An independent artist is suing Devil May Cry. The lawsuit was filed on June 4, with the alleged unlicensed copyrighted images used in various Capcom games and even the famous Resident Evil 4 logo.
Capcom is a Japanese game developer with a number of famous franchises under its belt. The studio is known best for big commercial successes such as Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Mega Man, Dead Rising, Street Fighter, and Devil May Cry. Resident Evil is Capcom’s most successful franchise, selling more than 100 million units since the series first launched. Devil May Cry, on the other hand, is more of a niche franchise that has a strong community and following.
According to a recent article from Capcom has drawn inspiration from real-life places in some elements of world design, this could be an unfortunate coincidence.
Surfaces was first published back in 1996, the same year as the first Resident Evil was released. It also came with a CD-ROM of all 1,200 images included in the book. While Capcom could have ed Juracek and licensed the images to use in its games, Juracek said she never received any from Capcom in regards to her book. In the lawsuit, Juracek points to 80 of the 1,200 images as allegedly being used by Capcom across various titles, including over 100 pages of documentation.
This is not the first time Capcom has been accused of illegally using copyrighted work, with the studio being accused of stealing monsters straight out of a horror movie. Frankenstein’s Army was a 2013 horror film by director Richard Raaphorest, who claimed that Capcom had stolen his monster for use in Resident Evil Village. The monster was a humanoid propeller head monster, which appears in the latter half of the game.
As both lawsuits proceed, Capcom fans will just have to wait and see what the outcome will be. The evidence will speak for itself in both of these lawsuits. Hopefully, these similarities can be explained as coincidences by Capcom, rather than a pattern of infringing on the works of others. Until then, fans of Devil May Cry and Resident Evil games may want to keep an eye out for any other strange coincidences.
