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INTEREST: Broccoli Warns Against Uta-Pri Doujin Goods

This thread once again shows just how f-u-c-k-i-n-g entitled anime/manga fans are.
From fansubs to doujishi's. Get this straight, making a doujinshi and selling it at Comiket is a privilege the copyright holder grants the fans.
It's nothing more than that. As such it can be revoked at the copyright holder's request. And when fan made products start eating into the legitimate market you can expect the copyright holder to clamp down on the fans that make said products.

too bad anime fans only have gut to use copyright stuffs from anime/manga. higher level people like Samsung has more gut because they copy Apple's design. more $$$.

Apple and Samsung emerged from yet another court battle earlier this month with a jury returning a mixed verdict. The eight-person jury found that Samsung violated three of Apple's five patents at issue and was ordered to pay $119.6 million, much less than the $2.2 billion sought by the iPhone maker. But Apple also was found to have infringed a Samsung patent and was ordered to pay $158,400, considerably lower than Samsung's $6.2 million request.

Broccoli are not foolish to pursue this, it was a long time coming and it could have been any company, not just Broccoli who have confronted it head-on.

The issue here is that the line between doujin and bootleg is being continually blurred in a way which can cause big problems for a large franchise such as UtaPri. When people are selling 'doujin' figures or other chara-goods which happen to be near-identical knock-offs of existing figures or chara-goods, it goes beyond fans making fan works for other fans as a hobby (See: WonFes and Comiket) and instead verges into bootleg territory, in which a shady company can make money from such items without paying taxes or meeting certain regulations so long as they claim to be a 'doujin circle'.

The potential for disaster can be great; if a cheap, Chinese bootleg business was to produce a bunch of UtaPri gashapon toys from an unsanitary PVC plant, the result could be literally toxic and cause physical harm to the public. The tabloids will not discriminate over who made the figures, just that UtaPri goods are potentially lethal - it's a PR nightmare to say the least.

We will absolutely see more of these complaints from other companies. As a staunch supporter of doujin works I can tell you that this is not a case of copyright owners being greedy or evil, but an inevitable result of vested interests making money from mass-produced, so called 'doujin' goods that are anything but and have little to nothing to do with the original doujin scene and/or ethos.

What it comes down to is simple: make the products we want of the quality we want and we will pay for it. If you can't, or wont, we'll pay someone else to. Don't stomp your feet and demand we deal with the lack of merchandise because you don't want to shell out the initial cost of production.

Seriously, fudge copyright. At this point its a giant No Fun brigade that keeps people from being interested in stuff because you're not allowed to be creative with it.

Broccoli. Who, back in the day, used Di Gi Charat doujin merch to further promote Gamers, if I recall correctly. And now they complain? Yeah, no, it doesn't work that way, guys. You can't pick and choose, and certainly can't turn your back on the community who made you who you are today. Doujin UtaPri merch outselling your own? Hm. How about making better wares to promote your series?

The number of knockoffs and how it's probably as rampant as it is is because nothing has been done officially to fix this growing problem (and by fix I mean meet the demand). There are knock offs and outlets of their work as a result of the unsatisfied demand and/or the abhorrent leaps to get those official goods in the first place. I'm sure if Broc did something, knockoffs would probably lower in numbers - or at least more fans would go to purchase their own official goods first.

Make better offers Broc. Make more items, make better items - just do something to ATTRACT (and not force) the demand from the doujins to yourself. You have all the power in the world for it yet you're...not doing it.