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Tales Of The Industry - How To Torpedo Your Own License


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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1822
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 9:37 am Reply with quote
Premature ageing...
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 9:39 am Reply with quote
To be honest not saying anything about a deal until the ink has dried on the contract is such a basic piece of business common sense.

If you ever have to read & sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) you come away with a full respect of just how sensitive negotiations between businesses can be. Having Japanese companies involved, and all the cultural interface issues, would only make it even worse.

The consultant must have nerves of steel to have not just gone off into a corner to cry when this blew up. And he managed to salvage the situation, well done.

Mark Gosdin
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2227
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:11 am Reply with quote
mgosdin wrote:
To be honest not saying anything about a deal until the ink has dried on the contract is such a basic piece of business common sense.

If you ever have to read & sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) you come away with a full respect of just how sensitive negotiations between businesses can be. Having Japanese companies involved, and all the cultural interface issues, would only make it even worse.

The consultant must have nerves of steel to have not just gone off into a corner to cry when this blew up. And he managed to salvage the situation, well done.

Mark Gosdin


Actually, I'd say that 20-30% of _simulcasts_ start before contracts are signed... It's a sad state of affairs but contracts and final signatures and legal checks often take too long and so hand-shake agreements are made to allow streaming to begin even without a fully signed contract.
Of course this only happens with trusted partners but it's just not true that contracts have to be signed and the ink dry before press releases and even HD materials are released.

(each licensor has different policies on this of course).
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:25 am Reply with quote
I think the key thing is that word "trust".

Once you have a working trust relationship then yes I can see a stream being started before the contract is all ironed out. At that point the licensor has probably already done several dozens of contacts with the licensee and it is more a matter of routine.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised to have one of those 20 - 30% of streams blow up at some point.

Mark Gosdin
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CheerSong



Joined: 29 Jun 2011
Posts: 90
Location: Route 7, Kanto
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:32 am Reply with quote
Reading this my blood ran cold...
This is a heck of a campfire story.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:46 am Reply with quote
NDAs are standard these days, even Youtube reviewers, LPers and streamers on Twitch sign these quite a bit to get review copies. There's no reason why people are violating them in this day and age.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2497
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:46 am Reply with quote
Kudos to the author that he managed to salvage that deal, I think his client probably should have given him additional "combat pay". And I agree with Mgosdin, as a businessman you never announce a deal until the agreement is signed. Sometimes just announcing a deal is in the works can cause problems from a negotiation standpoint if there are other suitors, so the author's clients sound like real noobs.
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noblesse oblige



Joined: 22 Dec 2012
Posts: 277
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:58 am Reply with quote
I had no idea that smaller streaming outlets entertained the notion of wrenching some exclusive streams from the vice grip of Crunchyroll and Funimation....other than rare cases like Knights of Sidonia with Netflix and Irabu's Office with Viewster, it doesn't seem to happen very often. Maybe they could target movies? Those don't seem to get picked up by anyone anymore.
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Gatherum



Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 773
Location: Aurora CO
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 11:01 am Reply with quote
I'm curious: would it have hurt or helped if the client themselves had also issued a heartfelt apology? I'm not in any kind of business-related field, so I'm even more clueless than the mentioned client.
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SilverSpades



Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 11:33 am Reply with quote
That was pretty entertaining to read... And I agree with some saying that speaking before confirmation sounds like a pretty common sense thing to me.

[/quote]
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2497
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 11:47 am Reply with quote
There is also a more obnoxious possibility that might preclude any apology from the client, maybe they thought they could force the deal to happen by announcing it so licensor would have to "hurry up and sign" to avoid embarrassment?
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3423
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:32 pm Reply with quote
noblesse oblige wrote:
I had no idea that smaller streaming outlets entertained the notion of wrenching some exclusive streams from the vice grip of Crunchyroll and Funimation....other than rare cases like Knights of Sidonia with Netflix and Irabu's Office with Viewster, it doesn't seem to happen very often. Maybe they could target movies? Those don't seem to get picked up by anyone anymore.

Well, for example, this very place, Anime News Network, managed to somehow get simulcast rights to Oreimo back in the day, so there definitely have been other players around.
...
...
...aaand that almost ended in a disaster, didn't it?...
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Yause



Joined: 10 Dec 2013
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:44 pm Reply with quote
There was at least one other player during the pioneering days of streaming. Didn't stay in the business beyond an initial (heavily promoted) run.
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Tempest_Wing



Joined: 07 Nov 2014
Posts: 305
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:01 pm Reply with quote
So everything worked out in the end. And yet the article is still vague on who was involved or what shows were being licensed.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:27 pm Reply with quote
Tempest_Wing wrote:
So everything worked out in the end. And yet the article is still vague on who was involved or what shows were being licensed.


Um, everything didn't work out in the end. The shows in question were indeed licensed but the company pulled out of the anime industry and even if they'd stayed no-one in Japan would have worked with them anyway.

Plus, the contractor in question has a reputation to uphold and probably doesn't want people to know that she was involved with this sort of scandal. Yes, she was innocent, but it was still her client, so her name gets associated with them and their cockup by default.
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