@chiablo: Some American fines are just ridiculous. And you're right. They would have been penalized $10 billion, but no one except Bill Gates' dead mother could afford that.

thereturnoftheufo

I'm sorry, I'm on the video maker's side on this.

Where the hell IS Square-Enix's contact information??

thereturnoftheufo

Yeah wow.. that was totally not a parody. It looked exactly like it. Minus the faces it was pretty much the same thing.

MetaKz

Well, when I first read about this I thought: "Well Squeenix, what a bunch of jerks... sueing a band that is making some publicity on their movie".
But after watching the clip... I think it's their right to sue.

I mean, if it was a simple "parody" as they say, I'd understand that.
But this was a blatant complete rip-off. It's like a stolen script. Like they said... 80% copy, if not more.

And saying some BS like "wanted to contact Square Enix to get permission, but couldn't find their contact info." ain't gonna do jack.

The band will have to pay for making that much of a copy or now it'll become legal for music bands to use famous movie/game/series content to sell their own music without paying royalties to those who created the content. Which would be pretty bad.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@Hyperlite:

"I think Beethoven should sue for that blatant rip-off of Für Elise at the start of the video."

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic but I'll clarify this for you. Beethoven's works are in the common domain, they're free for everyone to use. FFVII is not.

NeoAkira

Do they know what "parody" means? I don't really see a distinct definition of it in this video. And damn! That song is annoying. If they're going to make a music video that they know they're going to be sued for (and I'm sure they knew this was coming, if not, they're idiots) they'd at least pick a better song. The chorus is so annoying. Dumb people with their stupid ideas.

_tdc_

@Dane: As someone else said, it goes both ways. Would they be fighting over a tiny island otherwise? Also, it was Lee Hyori, not BoA.
-----
Regardless, that's a fair judgment, considering that Korea's music industry is less than a tenth of North America's. It's tough when artists are struggling to sell 100,000 copies of an album (and that's considered high), and I'm sure that the video makers don't make that much money. The company, on the other hand.... I'm surprised that they didn't go for more, although I'm thinking that it's not a big company.

[For those who care: the singer's recently been blacklisted because of some scandal involving two of her ex-boyfriends. So it's not like she's revelling in her success.)

SKS2K7

@chiablo: Hardly. This is something that needs to be punished heavily. This isn't even a portion of the song's revenues, likely. It shows that there's relatively little consequence to ripping off other people's works.

RawSteelUT

Serves them right. A blatant exploitation of a fanbase.

ProjectThanatos

Alright, next up we have Nintendo sueing Vii creators!

Does Japan love China too? I wonder...

AmrMax

well i think the video is very well done...also she might not even know what Final Fantasy is (yeah right) shes just doing what the director tells her to.

you wanna know what i think? if this video was of a japan pop star nothing would have happened..but since japanese people seem to hate koreans.. they sue

xzero

@explodingman: Why shouldn't Square stop them? The mere existence of a free remake of Chrono Trigger hurts Squeenix in the long run. Plus, it's *their* property. Those characters are adored by fans, but we don't own them. I was surprised the project got as far as it did, honestly, because all I could think of when I saw it was "If they have all this free time, why waste it on something that's getting shut down for copyvio? Why not make their own games?"

@Captain Impulse: They're not hurting over that movie anymore. The Enix merger wiped out their debt and the new Squeenix is in the black.

@Others: Squeenix has a legal department for a reason, folks. And last I checked, lawyers do *not* develop video games.

How would you feel if you dumped a ton of money into your own creation and some schmoe came along, claimed he "didn't know how to contact you" (which is BULL) just so he could try and get away with ripping off your own work for profit?

It's like people forget that the creators actually exist. Once the product comes out, they seem to think creators should just go away and stop, you know, expecting fair compensation for pouring their hearts and souls and time and money into it.

Rebochan

I just want to say... ARGH, that Korean song is really bad.

HayamaAkito

@Darthvinder: Peace and Love or John Paul the II is going to come back and eye beam the fuck out of all of us!!!!

Witzbold

@Dane: Heh, good observation, although it goes both ways. I think it's time both sides let go of the hate. Last I checked, the US did more damage to Japan than anyone else, and yet our foreign relations are doing fine. Bury the past and move on.

