Gamertell

Square Enix recently won a case against Fantom, a company that produces Korean music videos, regarding a music video that was found to have plagiarized a scene from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (Advent Children).

The music video, which was created by Fantom for Ivy’s Temptation Sonata, was found to have borrowed heavily from Advent Children‘s fight scene between Tifa and Loz in Aerith’s church. The Fantom company was fined 10 million won (approximately $10,900) and additional fines of 6 million won (approximately $6,500) each to the director of the company and the director of the actual music video.

According to a press release statement by Yasuhiko Hasegawa, General Counsel of Square Enix , the fines represent much harsher punishments when compared to other cases involving copyright infringement in South Korea. Hasegawa went on to say that Square Enix would continue to fight adamantly in order to protect its intellectual properties, especially considering that Final Fantasy is one of its most popular and profitable series on an international scale.

Although Square Enix was certainly within its rights to press the matter legally, it leaves several negative impressions that the company is not interested in individuals expressing their fandom creatively. Certainly, the fines will likely dissuade future ideas of explicitly ripping off a scene from a Square Enix product, but it will also likely leave a foul taste in some fans’ mouths considering that the music video served a secondary purpose as unpaid advertising.

The video is made and is easily available on the internet, and permanence such as that will outlive any negative repercussions that this lawsuit may have on Square Enix ’s reputation. Something about that just doesn’t seem fair, especially when you throw in that 22 million won.

Read [ Hollywood Reporter ] Via [ Joystiq ]

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