An artist won a damages suit Thursday over a claim that a merchants' association in western Japan copied one of his artworks featuring a telephone booth filled with water and goldfish.
Overturning a lower court ruling, the Osaka High Court ordered the association to compensate Nobuki Yamamoto, a 64-year-old contemporary artist, with ¥550,000 ($5,200) for the copyright infringement and destroy a similar installation in a city known for its goldfish farms.
The phone booth was installed at a shopping street in the city of Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, which is known for the cultivation of goldfish, for four years from 2014.