Captain Impulse

Korea is pretty infamous for IP and copy right violations. Boa, a famous Korean signer, got into a bit of trouble for ripping off Britney Spears a few years ago.

To be honest, Square-Enix's clain is valid. This is an outright rip off, and they have every right to protect themselves considering the bulk of cash they put up to produce the Advent Children.

Ironically, if my residence in Korea has taught me anything it's that most Koreans still harbor a lot of resentment for the Japanese occupation pre and post World War II. Apparently, there's a bit of selective sentiment here.

"We hate you Japan! Send more televisions, and take a few pop stars off our hands."

Dane

@Witzbold:

I... Hate... Superman 64?

Oh yeah and Pakistanis, they should all die. Just kidding, peace, love, and all that shit.

Darthvinder

Sounds to me like Squeenix is still butt-hurt from the financial disaster that was FF: The Spirits Within, and is recouping costs by suing obviously dedicated fans over trivial nonsense.

Captain Impulse

@ConnDestn: Chrono...Trigger 3? I know what you mean, but eh. Just say a new Chrono next time!

As for Square Enix trying something new, they are making The Last Remnant.If that fails, don't see why they shouldn't stick to what they do best. Though it would be nice to get a new SaGa game.

Saint Anima

Whoaaaaa!!! The music video is obviously a HOMAGE or TRIBUTE to Advent Children rather than a rip off! At least, IMO.

They nailed EVERY detail about the Tifa fight scene that they meant it for the fans of the FF to obviously realize that the scene is from AC. It's not like, they copied it with hopes that fans won't realize it's from Advent Children.

Well, I guess this how the business works. Square just can't let this little thing pass. Oh well.

rhugghed

wow really the video is quite old now

Ruisu

@cleric7: that game was like a hojillion hours long. to use 80% of the story this video probably had to be about 0.8 hojillion hours long.

Crawl_to_China

@Detre: Yeah I was looking forward to Chrono Trigger 3d.

I mean really, Square should at least MAKE or have plans on making the game before they go and piss on their fans who are doing it for them.

explodingman

You've got to love a country where the winner of a copyright lawsuit only gets awarded 10 grand.

Jesse in Japan

@Pal: The $10k clearly indicates that Square Enix wasn't after anything more than just stopping them, which is nice for a change as companies usually demand ridiculous sums for nothing.

arashi

@Ra_on_the_Moon: The same could be said of much of Asia; Korea isn't unique in this regard.

@SteveRancid: Japanese/Korean animosity, where some still remains, is mutual more than anything else. Countering one blanket statement with another contributes absolutely nothing meaningful. Your comment had about as much value as myxylplyx's.

SmilingPolitely

Wow, that was much more court-worthy than I first thought. $10k is definitely not enough.

Couldn't find Square Enix's contact information, but had enough time and patience to create this. What can you expect from a person who doesn't know the definition of "parody"?

Pal

@Ra_on_the_Moon: I should clarify. Many times in music and television, you hear songs and riffs taken from various sources, and almost always these songs and programs are intended for domestic use, so they don't bother to obtain the necessary rights from the artists to use these them.

SteveRancid

I'm surprised they didn't sue for likeness of Tifa's english voice actor with that deafening vocals on the song. x_X;;

Kanashimi

@SteveRancid: Really? I didnt know that Korea stole hella stuff. I did know about the Korean hating Japan thing, its why Starcraft is so big there.

Ra_on_the_Moon

@myxylplyx: Correction - Koreans hate Japanese. Japanese have only recently started to hate Koreans due to the high amount of hate that they receive from Korea. But that just leads to the Japanese occupation of Korea, and I'm not going to open that can of worms.

When I first saw this video a year ago here in Korea, I was like "They ripped off Advent Children!" to which my friends responded by calling me a nerd. But its nice to see people someone in Korea blatantly steal someone else's intellectual property and actually pay for it, unlike 99% of the time where they blatantly steal something and get away with it.

BTW, I had this song stuck in my head for approximately two months. Man did that suck. It didn't help that every time I walked down the street you could hear this song playing in every other shop. Don't even get me started on the Wondergirls...

