Forum - View topicHow long does it take for a company's rights to expire?
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Dranxis
 Posts: 591 Location: Ohtori Academy |
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In this case, I'm talking about Viz, with all their older titles that will never be fully released. (Black Jack, Urusei Yatsura, to name a few) Is there a chance that their rights might expire and another company could pick up these series? I know it's a slim chance, but I want to know if its possible.
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Nobody here would know unless they worked for Viz and know the exact contract. Will the license ever get expire? Yes eventually. But it wouldn't make that much of a difference if the title still belong to the parent company of Viz in Japan.
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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I don't think Black Jack belongs to Shogakukuan. In any case, the licence is probobly already expired or about to. So yes, it is possible for another company to pick up the rights like Darkhorse did with Crying Freeman. |
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darkhunter
Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Well I wasn't refering to Black Jack or any title specifically, but just any title that might be under Viz's parent company.
The funny thing I heard about crying freeman was that the license was "return" to Koike's Publishing and that gave dark horse the chance to snatch up the license 
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Ataru
 Posts: 2350 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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As for UY, it has long since been past. There was talk about bring it back if Inu Yasha manga sells pick up, but it's slim right now. Looks like Project ILM is my source for now.
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alice20th
Posts: 74 |
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In general printing terms, a license is in effect if the books are still in publication. Once it's out of print, then after a few years (maybe 5? it could be much more or less depending on the contract), the license returns to the original copyright holder (the artist in manga). At that point, anyone can make an offer. Usually the artist gives the original publisher a chance to make a counter offer, but the artist is free to decline any offer for any reason.
In other words, if Viz is still printing and selling old copies of, say, Urusei Yatsura, then they still have the license. If they haven't printed any new books since 2001 (assuming the 5 years), then Takahashi can make deals with other companies and ask for the rights to be returned. It's likely that Viz hasn't gone back to reprint on the old series since 2002 or so because all of the manga sales these days are in the smaller size and price point. The ultimate rights owner is Takahashi, but she is represented by her publishing company as her agent (or so I've heard when it comes to most manga artists). So, although Shogakukan has a lot of influence over her licensing decisions, they don't get the final decision -- she does. But the point is that Viz probably isn't preventing anyone from trying to license the books they don't print anymore. In general, if some company came to Takahashi and made a legitimate offer to publish the series, then she would probably (by courtesy) ask Viz for a counter offer. If Viz declined to make a counter offer or if she had any reason to refuse the counter offer, then she's free to license to whoever she likes. (Of course, I'm not just talking about UY. This should go for all out of print manga series. It seems to have happened with several old Viz titles.) FYI, I'm not an specialist in literary rights, but when I worked for a printing company, I came across some of these instances (non-manga related), and that's where my knowledge comes from. |
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