BABY SHARK COPYRIGHT CLAIM CLEARED

While millions of children were falling in love with a song called Baby Shark by the band Pinkfong, an American songwriter had mixed emotions.

According to Johnny Only, real name Jonathan Wright, Pinkfong plagiarised his earlier version of Baby Shark.

Wright was so sure of his case that he took the matter to South Korea’s Supreme Court, where he accused Pinkfong of plagiarism.

On Thursday, the court ruled that Wright’s version of the song can’t be considered “a creative work” belonging to him, as there were already established prior versions of the song in existence. The court decided that Wright didn’t significantly add new creativity.

The ruling affirmed the finding of a lower court, saying: “The plaintiff’s song is difficult to be protected as a secondary copyrighted work because it did not reach a substantial alteration to the extent where it could be considered as a separate work, by social norms, from the oral song mentioned in this case.”

While Pinkfong’s version might have introduced the song to the world, several versions predate Wright’s version. This includes a German version named Kleiner Hai that went viral in Europe in 2010.

Image credit: The Independent