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Lee Hyori songwriter held in custody for plagiarism

Lee Hyori [Mnet]

Prosecutors have detained a songwriter who provided Korean singer Lee Hyori with several plagiarized songs for her latest album "H-Logic".

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Local news broadcaster YTN reported on Tuesday that songwriter Bahnus Vacuum, whose real name has been known by his surname Lee, has been held in custody by the Seoul Seobu Disctrict Prosecutors Office on charges of fraud.

The songwriter is believed to have been aware he was plagiarizing songs by U.S. and Canadian singers but passed them onto the top female singer and received around KRW 29 million in exchange.

Songwriter Lee was turned over to prosecutors in late July, after the pop star and her agency Mnet Media filed criminal charges against him earlier that month.

The singer had been enjoying a comeback to the music scene with "H-Logic", released in April, when netizens started pointing out songs on her albums were plagiarized. Lee herself admitted the accusations were true and announced a break from all musical activities until the issue gets solved.

According to the Wikipedia entry for Lee, the songs that are reportedly accused of being plagiarized are; "I'm Back" (plagiarized from Canadian indie-singer Lil Precious' track "So Insane"); "Memory" (from British Trip-Hop group Second Person's track "The Alphabet Song"); "Feel the Same" (from Canadian indie-singer Melanie Durrant's "Feel the Same"); "Swing" (of which the melody resembles Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis' "To treno fegi stis ohto"); "Bring it Back" (from aspiring Canadian girl-group Cookie Couture's "Boy Bring it Back"); and "How Did We Get" (from Jason Derulo's "How Did We", which also sampled Annie Lennox's "No More I Love You's", which on its turn is a cover from the song with the same name by The Lover Speaks).

Lee, 30, debuted in 1998 as a member of popular girl band Fin.K.L. and went solo after the group disbanded in 2002. She has released four studio albums as a solo artist, producing several hits including "10 Minutes", "Hey Girl" and "U-Go-Girl".

Jessica Kim jesskim@
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