SEOUL -- A music video created by Korea's Fantom Entertainment Group was found by a Seoul court Friday to have plagiarized the best-selling Japanese video game "Final Fantasy 7" from game maker Square Enix.
Fantom, a leading Korean media company in talent management and film, television and music production, "illegally used 80% of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanors from the Japanese video game 'Final Fantasy 7, ' " judge Gu Hoe-geun the Seoul Central District Court ruled.
Square Enix says its "Final Fantasy" video game franchise is among the most popular in the world, having sold more than 75 million copies since its inception in 1987.
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, director of Fantom, and Hong Jeong-ho, the director of the music video.
"This judgment 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 recognized in a public forum," Yasuhiko Hasegawa, General Counsel for Square Enix, the maker of the "Final Fantasy" series, said.
Fantom, a leading Korean media company in talent management and film, television and music production, "illegally used 80% of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanors from the Japanese video game 'Final Fantasy 7, ' " judge Gu Hoe-geun the Seoul Central District Court ruled.
Square Enix says its "Final Fantasy" video game franchise is among the most popular in the world, having sold more than 75 million copies since its inception in 1987.
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, director of Fantom, and Hong Jeong-ho, the director of the music video.
"This judgment 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 recognized in a public forum," Yasuhiko Hasegawa, General Counsel for Square Enix, the maker of the "Final Fantasy" series, said.
- 12/8/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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