We’ve all done it before. You need an image for an assignment or presentation, you head to Google and find the perfect one. But it has a huge watermark across it. It’s not like it’s being used for profit, or that it’s going to be seen by thousands of people, so that’s probably a good thing.
The stakes are slightly different when said task is, for example, a £50 game from a worldwide best-selling franchise. And unfortunately for someone at Square Enix, that mission was Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion.
Shortly after the game was released yesterday, the eagle-eyed book in Kotaku You noticed the Getty Images watermark on one of the panels in-game.
The panel in question can be found during Chapter 8, where Shinra Manor is visited. It was not used once, but three times on the wall. Kotaku did some research on Getty Images itself and discovered that the image matches this preview of Fleet Street via Ludgate Circus, London, 1881 by John Crowther. In the game, the image has been edited to match the desolate nature of the mansion, but if you zoom in close enough, the watermark is quite visible.
According to the Design and Artists Rights AssociationPaintings enter the public domain in the UK 70 years after the artist’s death, but reproduction of a painting can be copyrighted. In this case, the specific clone used in Reunion will belong to Getty, and you may need to purchase a license to reuse its image. The licensed copy watermark will be removed. Oops.
The image may be patched by Square Enix at some point, so if you want to see it for yourself, you can find it in Shinra Manor near the end of the game. If you aren’t already playing Reunion, we highly recommend that you do. in reconsideringEd enjoyed the game’s smaller scale, a leftover from its original debut on the PSP, and what Zack’s reintroduction could mean for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part II.
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