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NEWS: Manga publisher claims US releases are illegal


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AnimeJ



Joined: 02 Jul 2002
Posts: 49
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:10 pm Reply with quote
Wow...pwned CPM.
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Eos



Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 168
Location: Jersey
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:23 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
We wish to make it known that these publications are considered illegal because they have not been authorized by us.


Does this mean the translations themselves are illegal because Libre didn't look over them over and give them the go ahead? Perhaps I'm reading it wrong.
I highly doubt a company would publicize and distribute completely bootleg manga.
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fighterholic



Joined: 28 Sep 2005
Posts: 9193
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:36 pm Reply with quote
They probably don't have the rights to publish them yet, maybe they started prematurely or something went wrong in the communication chain. But now their in trouble.
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geishageek



Joined: 28 Nov 2005
Posts: 571
Location: Pleasant Valley, NY
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:40 pm Reply with quote
BexBeautiful is one of my favorite yaoi lines too... and what I do not get is they do not put out a lot of stuff so which are the titles in question? The only things recently have been Sound of My Voice by Youka Nitta and The Samurai Love story by the creator of Kizuna (forgot the real name). Kizuna and Embracing Love have been released for years now. The Embarcing Love art book isnt a new title but i do think it just recently went OOP. This is mind boggleing. Hmmm....
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Shousetsuka



Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 25
Location: Nagoya, Japan
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:09 pm Reply with quote
I can't help but wonder if it's because Biblos went out of business last year. I think nearly all of BeBeautiful's titles fell under the Biblos Publishing Company back when it existed. However, Libre took over for it, so perhaps BeBeautiful doesn't have the rights from this new company Libre, even though it owned the rights from Biblos.

Either way, the only info I can find about it is on the Libre site, and there's nothing in Japanese about it on that site either. Weird...
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midorihebi



Joined: 24 Oct 2006
Posts: 26
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Shousetsuka wrote:
I can't help but wonder if it's because Biblos went out of business last year. I think nearly all of BeBeautiful's titles fell under the Biblos Publishing Company back when it existed. However, Libre took over for it, so perhaps BeBeautiful doesn't have the rights from this new company Libre, even though it owned the rights from Biblos.

Either way, the only info I can find about it is on the Libre site, and there's nothing in Japanese about it on that site either. Weird...


It's possible it's because of the Blblos/Libre switch, since BLU has books from them as well, and they had to postpone a couple of releases due to licensing issues. So perhaps BB didn't care to try and work things out like BLU did. Bad BB. ^.^


Last edited by midorihebi on Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:34 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1684
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:25 pm Reply with quote
Shousetsuka wrote:
I can't help but wonder if it's because Biblos went out of business last year. I think nearly all of BeBeautiful's titles fell under the Biblos Publishing Company back when it existed. However, Libre took over for it, so perhaps BeBeautiful doesn't have the rights from this new company Libre, even though it owned the rights from Biblos.


That's my current theory as well. Without being privy to either the contract or what has happened in communication with the new company, I can only guess, but if CPM is in compliance with the Biblos contract, Libre won't have a legal leg to stand on here.
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Abarenbo Shogun



Joined: 19 Jul 2005
Posts: 1573
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 1:54 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
Shousetsuka wrote:
I can't help but wonder if it's because Biblos went out of business last year. I think nearly all of BeBeautiful's titles fell under the Biblos Publishing Company back when it existed. However, Libre took over for it, so perhaps BeBeautiful doesn't have the rights from this new company Libre, even though it owned the rights from Biblos.


That's my current theory as well. Without being privy to either the contract or what has happened in communication with the new company, I can only guess, but if CPM is in compliance with the Biblos contract, Libre won't have a legal leg to stand on here.


Yep, i'm guessing it's bad on Libre's part. Libre, in their purchase of Biblos assets, also inherited any legal liabilities (in this case, the CPM contract) and they pretty much will have to honor the original contract until that expires. Just because the company changed doesn't mean that certain things are erased altogether.

But the real question is, which Law would apply? Japan Law or US Law?
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kolibri



Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 712
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:07 pm Reply with quote
I would be very interested in knowing what titles they are disputing. I'm afraid it's going to be latest releases of Haru wo Daiteita (Embracing Love) and Kizuna, because putting those series on the shelf to wait for this to be sorted would seriously suck. (And what if another company picked the licenses up, would they want to start from volume one or continue where the other company left it?)

Different companies handles licenses in different ways, so it's impossible to say anything based on the fact that BLU got their licenses with Libre sorted out. (They did this though, and Love Mode 5 and Love Pistols 1 are both going to be released in May - yay!) Also it's worth nothing that not all titles from Biblos went to Libre (though I don't know which did and which didn't).
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Kiyoko



Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Posts: 131
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:47 pm Reply with quote
I am not a legal expert in any means. I questioned a person who does have some legal background (though he works criminal cases so even his judgement might not be 100%)

"it really depends on the exact wording that the orignal company [Biblos] had in it's contract, if they had a bankrupcy clause that negates earlier argreements, than the US company is up a creek without a paddle."

So pretty much, unless the contracts are made public (which I'm sure they won't), we won't really know the reason behind this. However, I'm sure that Libre didn't give the C&D letter without thoroughly going over the issues with their own lawyers. It would be a unwise move to make a big move like that and not have legal grounds to back them up.
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hikura



Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 565
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:48 pm Reply with quote
To me it sounds like a miscommunication between companies that speak two different language(both figuratively and lileratly).I am sure that if the companies got together and worked on the differnces it would go away.
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sunflower



Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 1080
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:31 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
That's my current theory as well. Without being privy to either the contract or what has happened in communication with the new company, I can only guess, but if CPM is in compliance with the Biblos contract, Libre won't have a legal leg to stand on here.



The only problem is that if CPM wants the rest of the books in the the disputed series, they have to play nice with Libre. Libre is probably holding those titles over their heads and possibly insisting on renegotiations of older contracts as a condition to make new ones. CPM is just in a really bad spot.

Of note is that BeBeautiful has not removed any titles from their online store, so they must think they're in the right.
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minakichan





PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 8:40 pm Reply with quote
OUCH. Or not, but still.

If CPM really is illegit, I will laugh-- not out of spite (there is none), but because this is genuinely funny. What's next-- an expose that Tokyopop actually copies crappy scanlation for their releases, or something?
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Zalis116
Moderator


Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6867
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:15 pm Reply with quote
minakichan wrote:
OUCH. Or not, but still.

If CPM really is illegit, I will laugh-- not out of spite (there is none), but because this is genuinely funny. What's next-- an expose that Tokyopop actually copies crappy scanlation for their releases, or something?
Probably not TokyoPop. Viz, on the other hand, would be a different story. Given all the trouble CPM's fallen into these past few years, I hope things turn out all right. But if they don't have legal recourse to libre's claims, there's always the illegal resource of leaking scans & scripts online and letting scanlators finish the job. Not that I'd expect them to do this, but it'd be funny.
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Beruda



Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 114
PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:46 pm Reply with quote
I just don't believe that CPM would do something that stupid, never mind illegal. I have never heard of CPM being accused of anything illegal up to this point so why would they damage their reputation etc. by pulling something like that. Dosen't make any sense.

Sounds to me like money is at the bottom of this issue. Libre probably wants more money for these licenses and is trying to pressure CPM to negociate new contracts.

B.
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