Because of the unauthorized usage of their group names and photographs to publish photobooks, the 11 members in total of popular idol groups KAT-TUN and Arashi have filed a lawsuit against R'S Publishing (アールズ出版), requesting for 170 Million Yen (1.886 million USD) worth of compensation and for the unauthorised books to halt publishing and sales immediately. This was learnt on the 29th of September.
The published material in question were a total of 12 different unofficial photobooks published between 2005 and 2008, which featured the use of the groups' names in the titles of the books as well as contained photographs of the members of the two groups.
In the complaint, it was said that "the plaintiffs are reknowned celebrities who belong to nationally-popular groups, and own the rights to their names and images which have certain monetary values", the publishing company has used the members' names and photographs without authorization and have hence infringed upon their copyright.
In addition, the sales of some of the unauthorized photobooks are said to be at least 100,000 copies per book, sales profits which do not go to either their talent agency or any of the members at all.
The publishing firm have on the 29th, in their first plea statement argued, "So as to reflect the changes of the idols, we have only minimally used a portion of their photos. Since they are nationally-popular idol groups, their names and photographs ought to have some sort of public ownership, so there has been no copyright infringement."
Huwah!! k-k-kat-tun...ka-ka-kame is!! huwah...going to be rich!! == lets hope that they will win this case!!
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