Square wins plagiarism case against Korean music video

by Kyle Orland { Dec 11th 2007 at 2:45PM }

Imitation isn't only the sincerest form of flattery, it's also the most legally actionable. At least it is to Square Enix, which recently won a plagiarism case against South Korean music video producer Fantom to the tune of 16 million won (approx. $17,400).

The case centers on the video for the song Temptation Sonata, in which live actors recreate a scene from Square Enix's animated movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. According to a judge for the Seoul Central District Court, the video "illegally used 80% of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanors," from the movie scene. We're not sure how the judge came to such an exact statistic, but who are we to argue with such an official sounding pronouncement?

A comparison of the videos (both viewable below the break) shows much more than a passing similarity between the two, and Square was definitely within its rights taking legal action. That said, we have to wonder what Square Enix felt it had to gain from a court case. Is this video really hurting the company's ability to milk insane amounts of money out off the Final Fantasy franchise? Does seeing the video makes someone less likely to buy a copy of Advent Children? What's next, a legal case against the makers of College Saga? We just hope the negative PR associated with this case is worth the massive $17,000 pay day Square Enix made off of it.

Scene from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Music Video for Ivy's "Temptation Sonata"

Tags: advent children, AdventChildren, court, enix, final fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, final fantasy7, FinalFantasy, FinalFantasy7, FinalFantasyVii, korea, law, legal, plagiarism, square, square enix, SquareEnix

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Yuccadude @ Dec 11th 2007 2:48PM

56% of all statistics are made up.

Wonderflex @ Dec 11th 2007 3:41PM

I thought I might have heard that it was more like 39%.

Ghen @ Dec 11th 2007 4:47PM

Wow, I usually make up a number around 76%

Geist @ Dec 11th 2007 5:33PM

89% of "#% of statistics are made up" statements are made up.

Yuccadude @ Dec 11th 2007 5:42PM

That's only because there can never be an accurate count due to the nature of made-up statistic numbers, they are always fluctuating.

And you don't know if I made it up or not.

LiK @ Dec 11th 2007 2:50PM

this ain't surprising. if you check a lot of Korean MVs, comics and PC games, they pretty much rip off a wide array of stuff from other countries including scenes from anime, movies and video games. i'm surprised Square took legal action though.

ColossalHat @ Dec 11th 2007 3:02PM

I'm surprised they took action too. I didn't think squeenix would get bent out of shape about something as small as this, but meh. I'm still buying FF13, and if it sucks I'm done with that series, seeing as how the last three final fantasies have been subpar (10-2 for being a shameless fanservice to the people that NEED happy endings, 11 due to being online only, and 12 for its complete lack of a driving force for the plot).

aristokrat @ Dec 11th 2007 3:18PM

Um, it's probably a little something called protection of properties (i don't know the exact legal term, IANAL - ha, i've always wanted to use that). If you fail to exercise your right to protect any property you own (no matter how small the impact), that action can be called upon in future cases as demonstrable neglect of protection, effectively nullifying and copyrights, trademarks, patents, etc that are under debate.

Just because it's small stealing doesn't mean it's not stealing. And if sets precedent, then it can very well lead to big stealing.

arrrgh @ Dec 11th 2007 3:30PM

^^^ everyone please read this post ^^^

Gunner McGrath @ Dec 11th 2007 4:29PM

Yep, that guy a couple comments up said it exactly right.

ThornedVenom @ Dec 12th 2007 12:12AM

That's exactly what happened to Chrono Trigger: Resurrection.

Jeff @ Dec 11th 2007 2:53PM

Wow, what douchebags. Let's sue some of our fans for making something that should fall under the category of "fan-art". We can increase our legal team's holiday bonus with the paltry dividends!

It always hits extra close to home when videogame companies make it clear exactly what they are-- companies with the sole purpose of turning a profit. Not the awesome patrons of interactive art that I idealistically dream of.

Blegh.

Jeff @ Dec 11th 2007 2:55PM

Meh, I guess it was for profit, a big obvious no-no when you're using copyrighted material, but c'mon; this is more an homage than anything. A FF fan, when seeing that, will probably feel even more longing for XIII, and might remember that someday down the line they WILL have to buy a ps3. =P

LiK @ Dec 11th 2007 2:56PM

Square is no longer the same these days. i miss the old Squaresoft before the Enix merger.

ColossalHat @ Dec 11th 2007 3:07PM

"Square is no longer the same these days. i miss the old Squaresoft before the Enix merger."

Me too, and I blame Enix for the crap (FF12, FFX-2, and FF11) that has plagued us for what's coming up on a decade in a couple years.

Loki_d20 @ Dec 11th 2007 3:09PM

Depends. If they're making money off of the 'fan' creation, then, yeah, sue em.

Synner @ Dec 11th 2007 4:20PM

Uh, hello? Square draged down enix, not the other way around FF is crap, DQ is ten times the series, with 1/10 of the femininity in its male leads.

StrangeBum @ Dec 11th 2007 4:34PM

I too miss ye olde Squaresoft of yesteryear. Whatever happened to games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasies I-VII, Chrono Cross was a good game, Super Mario RPG was great. Even their more failed attempts at games were better than most of this new stuff. The Bouncer, although I'm not sure if that was pre-merger or not.

deABREU @ Dec 12th 2007 8:52AM

really, c'mon. when you use IP you must license it. it's not about how much square is stopped from making, but how much other people is making off square's creativity.

totally thumbs up for square, homage is one thing, ripoff is completely different. be creative, for goodness' sake!

jmtb02 @ Dec 11th 2007 3:00PM

I think you guys added wrong. The HR article says "The court fined Fantom Entertainment 10 million won ($10,900), and slapped penalties of an additional 6 million won ($6,500) each on Lee Han-woo and Hong Jeong-ho." Wouldn't that mean it's 22 million won, instead of 16?

LilCo187 @ Dec 11th 2007 3:01PM

Why are other countries currencies so worthless?? 16 million Won is equal to a paultry 5 digit amount in US Dollars.

Mort @ Dec 11th 2007 3:05PM

Think of it this way, it wasn't 17,400 USD, it was 1,740,000 pennies. If I recall, there is no part of a won.

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Dec 11th 2007 3:42PM

I don't know, why's the British Pound worth twice that of the American Dollar?

WiNG @ Dec 11th 2007 4:02PM

Exchange rates don't mean anything without a cost analysis.

Saying a won is worthless, because one dollar is x,000 won means nothing. For all you know, it costs only 3 won to buy a Wii there. Then what? Unless you know how much people earn and what products cost, exchange rates are almost meaningless.

LilCo187 @ Dec 11th 2007 4:12PM

Thanks for the enlightment, and the negative voting.

Ethan @ Dec 11th 2007 6:35PM

Lets all move to Canada!

samfish @ Dec 11th 2007 3:02PM

What's wrong, Square? You don't want any help running FFVII further into the ground?

arrrgh @ Dec 11th 2007 3:31PM

oh how i wish over all else that FF6 was the last FF

ShankShank @ Dec 11th 2007 3:03PM

It really doesn't matter what PR Square has. People who hate Square will blindly hate them forever, people who love Square will blindly love them forever.

Mort @ Dec 11th 2007 3:08PM

So, this raises the question, stealing content for profit in Asia nets you a 17K fine. File sharing for no profit nets you ten times that.

I am reminded of the opening in Layer Cake, where Daniel Craig says that guys who are in jail for millions in narcotic trafficing are doing less time than those who robbed a store for a couple thousand.

Mort @ Dec 11th 2007 3:08PM

Oops, sorry, that ten times that is in the US. If people didn't realize that from the tone.

Andrew @ Dec 11th 2007 3:09PM

Seriously, Square-Enix?
Seriously?

