Last June, photographer and designer Judy A. Juracek claimed that Capcom had stolen work from her and used it in multiple games, including Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 4, with the latter’s own logo allegedly using Juracek’s photos. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in Juracek filing a lawsuit against Capcom for one count of copyright infringement and one count of false copyright management.
There has been little talk of the lawsuit since then, but it sounds like Capcom and Juracek were able to settle matters outside of the courtroom, with a dismissal being filed on February 7th with the District of Connecticut. There are no exact details on what sort of agreement Capcom and Juracek came to.
When pressed for comment by Polygon, Juracek’s lawyer only directed it to a prepared statement posted on the website for legal firm St. Onge Steward Johnston & Reens LLC. The statement simply says that Juracek and Capcom resolved their dispute amicably, with no mention of whether Capcom agreed to pay for damages. Polygon also approached Capcom for a comment, but it did not respond.
Capcom likely did meet Juracek’s demands given how much evidence she provided to prove the company’s guilt and that it had allegedly been using her work uncredited for years. The first Devil May Cry released in 2001, with Resident Evil 4 launching in 2005 and enjoying multiple re-releases and ports since then.
According to her, at least 80 photos from her book Surfaces were used over 200 times, including one of a specific shattered glass texture used for Resident Evil 4’s logo. The book includes a CD with the photos on it, but anyone wishing to use them for commercial use needs to license them from Juracek first, which she says Capcom didn’t do.
What helped her was the 2020 Capcom security breach, which saw a swathe of undisclosed information regarding Capcom’s titles be leaked online. Aside from unannounced games, this included assets and artwork from games such as Resident Evil 4.
Her lawsuit also noted the controversy surrounding the Resident Evil Village enemy Sturm, a humanoid monster with a plane propellor for a head. Sometime after the game released, Dutch filmmaker Richard Raaphorst accused Capcom of copying the design of one of the monsters from his Frankenstein’s Army movie after being alerted by fans of his. Capcom never officially responded to those accusations and no changes were made to Sturm’s design nor was the game updated to credit Raaphorst.