{"id":866014,"date":"2025-08-18T20:11:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T01:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/18\/south-korean-supreme-court-rules-on-baby-shark-copyright-infringement-case\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:11:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T01:11:54","slug":"south-korean-supreme-court-rules-on-baby-shark-copyright-infringement-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/18\/south-korean-supreme-court-rules-on-baby-shark-copyright-infringement-case\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean Supreme Court Rules on \u2018Baby Shark\u2019 Copyright Infringement Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entertainment <\/p>\n

\n
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\"Entertainment<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Pinkfong (YouTube)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Entertainment South Korea\u2019s Supreme Court rejects a U.S. composer\u2019s allegation that the producers of the children\u2019s song \u201cBaby Shark\u201d committed plagiarism.<\/h2>\n

A copyright battle over the beloved (and perhaps dreaded by parents) children\u2019s song \u201cBaby Shark\u201d has come to an end<\/a>. In 2019, an American children\u2019s songwriter claimed South Korean entertainment company Pinkfong had copied his work when releasing their now-viral rendition of the song. But the South Korean Supreme Court has now ruled in Pinkfong\u2019s favor, ending the six-year legal battle.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Wright, also known as Johnny Only, had accused Pinkfong of plagiarizing his earlier version of the song. But the court ruled on Thursday (August 14), that Wright\u2019s version can\u2019t be considered his \u201ccreative work,\u201d as there were already versions of the song prior to his own. Further, Wright\u2019s version \u201cdid not significantly add new creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plaintiff\u2019s 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,\u201d said the ruling.<\/p>\n

Despite most people knowing \u201cBaby Shark\u201d specifically from Pinkfong\u2019s rendition going viral on YouTube in 2015, the song had actually existed for at least 15 years. Wright uploaded his version to his YouTube channel in 2011, and Pinkfong uploaded theirs in 2015 and 2016, first released in Korean and then English.<\/h4>\n

However, several versions of \u201cBaby Shark\u201d predate Wright\u2019s version, including a German version that went mildly viral in Europe in 2010. Wright only filed his plagiarism claim after Pinkfong\u2019s renditions went viral worldwide<\/a>, reaching #32 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n

The court focused on whether Wright\u2019s version could be considered a \u201csecondary work\u201d of the original, and whether Pinkfong\u2019s version was substantially based on his own. The South Korean Supreme Court ruled that Wright did not make significant \u201cedits or changes\u201d to a level that could grant him a copyright as a secondary work.<\/p>\n

Pinkfong\u2019s \u201cBaby Shark Dance<\/a>\u201d video has accrued more than 16 billion views on YouTube to date. The company has made millions of dollars from Baby Shark-themed products, including TV shows and movies, smartphone apps, and more.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Rebecka Menjivar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Pinkfong (YouTube) South Korea\u2019s Supreme Court rejects a U.S. composer\u2019s allegation that the producers of the children\u2019s song \u201cBaby Shark\u201d committed plagiarism. A copyright battle over the beloved (and perhaps dreaded by parents) children\u2019s song \u201cBaby Shark\u201d has come to an end. In 2019, an American children\u2019s songwriter claimed South Korean entertainment company<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":866015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1798,23570,683],"tags":[43224,7070],"class_list":{"0":"post-866014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-korean","9":"category-south","10":"tag-korean","11":"tag-south"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}