VampireHunter Z @ Dec 11th 2007 3:09PM

I understand you have to protect your IP. But did SE really have to make an example out of the small guys. Seriously, there are people at SE that make $17K a month.

Tony @ Dec 11th 2007 3:10PM

come'on guys, just b/c we like FF doesn't mean they were right. that MTV did use a lot of staff from original movie and they didn't get permission from Square. if that's just a fan made MTV and post on a unoffical fansite i don't think Square will sue you. I totally agree with judge

Kev @ Dec 11th 2007 3:11PM

S-e didn't win $17,000, that was the criminal fine the courts levied and will be paid directly to the South Korean Government. The civil case is still pending.

Mr.ESC @ Dec 11th 2007 3:15PM

Being a pirate is alright to be

Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free
You are a pirate!

(laughs)
You are a pirate!

Chris @ Dec 11th 2007 3:15PM

Yeah this was a video for profit. I really can't beleive how many people are mad at Squeenix for this.

As the director of the video I would be embarrassed that I had absolutely no creativity to think of my own original idea. This should teach him a lesson.

Roxinos @ Dec 11th 2007 3:18PM

I can see why any one would do something like this. But since it's a large company like Square-Enix, somehow it's different and wrong for them to take action.

Regardless of the source, the material was not their own, and Fantom took it without permission. If it was my property, my game/movie/book/music that was stolen, then I would take the same legal action against the plagiarist as Square-Enix did. People have the right to protect their property, and so do companies. Even if nothing was lost by the creator in the plagiarist's recreation, it is still the fact that they stole something.

aristokrat @ Dec 11th 2007 3:25PM

Wow, it's like a female Korean Ricky Martin, with all the fake intensity and just plain terrible songs! Awesome. Regardless of what people feel about the big guy vs. the little guy debate, I think that any legal action that prevents this musical "act" from prospering is a good thing.

"Somebody do it!" ugh...

Also, the piano sample was bad when Nas did a while back, but maybe he should sue for proliferation of bad ideas. Classical samples tend to suck, plain and simple (and I like classical music).

rokerovakero @ Dec 11th 2007 3:32PM

Considering a few days ago Square-Enix was saying how they "don't live off Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest" they are very protective of whatever might come close to it

John @ Dec 11th 2007 3:51PM

Perhaps Beethoven should sue too.

blank @ Dec 11th 2007 4:43PM

I think anyone who can, should sue over that. That wasn't an homage or flattering, that truly was a case of blatant plagiarism. The song was disgustingly terrible and at points (there were several dozen) I question why anyone would listen to it, and yeah, it was because of video.

On top of that, sampling beethoven for the bulk of the song? I mean really... can the "artist" go any lower???

I'm proud that Square took them to court, and even happier that they won.

Artistic expression is acceptable when it's artistic, that music video is just wrong.

ThornedVenom @ Dec 12th 2007 12:19AM

Aren't his songs public domain now? Copyright would belong to those who created the sound sample, and not to the one whom the song belongs (well, although technically it doesn't "belong" to anyone anymore).

So if they stole the Fur Elise sample from another musician, then that musician could sue them.

ballistic @ Dec 11th 2007 3:53PM

I agee with the suit. As the music video is intended to make a profit not in square enix interest.

It is like having mario selling plumbing products. Does it affect nintendo's ability to sell mario games? No it doesn't. But it does leech off the brand that nintendo spent millions to establish. It the same in this case. The music video is leeching the FF brand. It trying to connect itself to FF in which no further connection exists.

I feel kyle goes too far in demonizing squareenix. Unless i missed something, they haven't shown me reason to belive that they are clamping down on fan production. with the thousands of VMA made of sephiroth, cloud, tifa, aerith, cosplays, and fanart of the same thing. even their inaction against 8-bit theater shows they are rather kind. THis music video shows no indication of steping on fans and shouldn't be used as a slippery slope arguement for that. the music video is professional production not a fan video on youtube.