Forum - View topic

NEWS: New Survey: Reactions to Geneon

Anyways, discussions of legality only matter to those who care, and those who care really end up factoring out of the situation anyways.

Ironically, the US anime industry is in the same position vs. the US DVD industry as the US Comics industry is vs the US Manga industry, that is that all are subject to piracy, and yet the two latter do much better than the two former because their price vs. value model is so much more consumer friendly.

The consumer isn't the one whose business it is to appease the company by buying their wares; it's the other way around, and always has been. If you don't have the customer in mind, and don't adapt your business model, it's only a matter of time before you are marginalized and cast off like the dead, rotting flesh you are.

Again, we consumers are not moral saints. I cannot drive this fact home hard enough...

Quote:

Any unauthrorized distribution of copyrighted matrials is illegal in the US. And lacking any provisions or loopholes such as those in Canadian and Japanese law, distribution presumably includes grabbing a copy for yourself of anything you don't already actually own (i.e you are participating in distribution to yourself).

I'm not sure about that. Distribution is the ejecting outwards of material, not the accepting of material. If the law is phrased to permit distribution, then it would only effect the person who put the file onto the Interweb, not the person who pulled it off. So in such a case, if someone from Sweden uploaded the file, and I downloaded it in the states, then no laws would be broken. If someone else in the states upped it, and I DLed it, then he would technically be liable, but I wouldn't. I'm not sure that's how the law is phrased though.

(6) “Distribute” means to sell, lease, or assign a product to consumers in the United States, or to sell, lease, or assign a product in the United States for ultimate transfer to consumers in the United States.

(a) Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner as provided by sections 106 through 122 or of the author as provided in section 106A (a), or who imports copies or phonorecords into the United States in violation of section 602, is an infringer of the copyright or right of the author, as the case may be.

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

Anyways, discussions of legality only matter to those who care, and those who care really end up factoring out of the situation anyways.

Do you consider that downloading anime that is licensed in the USA from the internet, then buying the original Region 2 DVDs from Japan fair on a moral level?

If we put this in context with the survey, which focuses on the Geneon situation, then personally, I'd definitely have no ethical issues downloading fansubs and paying for an R2 DVD. I'd definitely feel this to be morally superior to just downloading fansubs.

But doesn't Japan have some (loosely enforced) provisions put in place that technically prohibit the importation of Japanese R2 DVDs in foreign countries?

Pepperidge wrote:

But doesn't Japan have some (loosely enforced) provisions put in place that technically prohibit the importation of Japanese R2 DVDs in foreign countries?

Presuming you meant the exportation of R2 DVDs to foreign countries, no - I've never heard of such a law. If there were a law along those lines, it wouldn't make sense for the Japanese to put English subs on their DVDs as they have occasionally been known to do.

If you can't find a Region-less DVD Player then you would have to break a US law to modify a dvd player to play said DVD.

akumaotaku wrote:

If you can't find a Region-less DVD Player then you would have to break a US law to modify a dvd player to play said DVD.

a) The poster said "foreign countries", not "the USA". And in the rest of the world, it's perfectly legal to set your DVD to region free. Hell, outside America DVD players are often marketed as being region free and have been for years.

b) Whether or not it would be illegal for you to re-set your DVD player has no impact on whether it's legal for the Japanese to export the DVD to you...and that was the question being asked.

[I'm not entirely sure I understand the logic of why it would be legal for an American to buy a multi-region player but not to re-code a regular player to region free?]

Ohoni wrote:

Anyways, discussions of legality only matter to those who care, and those who care really end up factoring out of the situation anyways.

Yeah you don't find very many people who care doing time in prisons these days, Not like in the past.

Is there a subtitle for this? Can someone translate it for me?

Well, "accepting" and "taking" are two different things, aren't they? Seeking something out and assigning it to yourself, from whatever source, can easily be construed as distribution under the law (and as a matter of course in a US Federal court, would be, if it ever came to that and if it would facilitate the bringing of an additional charge or count).

Not to go too far off topic, and to avoid that I'll leave it at this. The US comic industry is not in any form of trouble and comic sales exceed manga sales quite easily. In fact, comics have seen a great deal of growth over the past 5 or 6 years as movies based on franchises have renewed popularity and adaptations of films have also brought in new growth. There's also been an increase in the number of graphic novels produced as opposed to monthly releases.

It's a changing business, but in any trouble or being outdone? Hardly. Comics are everywhere nowadays and the business is doing quite well at adapting and bringing itself in to other elements of popular culture.