SteveRancid

@Scazza: Skies was great, VII was great and perhaps more fondly remembered than it should be sometimes but i wont take from it, it was massive for stepping up RPGs and opening the floodgates to the US, from niche to genre...i just thought the plot fell apart somewhere on disc 2, but that's often a trend in FF games for me, sadly.

that said, sir, im renting Phantasy Star Universe just to see what about it i'd missed that seems to have hookd you so.

TheIrishNinja

"wanted to contact Square Enix to get permission, but couldn't find their contact info."
Best excuse ever! I spit out a little tea through my nose when I read that. I suppose Square weren't in the Korean Yellow Pages...

(Is it still considered spitting if it's through the nose?)

hana_fubuki

@myxylplyx: and we HATE stupid commentors.

Witzbold

@TheIrishNinja: I concur; XII is definitely the best one since VI.

Batmundo

This is so dumb. I would consider it flattery. Its not like square is losing any type of money on this. Someone tell Square to stop rippin off the FF title in general and make something else new and original...or better yet make a friggin Chrono Trigger 3.

ConnDestn

Serves them right!
I was hoping in something like that since the first time this was brought to our attention.
oh, and looks like some other smart guy cared to post in the old past news just because he felt so,
meh...

iceketch

@KeroseneClimax: Well, unless I missed the part in the aticle where he claims that by "parody" of Final Fantasy he means he came up with the idea himself and no one else... I'm gonna go with NOT plagiarism.

K-OSS

@myxylplyx:

*frowns at the flamebait*

SmilingPolitely

I forgot. The Japanese HATE Koreans.
[www.japanprobe.com]

myxylplyx

Just watched the vid and I'm actually impressed. I thought it would be a lot cheesier.

cleric7

No works cited page, blatant plagerism.

dablitz

Holy fuck, they brought down that fucking hammer. All fuck-like.

Ping5000

plagarised ff12 music vid next time please. lots of ashe and bunny girl! here's 20 dollars. anyone else got 9,950 bucks to make this dream come true?

theovercoatthatsgogol

80%, huh? That's pretty damn specific.

cleric7

Sue, sue, sue!

myxylplyx

Also, a parody would be something hilarious. This isn't anything hilarious. Its just a direct copy of a scene from a movie.

Soriya

HELL YES, i was waiting for this for -ever-

Gantz

@TheIrishNinja: Yes, I totally agree with you with XII and VI. And this video was a total, blatant rip-off of VII. The got what they deserved.

Soriya

@TheIrishNinja: I loved FF12 (it was pretty close to perfect in that it was great in all categories... loved the story, the combat, the rpg system, etc), but I still adore FFVII, for the simple fact that for a good 3 years, it was unparalleled and even today holds up fantastically. Until Skies of Arcadia came out, I don't think I really cared too much for any RPG on the planet.

Scazza

Its a matter of defending your IP, like the Warhammer fan movie case. Even if the fan movie makers assigned rights over to Games Workshop, it weakens their stranglehold over their own IP if someone is allowed to do unauthorised works.

cactaur

@Mit: What's that small print at the beginning? This is what I can make out of it.

"The ??? ??? in this film
is a recreation of FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN"

Is that part of the actual clip as it seems, or added afterwards?

arashi

It isn't parody when you recreate part of it almost frame-by-frame.

redzie

the moral of the story is, dont mess with square enix or YOU WILL SUFFER HORRIBLE LAWSUITS THAT NEVER END *Muhahahahha* =o

hrabbit

I still find it hilarious the guy thought he could even get away with it in the first place.

Atheist Jew

par·o·dy: 1. a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing. 4. any humorous, satirical, or burlesque imitation, as of a person, event, etc. 6. a poor or feeble imitation or semblance; travesty. 7.to imitate (a composition, author, etc.) for purposes of ridicule or satire.

pla·gia·rism: 1. the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work. 2. something used and represented in this manner.

Source: [dictionary.reference.com] I can only assume where this falls into.

