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NEWS: Woman Charged for Selling 6.5 Million Yen in Unauthorized Demon Slayer Cakes


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chrisb
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Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 614
Location: USA
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:35 pm Reply with quote
Cute cake, but not worth 100.00+ I am surprised they went after her when I see this kind of thing a lot on Instagram and Twitter.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4352
Location: New York
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:39 pm Reply with quote
"That's as many as six hundred and fifty thousand tens. And that's terrible."
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FiendHunter



Joined: 02 Dec 2019
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:46 pm Reply with quote
Aren't anime cakes regularly sold in Japan? I often see people celebrating characters' birthdays with anime cakes. Is it illegal in general or is it because it's KnY?
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Chris Handsome



Joined: 07 Sep 2010
Posts: 271
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:46 pm Reply with quote
Meanwhile Wal-Mart's Bakery sells custom birthday cakes with Snoopy and Cookie Monster on them, nobody gives AF.
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Vanadise



Joined: 06 Apr 2015
Posts: 488
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:00 pm Reply with quote
FiendHunter wrote:
Aren't anime cakes regularly sold in Japan? I often see people celebrating characters' birthdays with anime cakes. Is it illegal in general or is it because it's KnY?

It is illegal in general to use copyrighted material without the owner's permission, and copyright laws in Japan are stricter than in the USA. Nobody will care if you make a cake for yourself, and if you make a one-off cake as a commission or a friend it's unlikely anybody will notice, but you'll definitely get sued if you mass produce them.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4566
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:10 pm Reply with quote
"And that's terrible."
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Sarcataclysmal



Joined: 10 Sep 2020
Posts: 58
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:18 pm Reply with quote
certified japan disney moment
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The Not so Chosen One



Joined: 18 Nov 2016
Posts: 433
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:25 pm Reply with quote
The only crime would be how expensive those cakes are, but overall, having a bussiness like this in Japan would look like a waste of time if I can't cater to people's hobbies just because even the air in Japan is copyrighted.
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ChrissyC



Joined: 17 Jun 2015
Posts: 542
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:27 pm Reply with quote
It's a damn cake. I hope they just give her a slap on the wrist.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:36 pm Reply with quote
She should have kept it off the internet.

I don't think they would go after individual bakeries offering this service to in-house customers, but they can't ignore the reach of the internet.

Probably only a matter of time before RedBubble gets hit.
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DeTroyes



Joined: 30 May 2016
Posts: 520
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 7:08 pm Reply with quote
She should have claimed it was a piece of original fan art made in a medium which utilizes art materials that just so happened to be edible.

If doujin artists can get away with doing fan art and selling it, I don't see why this woman couldn't have done the same with cakes that displayed her original art of the characters.
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chronos02



Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 267
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 7:11 pm Reply with quote
This is a bit strange... as far as I am aware, selling your services to make something requested by the customer is not against the law of copyright infringement regardless of where you live, and sharing your work isn't, either.

Let's take a printing business, for example, that offers printing images for the customer, be it as posters, or anything else:

Customer brings in Kimetsu no Yaiba image data for an A0 poster
Business receives the data, and uses it to print the poster
Business shares their printing expertise on SNS to attract new customers
Customer receives the package

In this case, simply replace the printing business for a personalised cake business

Since this was done by request, as a single product, it's not infringing on any patents, copyrights, or whatever.
Sharing your work online doesn't, either, as the object of the promotional picture is to display what you can do, not the exact thing you have made (being able to print with a specific quality, on a certain type of paper, with the results being as shown).

It'd be a different story if you had an image in stock, and printed it for anyone that requested it. In this case, it would be mass production, and that would be a breach of the copyright law.

This case, to me, seems more like a staged thing to deter others from doing this. It is still possible for them to file a complaint regardless of wether they're right or not, as long as there's a possibility, such as only showing kimetsu no yaiba cakes on SNS, or a vast majority of the images being from that.


It's always possible for copyright law to be different in Japan, but that would be strange, since it would force small businesses to keep a record or have access to one, for every single copyrighted image, element, object, or whatever. This is obviously not feasable, so the responsibility would fall on the individual customer, but then you'd be restricting an individual freedom to replicate something for themselves in another medium... would you ban peopple or would you be able to ban them from printing an image in their homes?

Well, I think my point is pretty clear, or I hope so.
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Sobe



Joined: 04 Jun 2011
Posts: 880
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 7:13 pm Reply with quote
So the solution to this problem, if she wanted to continue selling the cakes, would be to use a doujin image instead of a copyright image? Or do I have that wrong?
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Ming Yi



Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 207
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 7:42 pm Reply with quote
FiendHunter wrote:
Aren't anime cakes regularly sold in Japan? I often see people celebrating characters' birthdays with anime cakes. Is it illegal in general or is it because it's KnY?


Some bakeries are allowed to release official cakes provided that they are an official licensed collaboration with official companies.

The way that doujinshi works is that artists are only allowed to sell a limited amount of copies for a small price and keep it out of the eyes of official sponsors (i.e. not posting fanart to official hashtags for the anime on social media). This bakery was not only selling them for a high price but also didn't seem to put a limit to how much could be produced, so it may interfere with official companies.
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Meongantuk



Joined: 03 Jun 2016
Posts: 353
PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:00 pm Reply with quote
Ming Yi wrote:
FiendHunter wrote:
Aren't anime cakes regularly sold in Japan? I often see people celebrating characters' birthdays with anime cakes. Is it illegal in general or is it because it's KnY?


Some bakeries are allowed to release official cakes provided that they are an official licensed collaboration with official companies.

The way that doujinshi works is that artists are only allowed to sell a limited amount of copies for a small price and keep it out of the eyes of official sponsors (i.e. not posting fanart to official hashtags for the anime on social media). This bakery was not only selling them for a high price but also didn't seem to put a limit to how much could be produced, so it may interfere with official companies.


This. Also do note that custom products for individuals count as limited item as only the people who ordered that particular product has it. Thus, exempt from most copyright regulations (unless they mass produced it).
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