South Korea’s top court ends 6-year ‘Baby Shark’ copyright battle

The South Korean Supreme Court has finally settled the Baby Shark song controversy after six years of legal drama. The country’s top court declared that the catchy children’s song is not plagiarised, rejecting the U.S. composer's allegation.

The South Korean company Pinkfong made the tune “doo doo doo doo doo doo” that has been streamed billions of times and is loved by kids all over the world.

Both US composer and the company's rhyme are remade versions of an original folk song that dates back to the 20th century.

The court upheld the decision of two lower courts that were in favour of Pinkfong, despite the fact that the song was first remade by Jonathan Wright in 2011 and the company’s version was released in 2016.

Pinkfong argued that its version was an arrangement of the same folk song, which is in the public domain, whereas Jonathan argued that he owned copyright to his interpretation.

The court decided that the US composer’s work on the children’s folk song isn’t much different from the original to be counted as a separate work.

Pinkfong’s Baby Shark became an instant hit after its release on YouTube and it became the first video to cross over 10 billion views on the platform.

The song has been translated into more than 100 languages with well known artists like Blackpink and Josh Groban incorporating the song into their performances.