"BTS Commercial Use Prohibited"... BigHit Warns Military Support Letter App

Products with Member Names and 'Official' Community Operation
"Publicity Rights Infringement... Will Respond Strictly" Warning

Big Hit Music sent an official letter to the military support letter application The Camp, requesting that the group BTS's publicity rights not be infringed upon.

A photo taken last December when all seven BTS members were together before any member had an injury. [Image source=Instagram capture]

On the 9th, a Big Hit Music official told various media outlets including YTN, "We recently sent an official letter asking The Camp to stop commercially using the portraits, names, and other likenesses of BTS members currently serving in the military, which infringes on their publicity rights." The official added, "We will strengthen monitoring going forward and will take strict legal action if improvements are not made."

The Camp is a service that allows internet support letters to be sent to enlisted trainees. The issue arose because The Camp's commerce channel sold soldier dolls with name tags engraved with the real names of BTS members for 56,000 KRW each, and also opened official communities for each BTS member.

Publicity rights refer to the exclusive rights to commercially use or authorize and control the use of a person's name, portrait, or other identity. Big Hit Music holds the position that artists' names also fall under IP (intellectual property rights). The agency also holds the operating rights for BTS's fan communities.

TheCamp caused controversy by using the word "official," which means "official," to open individual communities for BTS members. The photo shows TheCamp community for BTS member Jin. [Image source=TheCamp capture]

The Camp reportedly stopped selling products related to BTS members' names and removed the word "official" from the member-specific communities. However, the communities for BTS members are said to still be in operation.

Meanwhile, The Camp announced last year that it aims to become the "Weverse for soldier idols (idol communication community)." It also added a commerce shop called "The Camp Mall" to its trainee-specific communities and online letter service, achieving sales of 3.7 billion KRW in 2022. It is also reported to have plans to introduce paid services for support letters in the future.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.