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INTEREST: Man Arrested for Selling Modified Nude Madoka Magica Figures


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Akamaru_Inu
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Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 96
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 6:58 pm Reply with quote
This is wild, I love the choice of preview image too.
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:38 pm Reply with quote
Besides the fact that it's obviously piracy or something like that (if I'm correct), why the fudge would he even do that? Gross, and I highly doubt that "paying for living costs" is legitimate.
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Horsefellow



Joined: 01 Jan 2020
Posts: 262
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 8:25 pm Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
Besides the fact that it's obviously piracy or something like that (if I'm correct), why the fudge would he even do that? Gross, and I highly doubt that "paying for living costs" is legitimate.


I mean, the custom figure market is pretty common in Japan. I've bought a few myself over the years. They are a way for customs and sculpters to make money.
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TheOtakuX



Joined: 16 Jan 2014
Posts: 344
Location: Wooster, Ohio
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 8:26 pm Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
Besides the fact that it's obviously piracy or something like that (if I'm correct), why the fudge would he even do that? Gross, and I highly doubt that "paying for living costs" is legitimate.


If he's buying official figures to modify, than it wouldn't be piracy, and unless he's mass producing them, there shouldn't be a crime since they're just custom figures.

And why would people do that? Because nude anime figures are awesome.
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Somer-_-



Joined: 14 May 2014
Posts: 984
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 8:47 pm Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
Besides the fact that it's obviously piracy or something like that (if I'm correct), why the fudge would he even do that? Gross, and I highly doubt that "paying for living costs" is legitimate.


$55,500 in two years for what is probably a side hustle isn't bad money.
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:18 pm Reply with quote
Horsefellow wrote:
I mean, the custom figure market is pretty common in Japan. I've bought a few myself over the years. They are a way for customs and sculpters to make money.

Correct. Look at photos of anime and game related shops in Akihabara. You'll see glass display cases packed with figures, models, and garage kits. Some of these are factory figures but many of them are one-off custom jobs made by hobbyists. I even remember reading about how some shops in akihabara rent out space in their display cases for people to sell figures they made, sort of like a cosignment system. They are also bought and sold as used goods by the shops.

I wonder exactly what law this guy broke. I belive Japan has a similar first-sale doctrine to the US. After all they have a huge open market for used goods just like most of the world. You can legally sell your used Nike shoes or your old Elvis records even though you don't own the Nike trademark or the rights to Elvis's music. There's nothing illegal about modding or reselling figures--Yahoo Auctions Japan is full of that, as are anime and game shops, dealers rooms at cons, etc--adult figures included. I'm betting there's some other angle here--like he was misrepresenting the figures as authentic or maybe some kind of business tax or permit issue?
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CrypticPurpose



Joined: 15 Jan 2020
Posts: 320
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:33 pm Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
Besides the fact that it's obviously piracy or something like that (if I'm correct), why the fudge would he even do that? Gross, and I highly doubt that "paying for living costs" is legitimate.

He paid for the figure, modified it and sold it to people who appreciated his work - there is nothing inherently ethically wrong with it, even if it trips some laws. It's like selling customised modified cars.

The only reason he likely got in trouble with the law is that he was too successful for his own good.
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Neohybrid_kai



Joined: 29 Apr 2011
Posts: 143
Location: Indonesia
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:48 pm Reply with quote
CrypticPurpose wrote:

The only reason he likely got in trouble with the law is that he was too successful for his own good.


Yeah, same with doujinshi, I follow some artist who customize their collection on IG and twitter and their works is amazing, but they never got any issues since they did it just for personal enjoyment (but who knows they're secretly selling them in behind Laughing )
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capt_bunny



Joined: 31 May 2015
Posts: 364
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 10:18 pm Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
Besides the fact that it's obviously piracy or something like that (if I'm correct), why the fudge would he even do that? Gross, and I highly doubt that "paying for living costs" is legitimate.


Its hard times, my friend. I don't doubt he was doing it for living costs.

Quote:
The only reason he likely got in trouble with the law is that he was too successful for his own good.


