Instagram: plave_officialA South Korean court has ruled in favor of a virtual K-Pop boy band who sued a man for criticizing their appearances online.
K-Pop group ‘Plave’ is a virtual boy band made up of five members: Yejun, Noah, Bamby, Eunho, and Hamin.
Much like VTubers, they are represented by heavily stylized virtual avatars instead of showing their real faces and bodies, and use motion capture technology to record their choreography.
The group made their debut in 2023 with their single album, ‘Asterum.’ Their name, ‘Plave,’ is a combination of the English word ‘play’ and the French word for dream, ‘Rêve.’
No one knows the real identities of the performers behind the animated idols, but that hasn’t stopped them from capturing fans both in and out of South Korea, taking accolades at the Seoul Music Awards and winning song of the year at the 2024 MAMA Awards.
While K-Pop groups and VTubers are steadily growing in global popularity, they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, as one South Korean man remarked in an incident that’s taking social media by storm.
South Korean man sued for calling virtual K-Pop band ugly
Plave’s agency, Vlast, filed a lawsuit in 2024 against the unnamed man for making negative comments on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the band members’ virtual appearances.
His comments, as recorded by the Korea Times, insinuated that the real performers behind the band could be “ugly in real life,” describing them as having a “typical Korean man vibe.”
Taking offense to this, Vlast took legal action, demanding the man pay each member of Plave 6.5 million won for causing them “emotional distress.”
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Despite arguing that his remarks were merely targeting the virtual characters and not the real people behind them, the courts disagreed with the man’s stance. However, they significantly lowered the amount Vlast was asking for, instead awarding them 100,000 won per member after debating the severity of the man’s comments.
“In the era of the metaverse, the avatar is more than a virtual image; it is a means of expression for the user, their identity, and their way of communicating with society,” the court stated, as reported by the BBC.
Vlast continues to plead their case, appealing the court’s damages and saying that their case sets a key precedent for future virtual idol groups.
This is just the latest story centering around virtual avatars that’s going viral; earlier in September, a VTuber agency garnered both praise and curiosity for launching a ‘rental granny’ service to help young people receive guidance from elders.