Forum - View topicNEWS: Funimation Serves Akadot With Cease & Desist
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remember love
 Posts: 764 Location: Germany |
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DVDaholic
Posts: 62 Location: USA |
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And exactly what assumptions was I making? |
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Beruda
Posts: 114 |
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Quote:
On a side note, if selling legitimate imports is such a problem why does almost every big DVD/CD retailer in the US sell them? Go take a look at Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, CDUniverse.com, or Circuitcity.com and do a search for "import" in their music sections. You'll see tons of imported titles from all over the world. Lot's of people also smoke pot and do 90 mph on the freeway. Are they allowed by law to do this? No. If they do and don't hurt anyone should the cops shoot them on the spot? No. If the cops give them a ticket should the rest of the public riot in the streets because some imaginary human right was violated? No. Can the majority of anime fans think rationaly? No. 
I don't get this analogy either and you did not explain why Amazon and others can sell import cd's that are released domestically. But anyway this whole subject is very interesting because I like a lot of people had no idea that buying the import version of something that has been released domestically was illegal. I have purchased import cds of other series. Also would it be any FMA cd or product? What about drama cds, I doubt Funimation will be releasing any of those domestically. Would this also apply to manga? We all know Kinokuniya sells a lot of import manga. 
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LordRobin
Posts: 354 Location: Akron, OH |
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(sigh) It never fails. Some company makes a few people on an internet forum upset, and someone starts throwing around the word "boycott". Internet-declared boycotts are like internet petitions -- they're a dime a dozen and universally ignored.
Things that need to be understood about boycotts: -- In order to be economically effective, the people doing the boycott must make up a large percentage of the product's market. Hardcore anime fans (despite their constant delusion to the contrary), make up only a tiny portion of the anime market, dwarfed by the casual anime fans and others who buy the stuff they see on Adult Swim. Everyone who has expressed a desire to do so could "boycott" Funimation and they wouldn't notice. -- But suppose they did notice? Unless the boycott was so effective that all Funimation products on all shelves coast-to-coast were gathering dust (unlikely), all they would notice would be a decline in sales, easily explained in many other ways. That's why any boycott must be accompanied by a writing campaign to the company being boycotted. Angrily shouting on internet fora is not a substitute. -- To the best of my knowledge, only one boycott in history is known to have worked economically (the one against the Montgomery bus system). All others that succeeded did so because of the negative publicity. Generating that publicity means picketing, handing out flyers, and getting face time in the media. Again, flaming on the internet is not a substitute. Internet petitions and internet-declared boycotts are so numerous because they take so little effort. Write your email address in a form, or just don't buy some stuff (much of which you weren't planning on buying anyway). What could be simpler? But that's exactly why these "efforts" fail. Since so little sacrifice was made, there's no reason to take them seriously. ------RM |
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zetagod
Posts: 11 |
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I have a simple question. Are the Aniplex release of the CD's identical to the FUNimation releases? Meaning are the same songs on both discs? I am asking this because I bought a Japanese version of a CD (possibly one of the Lain soundtracks, I just can't remember) and also the US version a couple years later when it came out here and found out it had one fewer track than the original. That told me that US distributor didn't have the rights to that one song. If this is the case with the FMA CD wouldn't that mean Akadot could sell it due to the fact it is a completely different product. But, I guess that would mean FUNimation doesn't own all the rights to FMA.
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ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
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I'm pretty sure the OSTs that Funi has so far are the same. Though yeah, there have been issues in the past of songs missing from OSTs... I think part of the issue is that the CDs cost roughly half as much in the US as they do in Japan, so refusing to allow a song or two to be carried over can be the Japanese company's way of ensuring that Japanese won't import the cheaper US versions. Or something like that.
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Atamaii.com
 Posts: 30 Location: Omaha, Nebraska |
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This is not the first instance of Funi serving papers.
This retailer was warned not to import Bandai Dragonball Z merchandise. Judging by the form letter they sent, they use it quite often, although plenty of other sites offer imported DBZ products. |
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Zor PT
Posts: 1 Location: San Francisco |
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Hi Guys,
I don't really post here, but seeing this topic made me register an account. Since I work in the entertainment licensing business, I would like to give you all some insight into distribution territories, rights, etc. First off, the way this plays out depends greatly on the type of deal Funimation has. If Funimation has an exclusive deal over North America, then they have every right to make sure nobody sells products for the property INCLUDING parallel importation of said product. In the case of places like Kinokuniya, there may or may not be violations. There may or may not be a granting of territory to North American retail outlets for them. Things like these all really depend on the deals. The bottom line is that in order to distribute a product somewhere, you need to have the rights to do so. If you do not have the rights (many, many, many places don't!), then you are subject to a cease and desist or even legal action. There is no issue as to whether the product is legit...The product is legit in Japan, for sale in Japan. The "For Sale and Use Only In Japan" labels DO mean something. If Akadot wanted to distribute their imported soundtracks, they would have to get a license from Funimation. In situations of a popular title such as this, the chances of there being a monetary fee for the territory are high. I'm not a representative of Funimation, nor am I a representative of Akadot, but from my experience, I would say Funimation would want 10-15% of every sale, with probably a guarantee of getting $20,000 up-front from Akadot IF a deal were to happen. Funimation has every right to refuse / decline a deal from Akadot. Hope that provides some perspective. -SD |
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Shii
 Posts: 110 |
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Abarenbo Shogun
 Posts: 1573 |
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Would the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) apply here?
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ac_dropout
Posts: 88 Location: Newark, NJ |
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No it wouldn't apply. If Funimation discloses the term of their licensing for the FMA soundtrack, then all will be made clear.
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Abarenbo Shogun
Posts: 1573 |
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Please provide an explanation to your conclusion. |
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ac_dropout
Posts: 88 Location: Newark, NJ |
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Without knowing the exact details of Funimations licensing contract, how can one make speculations on how a Federal Law can be enforced?
This incident makes for a good coffee talk, but unless more details are known, its all speculation. |
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Pretty much, but people are usually content to villainize a company or person over nothing more than one-sided propoganda, minor articles with light information and internet forum speculation.
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Abarenbo Shogun
Posts: 1573 |
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It's a valid Question, no demonizing about it. Don't get your panties up in a bunch. |
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