The Seoul Central District Court ordered K-pop rock band CNBLUE to pay 15 million won ($12,500) in compensation to indie punk band Crying Nut for copyright infringement.

Crying Nut had sued CNBLUE and its agency FNC Entertainment for unauthorized use of its song “Deathblow Off-Side,” which was written by its member Lee Sang-hyuk to mark the 2002 FIFA World Cup and was released by the band. Crying Nut claimed that CNBLUE used the music on Mnet’s “M Countdown” in 2010 without authorization.

The indie band claimed that not only did CNBLUE use the song without permission, they also lip-synced along to the original Crying Nut recording.

Moreover, CNBLUE made profit from it with the release of a DVD album, which included the video of the “M Countdown” appearance, in Japan a year later, added Crying Nut.

CNBLUE later countersued Crying Nut for damaging the group’s reputation by accusing them of copyright infringement, but the Court rejected the group’s argument.

The Court found CNBLUE liable for unauthorized use of the song on the TV show, but limited its responsibility to the performance, taking into consideration that the broadcasting company CJ E&M and another unspecified company were in charge of the DVD sales and that Crying Nut had already received 40 million won in compensation from them.

By Jung Eun-jin (jej2403@heraldcorp.com)