Square-Enix wins plagiarism case
- Posted December 12th, 2007 at 08:02 EDT by
- 3,006 views
- 10 Comments
Yesterday we reported that Rockstar Games won their appeal against the BBFC in rights to release Manhunt 2 in the UK. Now it appears that Square-Enix has also come on top in their most recent legal battle - videogame creators just cannot stay out of court can they?
In Square’s case, the firm had no choice but to face legal actions after it had materialised that 80% of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children had been plagiarized in a recent music video.
According to the judge, Fantom, a Korean entertainment company had "illegally used 80 per cent of the storyline, setting, characters and their style of dress" for use in a music video by recording artist, Ivy.
"Square Enix will continue to take decisive action against any infringements upon the company's intellectual property, recognising that this property is one of our most crucial resources," says Yasuhiko Hasegawa, the general counsel of Square-Enix “This judgement by the Seoul Central District Court is stringent in comparison to other copyright infringement cases in South Korea, and we appreciate that the maliciousness of this infringement has been recognised in a public forum,"
This has left the Fantom Entertaiment company with fines of USD 10,900 along with additional fines of USD 6500 to Lee Han-woo, company director, and the music video director, Hong Jeong-ho.
To finish it off with a nice taste, Square-Enix made mention that their Fanal Fantasy series has sold well over 75 million copies throughout its 20 year history.
Comments
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Muzikguy |
Muzikguy- 8:58am GMT - December 12th, 2007
- 1
That's it? People win lawsuits in America all the time worth millions of dollars, not thousands. At least this one wasn't against the creators (like RFOM). I'm actually quite shocked that the series hasn't sold more than that! I mean, 12 games plus all the spinoffs? Maybe the spinoffs don't count. At any rate, I know the first 6 didn't sell that well compared with the newer ones because not as many people were playing video games. At least that's my two cents....
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Morganator |
Hero_Nakamoura- 11:09am GMT - December 12th, 2007
- 3
You people seem to forget currency exchange rates. $10,000 American dollars is quite a bit in South Korea. It's like having a lawsuit worth millions in our currency.
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FinalAtk
- 12:11pm GMT - December 12th, 2007
- 4
It really is a blatent copy. Here is a comparison: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FpCvsZNX4sk
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YamatoKei
- 1:44pm GMT - December 12th, 2007
- 5
Ok, then why wasn't there a lawsuit for NoDoubt's Ex-Girlfriend video??? (see the anime KITE). Why are there no lawsuits for parodies? It's natural that you already know what they are making fun of, or giving tribute to ("artistic/culture nod"). Btw imagine if some homebrew developers decide to finally make a next-gen FF7 remake for free/opensource, ... and get sued/fined like that... ouch :P . Cloud is doomed to stay in 20 polygons.
Morganator: judging from GDP and what I've seen in many Korean dramas, "millions of dollars" o_O ?! Sure, it's 10 million won, but roughly worth 8 months' salaries. Let's convert to old Turkish currency, shall we: 13 billion TL :)
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Mecha_Daddy |
mecha_daddy- 2:19pm GMT - December 12th, 2007
- 6
I'm kinda surpirsed that they've only sold around 75 million copies of FF games total. When you count all the games and remakes for portables I thought it would be way more than that.
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rossinator_99
- 3:18pm GMT - December 12th, 2007
- 7
actually when they say 10k usd, it's pretty equivalent to what it's worth in the us. what costs $10 usd here costs about 10 usd over there.
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