Industry News


Photographer Suing Video Giant Capcom for $12M

June 8, 2021

By Hillary K. Grigonis

Resident Evil 4 from Capcom

When scene designer and photographer Judy A. Juracek started photographing textures to inspire her work, she decided to share her research with other designers in a book. But, now she says that video game company Capcom used her images in Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry and other games without permission. The photographer is claiming that Capcom used at least 80 of her photographs to create textures in the game design and is asking for between $2,500 and $25,000 in damages for each photograph, which all together could total up to a whopping $12 million. The lawsuit was filed in Connecticut last week.

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The court case centers around Surfaces: Visual Research for Artists, Architects, and Designers, a book that Juracek published in 1996 containing more than 1,200 photos of different textures, along with interviews with designers focusing on the topic of visual research. The Amazon description of the book notes that a CD is included with “easy-to-use screen resolution TIFF files of every image.” However, the lawsuit says that the CD contains a copyright notice, suggested uses, and contact information to receive commercial licenses of the image. The lawsuit adds that those who obtained a license of the images received higher resolution files than the CD.

A photo lawsuit against Capcom is based on surfaces and textures used without permission from photographer.
Part of Juracek’s lawsuit claims that Capcom used textures from her photographs, including one identical to her image of shattered glass from her Surfaces book, in a Resident Evil 4 logo.

The lawsuit claims that Capcom used the textures from the photographs in at least 200 places when designing Resident Evil games, including the logo of Resident Evil 4 which has a texture identical to Juracek’s photo of shattered glass. The court document, which spans more than 140 pages, claims several more instances of infringement. Besides the logo, those infringements include architectural details in the floors and walls of the game’s scenes.

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Along with screenshots of the game with the textures in question, the lawsuit points out that Capcom’s computers have images bearing the same file names. Those files were made publicly available when the video game company refused to pay ransomware in a data breach last year.

Along with seeking damages for each of the 80 photos used, the lawsuit also asks Capcom to stop using the photos in any way and to “destroy each and every copy of all games, products and other content including Plaintiff’s photographs.”

In a recent press release, Capcom said that the entire Resident Evil series had sold more than 100 million copies. Game Rant estimates Resident Evil 4 at 10.8 million copies sold. (The Resident Evil series first debuted in 1996.)

The court case spans over 147 pages of references and Juracek made sure to first uncover all of the infringements that Capcom may have created by using the photos.

CEO Kain Jones of image protection platform Pixsy weighs in on the lawsuit, stating that, “This case highlights what we see on a daily basis; some large organizations believe they have the upper hand against creators. Unfortunately, the law does not agree. As Capcom generate significant revenues from the unlicensed use of Ms. Juracek’s work, significant damages would seem fair and in line with copyright law.”