Getty Images watermark spotted in Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion

We’ve all done it before. You need a picture for an assignment or presentation, you head to Google and find the perfect image. But it’s got a huge watermark across it. It’s not like it’s being used for profit, or it’s going to be seen by thousands of people, so it’s probably fine.

The stakes are a little different when said assignment is, say, a £50 game from a best-selling, worldwide franchise. And unfortunately for someone at Square Enix, that assignment was Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion.

Shortly after the game’s release yesterday, the eagle-eyed writers over at Kotaku noticed a Getty Images watermark on one of the in-game paintings.

The painting in question can be found during chapter eight, where the Shinra Manor is visited. It’s used not once, but three times on the wall. Kotaku did some searching on Getty Images itself and figured out the image matches this preview of Fleet Street across Ludgate Circus, London, 1881 by John Crowther. In-game, the image has been edited to match the abandoned nature of the mansion, but if you zoom in close enough the watermark is quite clear.

According to the Design and Artists Copyright Society, paintings enter the public domain in the UK 70 years after the artist’s death, but the reproduction of the painting could be copyrighted. In this case, the specific reproduction used in Reunion would belong to Getty, and you’d probably need to buy a license to reuse their image. A licensed version would have the watermark removed. Oops.

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The image could be patched out by Square Enix at some point, so if you want to see it for yourself you can find it at the Shinra Manor towards the end of the game. If you’re not already playing Reunion, we highly recommend that you do. In his review, Ed enjoyed the game’s smaller scale, a hangover from its original debut on the PSP, and what the reintroduction of Zack could mean for part two of Final Fantasy 7 Remake.