"I Am Solo" is drawing a hard line. Chonjang Entertainment, the production company behind the hit reality series led by creator Nam Gyu-hong, has begun a sweeping legal crackdown on YouTube channels accused of ripping show footage and posting videos that violate contestants’ portrait rights and cross into personal attacks.
Saying the show’s copyright and the cast’s likeness and reputations have been seriously damaged, the company announced it will file complaints against a large number of offending channels.
In a statement on Oct. 28, Chonjang Entertainment said that full clips from "I Am Solo" and related programs ― including "I Am Solo, Love Forever," "Trouble Travel," and "Chonjang Jujeom" ― are being routinely uploaded to YouTube without permission, often repackaged with sensational thumbnails and misleading claims. The company argues the surge of unauthorized copies has eroded the shows’ market value and, more troublingly, trampled the privacy and portrait rights of everyday contestants.
According to the company, one channel amassed a staggering 34.9 million views with illegal uploads. A plastic-surgery channel allegedly screen-captured broadcast footage to rate contestants’ appearances, drawing 800,000 to 900,000 views. Another reviewer has posted 16 videos since March 2025 ― including a provocatively titled review targeting viewers “bad at dating” and focusing on the show’s 28th “divorced singles” season ― by holding contestants’ broadcast images on screen for extended periods, racking up roughly 2.349 million views in total.
Since the series premiered in July 2021, several participants have repeatedly reported mental distress amid body-shaming, ridicule and online slander, the company noted.
Some YouTubers have cited Articles 28 and 35 of Korea’s Copyright Act ― which allow quotation for reporting, criticism, education or research ― as a defense. Chonjang counters that variety-show “reviews” don’t qualify as criticism of the work itself, and that evaluations of a contestant’s personality, looks or private life are invasions of an individual’s dignity and privacy, not protected criticism.
“The ‘criticism’ allowed under Article 28 does not cover comments like ‘this contestant’s personality is X,’ ‘their looks are Y,’ or ‘their private life is Z,’” Nam Gyu-hong said, stressing that courts have repeatedly found that ad hominem commentary and personal insults aimed at variety-show participants fall outside the scope of criticism under copyright law and instead veer into defamation or insult.
Under current law, copyright infringement in Korea can be punished by up to five years in prison or fines of up to 50 million won. Civilly, rightsholders may claim statutory damages of up to 10 million won per work ― and up to 50 million won for willful, for-profit infringement.
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)