That's happened more than a few times. iirc there was an idol game where they had customized the plushs then had an email to not sell any more outfits for the plush. They were pretty popular too.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 10:42 pm Reply with quote
It is quite believable that he was doing this to make a living. 55,000 over two years is a nice padding. I concur with those saying, he was too successful, or became too well known.
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gridsleep





PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 11:07 pm Reply with quote
I think the problem is not that he was selling customized figures, as that is the fruit of his own labor, but that he was selling nude figures of underage girls, which has become extremely forbidden in Japan. The girls are all under the age of 20. Even though, in Japan the age of consent for sexual activity is 13, perhaps Ibaraki is an exception and they arrested him on that excuse. If would be interesting if someone with direct knowledge would provide information on if Shaft studio has some kind of overpowering copyright on its work that prevents anyone else from even breathing on it. Or if that is generally how it is in Japan, and, if so, how do all those customizers get away with it and this one did not? Exceptions always seem to indicate that something is rotten, and this is not Denmark.
(PS--I had to read four articles just to find out the above handful of facts. If there is a tax issue, as Akumachef speculates, I am not even going to look into it as the article doesn't even give a clue. In the end, the cops are probably just leaning on the guy to make an example out of him. The screws are corrupt everywhere, and work for whoever pays the biggest bribes to the politicians.)
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lostrune



Joined: 09 Jun 2012
Posts: 313
PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2020 11:55 pm Reply with quote
Obviously the solution here is for Shaft to offer their own official nude Madoka Magica figures since there's clearly a large demand for them Razz

gridsleep wrote:
I think the problem is not that he was selling customized figures, as that is the fruit of his own labor, but that he was selling nude figures of underage girls, which has become extremely forbidden in Japan. The girls are all under the age of 20. Even though, in Japan the age of consent for sexual activity is 13, perhaps Ibaraki is an exception and they arrested him on that excuse. If would be interesting if someone with direct knowledge would provide information on if Shaft studio has some kind of overpowering copyright on its work that prevents anyone else from even breathing on it. Or if that is generally how it is in Japan, and, if so, how do all those customizers get away with it and this one did not? Exceptions always seem to indicate that something is rotten,


I doubt it. There's plenty other R-18 figures of underage characters. Not to mention all the doujinshi and fanart that never gets touched. This is definitely because of a specific issue relating to this incident, whatever that may be. There's enough Chloe von Einzbern figures out there to showcase age isn't really an issue with sexy merchandise.
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 12:08 am Reply with quote
gridsleep wrote:
I think the problem is not that he was selling customized figures, as that is the fruit of his own labor, but that he was selling nude figures of underage girls


That was one of my first thoughts too, but then again Akihabara is no stranger to "adult" figurines of underage fictional characters. And let's not forget Comiket--which is attended by hundreds of thousands--openly selling underage doujinshi. Plenty of retail shops sell the same. It seems odd that this guy got busted while many others seem to not draw the same attention. There's a ton of explicit Madoka stuff out there from doujin to figures to cosplay AV. There's either something more to the story or he somehow managed to piss off the wrong person.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3627
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 12:11 am Reply with quote
Regardless of what was being sold, I'm also curious as to what laws were broken in this case?
If you re-paint a figure (say change an outfit from blue to black) and then resell it, would that also be considered an unauthorized modification and violate the same law?
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Actar



Joined: 21 Nov 2010
Posts: 1074
Location: Singapore
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 5:14 am Reply with quote
Covnam wrote:
Regardless of what was being sold, I'm also curious as to what laws were broken in this case?
If you re-paint a figure (say change an outfit from blue to black) and then resell it, would that also be considered an unauthorized modification and violate the same law?


From a comment on another website:

Quote:
The problem is not the product itself, but how it is advertised. If you buy a car from Nissan and modify it, you still own a Nissan car and can sell it as such. If you take the engine out of your Nissan and install it in your homemade chassis, now you own a homemade car that you can still sell, but not advertise as a Nissan.

The problem is advertising the figure under the name of the character (i.e. trademark violation). Had he sold it with no reference to the series or character, it would’ve been OK. Trademark law is so screwed up that companies can sue even if the product is 100% comprised of original parts. Say, you buy a bunch of original Nissan parts and assemble them together into something indistinguishable from a Nissan car… you can sell it as a brandless self-made car with Nissan parts, but not as a Nissan car.
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