Capcom Gets Sued For $12M For Using Designer’s Images In Popular Games
Image via Shutterstock
Capcom is getting 1-upped in a lawsuit that claims the video game company has been using dozens of a designer’s photographs in Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry, and other games.
In her complaint filed in a Connecticut court, obtained by Polygon, designer Judy A. Juracek purported that Capcom had used at least 80 images from her copyrighted 1996 book, Surfaces, in multiple details and environments across its games. Her book contains some 1,200 photographs of textures, and serves as “visual research” for artists, architects, and designers.
Juracek held a solid case against the company, revealing over 100 pages of supporting documents comprising some 200 examples of photographs that were apparently appropriated in Capcom’s games.
In one instance, she pointed out the shattered glass texture in the Resident Evil 4 logo and claimed that she had shot the photo of the material in Italy. Other iconic features were also pointed out, like the ornate elements and marbled textures in the games.
Helping her case was the Capcom data breach in November 2020 that saw personal information and launch plans being leaked. Among the compromised details were high-resolution artwork files with “at least one” image sharing the same file name as the photos in the accompanying Surfaces CD-ROM.
While users can obtain the book’s photos from the CD-ROM, they are required to license them should they wish to use them for commercial purposes. This can be easily done by contacting Juracek directly, but the designer said that Capcom never reached out to her.
On the grounds of copyright violations, Juracek and her attorneys are asking Capcom for up to US$12 million in damages, along with US$2,500 to US$25,000 of damages for “false copyright management and removal of copyright management” per photograph being infringed.
A spokesperson for Capcom told Polygon that it has “no further comment” about the lawsuit.
To view all of Juracek’s proof against Capcom, see the full document here.
Possible legal woes for #Capcom
— Chu (@360fov) June 5, 2021
Judy A. Juracek filed a complaint in a Connecticut court on Friday (no comment from Capcom so far):
✅Taken design from a Photograph
✅ Discovered by datamining
✅Photograph was titled "ME009"
✅Texture was titled "ME009"
✅Seeking $12,000,000 pic.twitter.com/uVdZUdZqce
LMAO THE PIC IS FROM SOMEWHERE THATS NOT PUBLIC SO THEY LEGIT STOLE THIS 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/9SBhyr26gW
— Big Mike (@BigmikeIts) June 5, 2021
Oh wait Outbreak File #2 too on one of those (from the last tweet)... 2/ pic.twitter.com/Fd9rU3kvSI
— Zaphero #BlackLivesMatter (@Zapheros) June 6, 2021
[via Polygon and PetaPixel, cover image via Shutterstock]
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