KeroseneClimax

Rather small fees for going to court in another country and all, but I guess for once something I can call reasonable.

arashi

I just hope they don't force everyone to stop showing the music video; I just saw it, and it's a really cool tribute and a rare tidbit of K-Pop that is actually bearable.

asherchang2

@SmilingPolitely:

Still gives us something to vent on!..heh

vecha

hehe, a girl named earl, that would suck, but i dont make the rules

VenoMuS

imma have 2 kids (hopefully boys) and name one ToeJam and the other one Earl.

VenoMuS

@myxylplyx: I agree with the sentiment (wanting new Square material), but I doubt their legal teams and development teams are one and the same.

SmilingPolitely

What about South Park's parodies of Guitar Hero, Pokemon, Scientology, etc.?
My FUCK YES!! vote still stands.

myxylplyx

What a bunch of oversized sandy vaginas. Rather than pleased, they get pissed.

MasterOfPastures

I get their strategy now...

It's cheaper to pay the fine than buying the licensing it.

Torokun

oh wow...I just watched the video...

They would have saved more money if they took the first few scenes from advent children and made an Anime music video like they do all over youtube!..lol

vecha

If the company makes a profit off of some other company's work, I think a fine is fair. Pretty much the whole video is based off the choreography and designs from the original scene in Advent Children, and it's fair to give Square Enix some compensation, especially if the video made more than $10k for the music company. Otherwise, it's like taking someone else's work and selling it without giving anything to the original creator.

n2Depth

... would you really want to bitch slap someone with a lawsuit and subsequent fine if they were advertising one of your IP's for you?

giant_historical_crabs

@myxylplyx: The point of the matter is, these guys created an exact replica of someone else's work without permission and got caught by the property's owners. Not to sound like a downer, but Square-Enix was well within their right to sue for due compensation on stolen property and the people in question are damn lucky they got a slap on the wrist in the end. As WITZBOLD said above, people have got to respect Intellectual Properties. No matter how Pretty their take on it.

KeroseneClimax

It doesn't matter if you are parodying the original in an amusing way. You don't have to make funny jokes about them at all. One is allowed to make a social comment, let's say. You can do it about any celeb or popular storyline one time. (Like the recent TV one-off Bio pic of Ahnold Schwarzenegger). After once it becomes not social comment anymore and it becomes somebody making a knock-off of someone else's work. Since music videos are one offs anyway I was pretty surprised that this would not count. Maybe the estate of Fritz Lang should sue Madonna for ripping Metropolis in Express Yourself. Otomo should definitely sue Kanye West for the Akira video. I don't know how any short form video can be considered to really have a plot, that's why they reference popular themes. It's a short-cut to the comprehension of the audience. Isn't the back story of the son poisoning his king dad from the Heavenly Sword animes taken straight from Beowulf? Ah well, as long as Square still lets us have our FF hentai comics and our Luna hug-pillows then everything will be all right.

GOLD5

Guys, I'm an idiot. It's linked in the article. I haven't slept in 2 days. That's college finals for you.

skitzogreg

FFV FOREVAR!1111111111

Anything else fails. ;D

Witzbold

@InsidiousTuna (ChickenOfTheSea to some): you win, as usual.

TheIrishNinja

@vecha:

I'm hating on them for more than that...

vecha

Can someone link to the video? I think I've seen it before, but sometimes it's hard to remember everything you've seen on the internets.

By the way, I hate finals.

skitzogreg

square is very protective of there stuff. I still wish that i would have gotten the chance to see that 3d Chrono Trigger remake T_T

Detre

Is a Korean pop video so intimidating that Squeenix needed to go sue-crazy? I vote NO. Should Squeenix spend less time worrying about their franchises likenesses in non-videogame form and spend more time 'not relying on Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest' and build new original IPs? I vote FUCK YES!!

myxylplyx

Im glad that they got sued and lost.

People really need to learn to respect IPs.

