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NEWS: Funimation Sues Animeland Staff Over Counterfeit Items

Im very curious why a good bit of my posts are missing from this thread. I don't think I was out of line, especially since others posts here were on the same wavelength.

beelzebozo wrote:

Oh, and you don't seem to understand: Think Art owns Animeland. When you make a check out to Animeland, you have to make it out to Think Art Media.

And yet Think Art Media only had gross revenues of $98,000 in 2011 according to the article? That seems absurdly small if they own the convention and have other businesses like the stickers as well.

Kudos to Funimation for this - speaking as someone who tries to 'play by the rules' and purchase only authentic items, anything that scrubs a little more of the knockoff stuff out of the market is welcomed.

I won't name names, but we have a local (Seattle-area) mall chain that's got a ton of questionable merchandise too, and as much as I'd love to see a good anime retailer, I always cringe a little inside whenever I pass by their stores. Hopefully publication of this case will get more people to clean up their acts.

This isn't new...truth is I don't have much pity for Timmons, he made a bad move and also considering I'm going to continue to go to Animeland wasabi, because it isn't as crowded and I enjoyed it. The problem I have is that Timmons is being sued, and there is areason why he was divorced in the first place.

I am not going to NDK nor will I ever return due to some bad memories and not really wanting to deal with crowds due to anxiety issues. So don't go jumping on me about why I'm going to continue supporting Animeland Wasabi, it is more that the convention itself has potiental and can get better.

I don't chose to believe that we will lose this convention.

You only have to visit Toei Studios in Japan to understand how much Toei loathes the Sailor Moon property. Yes, it's a money maker for them. Yes, they're going to revive it solely for the money. But whereas Dragonball, the PreCure franchise and One Piece have their merchandise prominently displayed and cataloged, Sailor Moon is given one small, dinky glass shelf. Under a very sunny window. When I visited the museum in 2008, the Sailor Moon items Toei had on hand had been badly damaged. I don't know if anything has changed since then, but, I was practically in tears after going there. Not only was Sailor Moon simply tossed aside, the way they treat their artwork there was horrible. There's a room where they have discarded cel animation equipment with a huge bunch of Dr. Slump cels laying in a damp room. And then there's the decorations that the studio made to highlight prior productions - Made from cut outs from production cels. Try rationalizing this to someone who not only collects cels, but spends money trying to preserve them.

you started excessively quoting, which is against rule #6 and something Tony K really hates

Legally they don't seem to have a leg to stand on, but morally I would only oppose merchandise created to duplicate existing merch. If they are creating original and otherwise unavailable items that merely use existing designs then I condemn groups like Funimation for suing, rather than the people who are merely providing the products the customers want to buy.

Legally they don't seem to have a leg to stand on, but morally I would only oppose merchandise created to duplicate existing merch. If they are creating original and otherwise unavailable items that merely use existing designs then I condemn groups like Funimation for suing, rather than the people who are merely providing the products the customers want to buy.

We could have more then one, if the right leadership took and did it. It is not easy though, beelzebozo can tell you that, as he was a founding member of NDK before he left to open his own anime store.

a serious serious threat to the industry is all the fake nendoroids. it's getting to the point where the fake ones debut on the market almost on the same day as the original.

At the risk of opening a box of worms: why? Customers don't have a 'right', legal moral or otherwise, to whatever product they want featuring their favorite characters - instead, it's the creator who would seem to have a clear right to determine how their characters are used for commercial purposes. Should Funi and Toei be all right with, e.g., someone else selling Dragon Ball Z condoms because 'that's what the people want'?

Would it change your stance if you knew that in the U.S., trademarks-- unlike copyrights --must be defended in order to be maintained? The strength of a trademark in court relies on its being distinct in its market; if a company allows that trademark to be used commonly/generically then that trademark can become "generic" and legally usable by others.

North American anime distributor Funimation filed a lawsuit against Miller Isaiah Timmons and 10 unnamed "John Does" associated with his businesses on February 28 for alleged copyright infringement.