News

Air Plagiarisation Follow-Up

Please note, in our original article we stated that Shaun Yu was Taiwanese. This is incorrect; Shaun Yu is is from Singapore, and the album in question was released in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese distributor of Shaun Yu's anthology album, which contains two songs that are claimed to plagiarize other material, has removed 3500 copies of the album from Taiwanese store shelves and issued an apology.

The pieces Melody and Magic are believed to plagiarize music from Tori no Uta, the opening theme of Air, composed by Shinji Orito and Tenshi no Kyujitsu (須釜 俊一) composed by Hiroyuki Toushima.

Yu emphasized he was never involved in the composition of the music on this album; everything was planned by the production company YesMusic. Yu states that, just like consumers, he was not aware of the original source of the music until after the album was released.

YesMusic claims that they had secured the distribution rights in Mainland China for Melody and Magic had been purchased from Japanese company Visual Art's, but Yu's album was released earlier than expected in Taiwan and had no time to obtain respective distribution rights from Japan. They apologized to the Japanese creators for this oversight.

However Key/Visual Art's, have have rebutted these claims and issued the following statement on their website.

Official Announcement Regarding Plagiarism of Tori no Uta

Thank you very much for supporting products of our humble company.
According to information provided by fans, we've learned that Shaun Yu's 真愛珍愛2005風行精選集 distributed by SONY BMG Entertainment (Taiwan) is suspected plagiarizing our music - Tori no Uta.
We apologize for worrying supporting fans.
We have filed a formal complaint to SONY BMG Entertainment (Taiwan) and made following demands:

1. Apologize publicly on the web.
2. Credit the composer of Tori no Uta to Shinji Orito clearly.
3. If the above two requirements are fulfilled, we will not ask for financial compensations.

We have been negotiating with SONY BMG Entertainment (Taiwan) with those terms.

Regrettably, 季忠屏, director of YesMusic, the production company of this CD, has made a false announcement today that he had purchased distribution rights from us. It is a pity and is regrettable. In order to show our objection to his plagiarizing actions and his dishonest attitude, we shall not license any of our creation to them, including Tori no Uta.

These days, we have received supports from both Japanese and Taiwanese fans. You have our immense gratitude.
Please keep supporting our humble company, Key, in the future.