Witzbold

Well, at least it's not as bad as it would be in America.. 10BILLION DOLLAR CUZ I LIKE TO POUR COFFEE ON MYSELF AND I DIDN'T KONW IT WAS HOT?! Seems like a small slap on the wrists like a previous poster said...

katorok

They totally had it coming and its great that Squeenix protected their IP, as a creator and director myself, the directors of that video should be fired for lack of creative originality. It's really horrible, that they wasted such great talents on making something so not original. Waste of money for a fan parody, and a big hit to this ivy person. As for doujins in the market man o man thats a whole new subject.

siamgx

I think Beethoven should sue for that blatant rip-off of Für Elise at the start of the video.

Hyperlite

That was just terrible. Is it possible to even do this for fun, non-commercial purposes and get away with it, or is everyone under Square's radar?

indiemike

@Mit: thank you; no idea why XII takes a beating like it does from some on this site, i honestly thought it was the best overall FF (gameplay, character, plot, music etc) since VI.

TheIrishNinja

@Candle-Jack:
Bad comments are bad.

ashcraft

So wait, what does this mean for the hundreds of FFVII doujins floating around seedy back alley shops in Japan? I think Tifa sans-clothes would be a bigger issue than a korean pop singer's music video. But I guess maybe Squeenix is into that.

タイヘン

Seems like they got off easy, i could imagine the monetary damages to be much much higher if this happened in the states.

Milkham

@myxylplyx: @vecha:

FFXII is a better game than FFVII. As revolutionary? No. A better game? Certainly. Whether or not you agree, popular, unbiased opinion will tell you that the FF series is doing quite fine right now.

FFVII an old franchise? Again, no. It is very much alive, as I am sure you are aware of the recent spinoff titles and movie upon which this music video rips off. ([www.youtube.com] HEAVILY)

They had this coming. The music video is basically a live-action remake of the Tifa church scene. It had a decent budget too, it's not like these are some amateurs paying homage to their favorite movie. They're lucky to have only been fined as much as they were.

Mit

Old news is old.

But anyways, it's way too alike to be considered as a "parody." And she's making money for it, so that's definitely ripping off the FF7AC scene.

Candle-Jack

LOL @ the fact that something copied so many times is copy protected but I guess that's what it means to own something.

If these guys can't get away with this then isn't what Sakaguchi doing a crime as well?

okenny :)

They should sue for porn of her... sue her pants off! and hide it in the next fF as a easter egg, yeah...

munkah

@Myxylplyx

The only time I have a problem with industries protecting their copyrights is when it deters the creation of new art. New art and culture often draws inspiration from past art and culture. An example of copyright protection going too far might be how Prince is stopping all use of his music on youtube, even when it is legally permissible.

However, with the case of this music video, it wasn't new art. It was an example of something trying to shamelessly freeride on the success of someone else's work. The video cannot be classified as parody so much as "blatant rip-off". When I saw it the first time it was reported, I was repulsed. Personally speaking, 10k is definitely not enough. It needs to be an amount that would get a few people fired and deter others in the industry from pushing their luck.

MrScaryMuffin

As much as it's a blatant rip off, is this all really necessary? If anything, the video may have spurred more interest in Advent Children since it did look damn cool. I dunno. Power to the little people?

Gong

@vecha:
Why hate on square for suing for their ideas?

They should probably be fined another 10k cause the song is hideous.

skagen

I finally watched the video... it really is a blatant rip-off. I think Squeenix has a very valid point on this one.

XsTatiC

@myxylplyx:

Exactly what I was thinking....

guess remakes and suing are their only perks right now... :/

I've lost faith in square even since FFX came out...

vecha

10k? that's it?

This and the prior Kotaku story alone generated more then $10k worth of press for this music video. Let alone all the other media gaming sites which covered it.

Huginn

Wow, what a bunch of assholes. Reminds me of the American Music industry. So worried about protecting their old stuff that was actually good because they can't seem to produce any new shit that even comes close.

myxylplyx

Interesting, if this same thing happened in the US, instead of just $10,000 it would have been 10 billion dollars.

$10,000 seems like a fair slap on the wrist for this kind of thing. Add that to the list of things Asian countries do correctly that we Americans have blown completely out of proportion.

chiablo

thats a braver to the face!

Allcars

AHAHAHAHA PWNED!

Mukatsuku

Oh, I don't know when, but someone has to use a Phoenix Down.

InsidiousTuna (ChickenOfTheSea to some)