SEOUL, Aug 14 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed lower courts' rulings against an American composer in a plagiarism suit he brought against the producer of the popular South Korean children's song "Baby Shark" six years ago, Yonhap News Agency reported.
New York-based composer Johnny Only, whose legal name is Jonathan Wright, filed the lawsuit in Seoul in March 2019, claiming that "Baby Shark," the world-famous song released by South Korean education startup SmartStudy in 2015, copied his 2011 song.
SmartStudy, now renamed The Pinkfong Company, has said its song was a recreation of a traditional North American children's song that has no valid copyrights.
The rhythmic two-minute song featuring a shark family and their underwater hunt for small fish has gone viral in cyberspace and on the small screen at home and abroad.
South Korea's district and appellate courts have rejected Only's claim, saying his song is not considered derivative work protected by copyright law, and the top court approved the rulings.
-- BERNAMA-YONHAP
BERNAMA provides up-to-date authentic and comprehensive news and information which are disseminated via BERNAMA Wires; www.bernama.com; BERNAMA TV on Astro 502, unifi TV 631 and MYTV 121 channels and BERNAMA Radio on FM93.9 (Klang Valley), FM107.5 (Johor Bahru), FM107.9 (Kota Kinabalu) and FM100.9 (Kuching) frequencies.
Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial
