Square Enix hits Final Fantasy replica dealers for $600,000 in damage
A fistful of Final Fantasy counterfeiters recently found their hit points squelched by a summon of the judicial kind. Square Enix announced that it reached a settlement in its federal lawsuit against "at least" four online retailers of unlicensed Final Fantasy knock-offs, primarily sword replicas, netting the role-playing giant a hefty 600,000 gil dollar judgment.
Traffickers, which included Edgework Imports, Top Swords, Wholesale Gallery and Pacific Solutions Marketing, are barred from dealing in Final Fantasy fakery, either through their own stores or other online sites such as eBay or Amazon.
Obviously shaken, the defendants issued a joint statement that they "regret" selling copies to customers, and "would not have begun importing and selling these swords if we knew that Square Enix would respond so aggressively to stop us. We will never make this mistake again." Translation: We knew what we were doing was wrong, we just didn't, you know, think Square Enix would do anything about it.
