Interest
Ado's “Aishite Aishite Aishite” Music Video Pulled Due to Unauthorized Use of Visuals
posted on by Ken Iikura-Gross
Vocaloid producer Kikuo initially created the song “Aishite Aishite Aishite” in 2012. The song spawned a music video with visuals by Sashitama in 2015. Ado, with Universal Music Japan's involvement, covered “Aishite Aishite Aishite” with permission from Kikuo in 2023.
Universal Studio Japan stated its intentions were to “pay homage to Sashitama's original music video” during the production of the music video for Ado's cover, However, the music production company said that “due to insufficient understanding of copyrights and neglect to do the legal review process, we ended up using some of their creative material without permission.”
Universal Music Japan further said the unauthorized use of visuals is “entirely the result of flaws in our management system,” and added that Ado herself and the music video's production team "were not in a position to suggest obtaining permissions or undergo the legal review process during production,” and thus, were not the cause of the unauthorized use.
Universal Music Japan announced that it is taking three steps to prevent the similar use of unauthorized materials in the future. The steps are:
- Reinforce education about copyrights within the company
- Strengthen the legal review process on production materials.
- Set up and enforce guidelines on the use of works by third-party creators
As of press time, Universal Music Japan has not announced if it will release a new “Aishite Aishite Ashite” music video.
Update: Spelling in headline fixed. Thanks, Emerje.
Sources: Universal Music Japan via Hachima Kikō
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history