children’s comic series, sheds tears in front of the Hyungseul Publishing building in Paju, Gyeonggi, on May 15 during a funeral rally. [YONHAP]

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Monday that late cartoonist Lee Woo-young was hit with unfair practices and that his surviving family members should be paid the unallocated profits for his “Black Rubber Shoes” (1992-2007) children’s comic series.

This follows a task force investigation that the ministry launched in March after Lee took his own life earlier that month amid an ongoing copyright battle with his publisher, Hyungseul Publishing, surrounding the series.

“After looking into the contract, we found unfair practices that go against the Protection of Artists’ Rights Act,” culture minister Park Bo-gyoon said in a press release. “We will take firm measures to bring justice to the aggrieved artist to prevent tragedies such as the ‘Black Rubber Shoes’ incident from ever happening again.”

Park also stressed that the ministry will actively operate legal support centers for artists’ copyright issues.

Currently, four individuals hold the copyright to “Black Rubber Shoes”: the defendant (Jang Jin-hyuk, CEO of Hyungseul Publishing), plaintiffs (Lee and his brother, Lee Woo-jin) and one witness.

The ministry found two violations in the defendant and plaintiffs’ contract, which was inked in June 2008 to produce an animation version of “Black Rubber Shoes.”

The ministry found that Jang had not paid Lee the investment returns from the animated series, and ordered Jang to pay Lee’s surviving family the returns and future revenues from additional licensing businesses. The amount was not specified.

Another violation was that Jang had included unfair practices as part of the contract. For example, Jang transferred all rights regarding Lee’s publication and business of “Black Rubber Shoes” to himself and did not compensate Lee. Rather, there was a penalty for breach of contract if Lee did not adhere to the aforementioned parts.

The ministry also confirmed that since 2008, Jang disregarded Lee’s request to amend the “vague” contents of the contract.

The ministry stated this as “an act of significantly disadvantageous transaction conditions for the plaintiffs.”

The results of the investigation were forwarded to a committee within the Korean Artists Welfare Foundation that is responsible for protecting artists’ rights. The defendant has until Sep. 14 to change the unfair contract and submit documents regarding the corrective order to the ministry, which carries legally binding force. Failure to do so may result in a fine of 5 million won ($3,945) or a halt in funding support from the ministry for three years or under.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]