A photographer and designer claims in a lawsuit that Capcom games from Devil May Cry to Resident Evil 4 have extensively used her copyrighted photographs as key elements in environments, textures, and the Resident Evil 4 logo.

Judy A. Juracek is the author of a book of photographs titled Surfaces, published in 1996. The book came with a CD-ROM of images, but a license fee must be paid to use these images in commercial projects. Capcom has never asked Juracek for a license. Juracek has pointed to extensive documentation of at least 80 photographs used as references in Capcom games.

Many of the locations and objects explicitly mentioned in the lawsuit were taken in places to which Juracek had special access or in locations that no longer exist, such as a particular piece of broken glass in 1990s Italy or a mansion or other structure not open to the public.

The lawsuit relies in part on information from last year's Capcom ransomware attack that leaked a large amount of inside information. The lawsuit even alleges that certain texture files found in the breach had the same name as those on the Juracek CD-ROM.

The following images are from the lawsuit documents themselves and give an idea of what the allegations look like.

The lawsuit, discovered and first reported by Polygon, was filed on Friday, June 6 in Connecticut, USA. A Capcom representative told Polygon that they were aware of the lawsuit, but had no further comment. It is standard practice in these types of cases not to comment on ongoing litigation.

This is not the first time this has happened; a Dutch filmmaker recently noted that the boss of the Resident Evil village looks a lot like his propeller-headed monster.