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Generating original ideas and creative work is challenging, especially when it’s your full-time job and there are deadlines to meet. Everyone faces moments when they hit a creative block, forcing them to dig deeper for inspiration. But occasionally, some people take shortcuts—choosing to ‘borrow’ ideas from others instead of creating something unique.
Even if you manage to make it legal, taking someone else’s work without their consent is still considered unethical. In this article, you'll learn about ten instances of such alleged idea theft.
10. Fox Uses Song from Indie Artist and Profits from It
Glee was a musical comedy-drama on Fox that addressed serious topics such as gun violence and teenage struggles, all while the cast performed covers of hit songs. However, not all the covers performed on the show were actually created specifically for it.
One notable example is Glee's rendition of “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot, which was originally covered by Jonathan Coulton, not Glee. The version featured on Glee even kept Coulton’s original lyrics, where he refers to himself as Johnny C.—a detail that didn’t make sense in the context of the show.
Fox defended their actions, claiming that they didn’t need permission from Coulton to use his version of the song, arguing that he should be grateful for the mainstream exposure, even though they gave him no credit. They also made his version of the song available for purchase on iTunes, keeping all the profits.
9. A Game Developer’s Major Announcement Includes Content Stolen from Another Game
In the realm of game development, few companies are as prestigious as Naughty Dog. Their games are often compared to Hollywood blockbusters, and fans eagerly anticipate every new project they announce.
So when the trailer for Uncharted 4 debuted, an Ubisoft employee was taken aback to see their own work in the game. Concept art originally created for the Assassin’s Creed series had been altered to remove the characters and placed into the trailer without permission. This forced Naughty Dog to retract their big reveal and edit out the unauthorized content, a major embarrassment for such a renowned company.
8. Japanese Anime Features the Seinfeld Theme Song
In what could be considered one of the oddest and most amusing instances of alleged plagiarism, the Japanese anime Bomberman Jetters featured a near-identical recreation of the iconic theme song from the popular sitcom Seinfeld. This theme played every time one of the villains appeared on screen. It wasn’t just a brief riff either—this cover extended for about 40 seconds, with the unmistakable Seinfeld music clearly recognizable.
To this day, it seems like no action has been taken. While Seinfeld doesn’t have the same level of popularity it once did, Bomberman remains a globally recognized franchise that’s been producing new content for over two decades. It’s perplexing that this blatant use of the theme went unnoticed for so long, likely because the Bomberman series never aired in the U.S. Still, once you hear it, there’s no mistaking it.
6. Fox Takes YouTuber’s Video, Then Strikes His Channel
In 2009, YouTuber sw1tched uploaded a video showing a glitch in the game Double Dribble that made every shot result in a score. Imagine his surprise when he saw his YouTube video featured in an episode of Fox’s Family Guy, where the main character, Peter Griffin, used the glitch he had demonstrated.
Now, imagine his real shock when he discovered that Fox had filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claim on his YouTube channel for the very video he created. Fox had uploaded the Family Guy episode to YouTube’s content ID system but failed to remove the segment they had taken from his video. As a result, YouTube mistakenly flagged his content as belonging to Fox. After the incident gained media attention, Fox acknowledged their error and retracted the copyright claim on his video.
5. The Joke That Sank Carlos Mencia
At one point, Carlos Mencia practically dominated Comedy Central with his show Mind of Mencia and his various stand-up specials. However, as Mencia’s popularity grew, fellow comedians began accusing him of stealing jokes, with the most notable case being Joe Rogan. Rogan even confronted Mencia during a live performance, calling him out onstage to argue about the allegations of joke theft.
Although Mencia denies any joke theft, arguing that his jokes are so universally relatable that anyone could come up with them, it’s difficult to ignore the video comparing a joke told by Bill Cosby in 1983 and one by Mencia in 2006. Both involved a father playing football with his son, only for the son to thank his mother after winning the game. As the accusations continued to mount, Mencia gradually faded from the public eye.
4. Small-Time Developer Makes a Big-Time Blunder
When Trek Industries found themselves hit with a DMCA claim from Activision, resulting in their game Orion being removed from Valve’s online store during the year’s biggest sale, it seemed like a classic case of a giant company bullying a small developer over minor similarities. But after examining the game’s content, it became clear that Trek had gotten off easy with just a DMCA claim from Activision.
The game’s files contained assets directly lifted from the Call of Duty series, images from Nintendo games with only their colors altered, and notably, helmets from the Star Wars films, including Boba Fett and Kylo Ren, as well as helmets from Blizzard’s Overwatch. This was particularly problematic because Disney enforces its copyrights with a scorched-earth approach. Once these allegations surfaced, the company quickly went into damage control mode and began removing the infringing content.
3. Japan’s Beethoven Doesn’t Compose and Isn’t Deaf
Mamoru Samuragochi became a symbol of Japanese musical brilliance. Hailing from Hiroshima and legally deaf, he earned the title of “the Japanese Beethoven” for his deeply emotional compositions, which he claimed honored the victims and survivors of the nuclear blasts that devastated his country. One of his pieces would later become the anthem of hope for those affected by the 2011 tsunami, a disaster that claimed countless lives.
Then, everything unraveled due to a Japanese figure skater at the Sochi Olympics. The skater chose to incorporate Samuragochi’s music into his performance to showcase their country’s rallying cry on the world stage. However, Takashi Niigaki, the true composer of the music, was not pleased with this.
In a shocking on-air revelation, Niigaki revealed that for the past 18 years, he had ghostwritten all of Samuragochi’s music and even suggested that Samuragochi’s deafness was either exaggerated or fabricated to boost his career. Subsequently, Samuragochi took a hearing test that confirmed he had hearing impairment but was not legally deaf. As a result, he had to return his state-issued disability card.
2. Rocky Balboa Was A Real Person
In the early 1970s, Sylvester Stallone was facing a tough time. He had appeared in a few films and TV shows, but none of them had made a significant impact. Then, on one unforgettable night, he watched Chuck Wepner land a surprising punch, knocking down Muhammad Ali in the ninth round of a boxing match that no one thought he could win. Inspired, Stallone went home and penned the script for the first Rocky movie, which catapulted him to fame.
At least, that’s Chuck Wepner’s version of events. For years, Stallone denied that Wepner’s fight had anything to do with the creation of the character of Rocky, even though the third film almost humorously mirrored a real-life incident in which Wepner fought Andre the Giant in a wrestling match, only to be thrown out of the ring by Andre. In 2003, Wepner decided he had had enough and sued Stallone for using his life story to inspire the Rocky films. Stallone eventually settled the lawsuit out of court for an undisclosed amount.
1. Apple Owns Rounded Edges
Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in a legal battle for the past five years, filing lawsuits all over the world over their smartphone designs. Apple successfully argued that features like the rounded edges of the iPhone are exclusive to their phones, leading to a ruling that Samsung must pay for the infringement.
After losing a billion-dollar lawsuit, Samsung managed to reduce the damages to a few hundred million dollars, hoping to eventually have the ruling overturned. To achieve this, the two companies took their contentious case all the way to the US Supreme Court. This move is notable because the last time the Court dealt with a design-related dispute was over 100 years ago, and it was about spoons.
