Forum - View topicNEWS: Man Arrested for Printing, Selling Evangelion, Haruhi Stickers in Akiba
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13549 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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At least he was employed this time.
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revolutionotaku
Posts: 884 |
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If you live in America and have a dealer's booth for the weekend at an anime convention, you can get easily away with it.
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insert name here
Posts: 84 |
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Truly this man was a monster. Seriously if you're in your mid 40s and are down to selling bootleg cartoon stickers to make ends meat I think what you need is some kind of job assistance and maybe a hug. But nah, let's prosecute him cause clearly he's whats holding the animation industry back. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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It is not the first time. There have been other news reports about suspects who had jobs. It is possible that we mostly hear about unemployed people because these crimes actually are committed mostly by unemployed people, because they need the money.
How about prosecuting him because he broke the law? How about protecting the fans who were being robbed? This guy was making almost $500 a month for 3 years by doing this. I do not think that he is the victim. |
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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I really wonder where the line is drawn with regard to the sales of self-made merchandise. Was it because he used official art verbatim? For doujin circles who produce their own stickers and badges, do they turn a blind eye because the art is self-drawn?
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Yes, exactly. Once you start using any official artwork you've crossed the line from "Doujinshi" to "arrest-able offence" Actually, when it's not printed works, i.e. when it's making custom merchandise, even if the art is hand-done there are much stricter unspoken rules about what's acceptable. At comiket for example pretty much any merchandise items are hand made only. No mass manufacturing. So you'll never see something like doujin cellphone straps of some copyrighted character produced in large quantities**. **With the exception being when it's explicitly allowed by the copyright owner, e.g. Touhou Last edited by samuelp on Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:41 am; edited 1 time in total |
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CeaseActivity
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Well, this guy stole art that belonged to someone else and sold it without their permission (while possibly fooling customers). I'm sure that's the biggest problem here. |
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DenyingBelial
Posts: 7 |
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Were the fans really robbed? Was he doing this with the pretense this was legit licensed merchandise? I mean it's not like he had a storefront, he was selling this stuff out of a garage. I'm pretty sure the fans that bought from him at least had a doubt the stuff wasn't licensed. If he owned a store and sold this stuff side-by-side with licensed merch then definitely the customers were defrauded but in this case I think it's safe to say both parties knew what was being sold and what they were paying for. So while he isn't a victim and what he did was illegal, he's also not some kind of heartless monster badguy preying on pure and innocent people. He saw an opportunity to make cash by making a thing people were willing to buy and they bought it knowingly. In the same way that people print stickers (sometimes even of official art) and sell them at cons - hell, those folks are actually more shady about where their products come from. This is definitely a legal issue but I'd argue it's not really a moral one. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6253 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Well noting to see here to be honest. I'll agreed with some people he didn't need to be arrested, maybe just a monetary fine for not having a proper permit, but arresting is just a little too much. But then again it's Japan.
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Banjo
Posts: 779 |
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if they don't arrest them then other people will try it.
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mdo7
Posts: 6253 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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After reading this part of the article:
I now see why he was under arrested, this would've been a violation of some certain laws. |
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sWiTcHKun
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Seriously guys, did you even read the article carefully? These IC cards are only $5 each. Of course people would automatically know they're bootleg. But still, what can you expect for only $5? These are IC cards that you use to scan at the subway or bus to let you use their services. You can't go wrong for $5.
So to be honest, this is a good deal. No one is being defrauded here, mother of God. Next time, he should open a business on Ebay or something instead. Isn't it safer that way? |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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With Japan's current Copyrights laws, the title could've been "arrested for handing out printed stickers" and I would've believed it, unfortunately.
At least this time it an actual illegal dealer. |
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Touma
Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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Are you saying that he was buying legitimate IC cards and putting the stickers on them? He would have had to sell them for more than he paid, so why didn't his customers just buy the card from a regular vendor and save some money? Were they willing to pay extra to get an image that they could download themselves? Or are you saying that the printed the cards? That would seem to indicate that anybody could print his own IC cards. (EDIT: I did not complete my thought.) If he printed the cards they would not actually work as IC cards, would they? Either way, I do not understand why fans would buy these if they knew that they were fake. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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My Japanese isn't strong enough to follow the news report, but looking at the desk they showed, I assume the guy pasted the stickers on cards that people brought to him, seeing as he had a board for layout and I think cutting tools there. (why do that if you're gonna pre-"print" the whole batch) And agree that a fine would've been better in this case.
You know that $500/month is only $6000/year right? That's not even minimum wage. Sure, 6 grand ain't bad, but it also isn't "big money". Also, I think Comiket gets a special "exemption" because of the huge marketing opportunity it presents. It is not "immune" simply because everything must be "hand produced" (that's more of an American anime con creation). There are companies at Comiket that sell their services MAKING merchandise (as well as printing companies obviously). I've got a few clearly not "hand made" items that I've bought from doujin circles at Comiket, and I've seen plenty more, including: keychains, figures, card games, phone cards, towels (I have a great Tomoe Mami towel, from Comiket) and dakimakura (pillow cases). |
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