Police have raided the offices of Square Enix over a complaint by SNK that popular Square Enix published manga Highscore Girl infringed its copyrights by including characters from its various games without the proper blood oaths.
Officers from the Osaka police’s economic crimes department conducted searches on Square Enix’s head office as well as those of subsidiary companies after characters from such SNK properties as King of Fighters and Samurai Spirits appeared in Highscore Girl, a romantic comedy set in the nineties and featuring a protagonist obsessed with the fighting games of the era.
Ominously, they plan to use the material to “determine the culpability of creators and staff responsible,” suggesting even mangaka Rensuke Oshikiri may face charges.
The manga is unambiguous in its (named) inclusion of characters from various fighting games in the main story, though it would appear Capcom has already settled the matter, and includes a cheery acknowledgement of all copyrights used on the endpage:
Square Enix has “voluntarily” withdrawn all copies of the manga (including earlier volumes) and completely suspended its digital distribution (although it generously maintains “owners” of digital editions will still be able to read them), but insists it has done nothing wrong:
“This incident occurred during ongoing discussions with SNK Playmore. We do not acknowledge the alleged copyright infringement, but with the ongoing trouble we have issued a voluntary recall.”
The manga’s serialisation will be unaffected, as will its upcoming anime adaptation, they say.
Both the conduct of SNK and Square Enix have been subject to criticism
– SNK’s involvement of police and spurning of free publicity in an apparently disproportionate escalation, and Square Enix’s egregious blunder in not obtaining permission and apparently keeping SNK waiting over a year as negotiations over the matter dragged out.
They’re implying that SNK is actually using their damn characters.
This is just stupid. I’m not excusing SquEnix not properly securing the rights, but SNK’s total disregard for the merits of free positive publicity is an example of such superdense dumbfuck that its gravity well is INESCAPABLE.
Where’s all the SNK media? All the re-releases of the old NEO-GEO era games are horrible, mostly because when they port something like Metal Slug 3 to the PC, they port the goddamn mobile version. And they’ve been completely silent on the anime/manga front. Hell, I’d settle for a sudden resurgence in humor-oriented doujins… I’ve got a stack of hilarious SNK doujins from the ’90s on my shelves.
And the NEO-GEO X was a fucking joke. The original MSRP they announced for the thing was more than I paid for what I play NEO-GEO games on! And I think we can agree, that’s saying something!
Those filthy Koreans likely only sought legal action because Koreans & Japs hate another.
Honestly speaking SNK are being stupid, if anyone has actually cared to look through the manga the amount of “copyright” they apparently show off is barely there.
It’s a manga about 90’s games how can you write a story without citing examples and the manga itself plays off to embrace the joy of these games, it’s not like they are saying don’t play these shitty games instead get Final Fantasy.
Heck there has yet to be a reference to an SE game it’s main focus are arcade games but apparently showcasing a move or a design to allow one to enjoy the nostalgia trip is to much these days.
Quite honestly all the mangaka would have to do is replace all the “copyrighted” characters with wooden figure art and it be fine and dandy.
I just honestly don’t see what the issue is because for having read through it, the amount of screentime for the copyright material is barely there and only serves to help explain things better for people to relate to that time.
I just noticed the eyes look more Asian in this manga than anything I have ever seen.
Fuckin facts 💯. That’s probably one of its biggest draw you ins. Hey look a motherfuckin anime/manga with japanese looking characters. Hoooly s♥♥t.
So a copyright claim, which is a civil matter, warrants a raid by police?
Good to see the Japanese police diligently going after those dangerous criminals.
The Japanese police apparently have very little to do.
But yes this should not have involved the police except for a single officer to deliver a court summons.
Maybe the men in Osaka are avoiding women like the plague so that they don’t get arrested on totally-not-trumped-up sexual harassment charges, all the motorists are obeying all the traffic laws and not going so much as 0.1m/hr faster than the speed limit, and all the local bathhouses (which are not brothels because vaginal sex in not among the services they provide) are paying their “insurance” on time and in full; and as a result of the citizens’ obedience of the letter of the law, the Kansai region is in a state of Inverted Wild West where there are too many cops and too few criminals.
Even that should not have involved the police. Might be different in Japan, but in America court summons delivery is done by lawyers, not the police.
The police is just there as a messenger i believe. Since in Japan, there’s hardly any incident for the police.
Or maybe it’s just another exaggerated title, which is a lot more likely.
Quoting “Professor”, of Mad man’s caffe
“Copyright infringement can fall into both civil and criminal law in Japan. Note that the police can’t go arresting or raiding on their own– they can take action only when the victim or its representative files a suit.”
Not like the U.S. then, where it sounds like cops go “civilian dog hunting” almost every day.
Yakuza Task Force STRONG
Comparing the Japanese Police to the Yakuza is an insult to mafias everywhere.
Comparing yakuza to the mafia is an insult to organized crime.
Remove sushi.