Comedian Kim Kyung Wook, who performs as Tanaka, says the viral duet ‘Good night ojosama’ has been wrongfully re-registered by a China-based distributor, cutting the original creators out of platform control.
On his social media, Kim Kyung Wook wrote that a Chinese outfit has been "rearranging well-known tracks and newly registering them on Instagram (Meta), forcing ownership to switch." He added that ‘Good night ojosama’—the hit he released with YouTuber Nimmol Cash—"was newly registered as a Chinese track," and that he is working with his domestic distributor to restore the original. Composer Gwana, who wrote the song, also said the track had disappeared from Instagram after being rearranged and newly registered, with ownership “forcibly transferred.”
What fans now see on Instagram Reels is a near-clone arrangement showing up as the “official” audio, while the original is hard to use. Rights attorneys say this reflects a broader loophole: automated systems (e.g., YouTube’s Content ID, Instagram’s Rights Manager) rely on fingerprints and registration order, so lightly altered versions that get registered first—or more aggressively—can be misread as originals, leaving true rightsholders blocked or even flagged.
This is not new. In 2021, Korean songs tied to major artists were reportedly rearranged or adapted and then registered abroad, with royalties misallocated. Tracks cited at the time included IU’s ‘Morning Tears’, Toy’s ‘Good Person’, Brown Eyes’ ‘Already One Year’, and songs by Younha, among others. Korean stakeholders pushed platforms to correct distributions and to claw back past royalties.
Because K-pop and K-content depend on global platforms, smaller agencies and independent creators can be especially vulnerable to fast overseas filings. Kim Kyung Wook urged peers to stay alert so "others don’t face the same thing."
Next steps for ‘Good night ojosama’, according to Kim Kyung Wook: submit authorship proof to Meta through the domestic distributor, request restoration, and pursue legal and administrative remedies. Yet cross-border disputes often take time and money, and creators warn that without platform-level fixes—stronger verification and rapid restoration paths for proven rightsholders—the same scheme can recur.
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