Final Fantasy VII: Advent Lawsuit

Out of Korea:

On December 7th, a Seoul court found Fantom Entertainment Group, a talent management and media production company, guilty of plagiarizing Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Square Enix filed a criminal complaint March 20th after seeing Ivy's "Temptation Sonata" music video.

Judge Gu Hoe-geun, of the Seoul Central District Court, ruled that Fantom had "illegally used 80% of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanors from the Japanese video game 'Final Fantasy 7' " in the music video.

The court then fined 10 million won ($10,900 US), with an additional 6 million won ($6,500) in penalties each on Lee Han-woo, Fantom's director, and the music video's director, Hong Jeong-ho.

General Counsel for Square Enix, Yasuhiko Hasegawa said, "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. Square Enix will continue to take decisive action against any infringements upon the company's intellectual property, recognizing that this property is one of our most crucial resources."

A civil suit is still under consideration.

For anyone who's curious the exact scene the music video plagiarizes is the Tifa/Loz fight. I've seen it and, wow, it's almost as shot for shot as the Psycho remake.

But the real Loz is still prettier.

You can see a video comparison here.