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NEWS: Anime Production Companies, Manga Publishers Crack Down on Piracy

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The possible future consequences can be debated because nobody knows, for sure, what they will be.
But in the given scenario it is a fact that the publisher lost the profit on 999 sales.

Parallel importing is regulated differently in different jurisdictions; there is no consistency in laws dealing with parallel imports between countries. Neither the Berne Convention nor the Paris Convention explicitly prohibit parallel importation.

This tension essentially concerns the rights and duties of a protected monopoly. Intellectual property rights allow the holder to sell at a price that is higher than the price one would pay in a competitive market, but by doing so the holder relinquishes sales to those who would be prepared to buy at a price between the monopoly price and the competitive price. The presence of parallel imports in the marketplace prevents the holder from exploiting the monopoly further by market segmentation, i.e. by applying different prices to different consumers.

Consumer organisations tend to support parallel importation as it offers consumers more choice and lower prices, provided that consumers retain equivalent legal protection to locally sourced products (e.g. in the form of warranties with international effect), and competition is not diminished.

Indeed, that is part of the growing importance of OP/ED music by idols ~ or voice actresses turned idols ~ since that is one area where "popularity" can be directly monetized independent of pirating of the media.

agila61 wrote:

Indeed, that is part of the growing importance of OP/ED music by idols ~ or voice actresses turned idols ~ since that is one area where "popularity" can be directly monetized independent of pirating of the media.

Don't forget there are several voice actors whose musical capabilities and artistic control put themselves outside of a category of "idol", with Nana Mizuki being the prime example.

Artists such as these or dedicated music of anime composers/performers and their songwriters (e.g. Elements Garden) have an interest in delivering good songs for anime - it benefits the anime and themselves as writers/performers.

@Touma But the point still stands, those people listed would likely not have been potential customers even if that copy hadn't been uploaded.

So it's debatable if reverse import/parallel import hurt the market or not.

@Touma
But the point still stands, those people listed would likely not have been potential customers even if that copy hadn't been uploaded.

Quote:

... The possible future consequences can be debated because nobody knows, for sure, what they will be. But in the given scenario it is a fact that the publisher lost the profit on 999 sales.

You're right that how it affects the future sales can be discussed, however as far as present and past goes, you can't claim an imaginary 999 sales translates to real 999 sales profit. A fraction might, and even that can be debated...

So even though there is no rival bidder likely to show up for those rights, the country's rights fall into a licensing black hole.

But at the same time, anime internationally is a niche market, and the available revenues from a large number of countries are much too low to pay for a lawyer to look over the license for each individual country. So there is a strong benefit in anime to group countries together into licensing regions.

mdo7 wrote:

So it's debatable if reverse import/parallel import hurt the market or not.

The fundamental point remains that demanding companies to risk bankruptcy because they possibly might not go bankrupt is not a fair or reasonable demand. It needs to be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the demanded change will not drive them into bankruptcy.

It is likely that there are some changes where that case can, in fact, be made ... but no serious case can be made if the assumption is that the burden of proof lies on the existing business practices. The burden of proof has to lay with those pushing for reform.

Otherwise the demand being made of the production committees is: "you should experiment and find out whether or not this action that I want will destroy your company. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, I don't know for sure either way, but unless you can prove that it will destroy your company, I am going to continue to demand it."

Japanese anime/manga companies have their sights in the local market when they should have set their sights into worldwide distribution at least twenty years ago (about the same time china opened their economy to the world).

agila61 wrote:

So even though there is no rival bidder likely to show up for those rights, the country's rights fall into a licensing black hole. But at the same time, anime internationally is a niche market, and the available revenues from a large number of countries are much too low to pay for a lawyer to look over the license for each individual country. So there is a strong benefit in anime to group countries together into licensing regions.

Ultimately this logic leads to centralized streaming services located in Japan serving a global market, ...

which is my vision for the future of the industry.

Daisuki will survive, but Crunchyroll may not.

Regional licensing may make sense for Hollywood; it doesn't make sense for anime productions. The market is spread so thinly across the world that the Internet provides the only effective means of aggregation in the long run.

You do realize that most companies (not only japanese) oppose change, so even if someone came with some proof, their mentality is set in doing business as if the world around them was not changing at an accelerated pace.

This might be a repeat question.

If you have a account through crunchyrol, but at the same time download torrents through fansub groups of the same shows, does that count as piracy if your not keeping the shows.

its the same thing when VHS recording was done or cassette tapes through radio.

if so, why wasn't there a problem during that time period or was there.

This might be a repeat question.

If you have a account through crunchyrol, but at the same time download torrents through fansub groups of the same shows, does that count as piracy if your not keeping the shows.

its the same thing when VHS recording was done or cassette tapes through radio.

if so, why wasn't there a problem during that time period or was there.

If you're just leeching though, you may be entering a legal grey area.

mangamuscle wrote:

You do realize that most companies (not only japanese) oppose change, so even if someone came with some proof, their mentality is set in doing business as if the world around them was not changing at an accelerated pace.

That only argues that there might exist some changes which wouldn't have the feared effect: that does not prove that any particular change wouldn't. The case still needs to be argued on its merits, not with sweeping hand-waves.