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NEWS: Japanese Man Arrested for Pirated Anime DVD Auctions

Like I said, I am not condoning the criminal behavior of this guy, but there is no way that it costs $500 for a few movies. It is $400 for all 7 seasons of Star Trek TNG for instance.

Also, think about how popular Dragonball is...it must have made enough money over the years for a box set of movies to be less than $500...

I REALLY doubt $500 creates a minuscule profit.

SeinenAi wrote:

Like I said, I am not condoning the criminal behavior of this guy, but there is no way that it costs $500 for a few movies. It is $400 for all 7 seasons of Star Trek TNG for instance. Also, think about how popular Dragonball is...it must have made enough money over the years for a box set of movies to be less than $500... I REALLY doubt $500 creates a minuscule profit.

Ok
you need to head over to a couple sites like CD Japan & see what anime dvds go for in their native land.
Issue is copyright is all skewered in Japan from what we would consider business as usual. It's not WB releasing Harry Potter. There are sometimes several rights to secure. MediaBlasters was going to release the Riki-oh anime, but ir fell thru I believe because they couldn't get the music rights. I seem to recall somewhere in the commentary on that one Space Force dvd ADV released, they commented on their inability to secure some of the musical rights so they had to use something else (although I had gotten distracted by the screen action, so they might have been talking about a different title by then. I think I was listening to the commentary & reading the show's subtitles to get thru the dvd in one listen instead of 2)

I saw this set at Sanseido a year or 2 ago & they wanted $400 or so for it & I was totally blown away (my first thought was the movies weren't worth THAT much...)
Over at CD Japan the price for the Dragonball GT Box Dragon Box GT Hen (out of Print-Preorder only) was 50000 yen which they translate to loosely $456 for 64 episodes.
THE 2 DBZ boxes they list (also pre-order onlyu/out of print) are 100000 yen each ($913.83 so double it to own all 291 episodes)
You cannot equate Amrican dvds to Japanese. Our companies believe in "Priced to own" while Japan is very much into the exclusive collector market.
I looked longingly at that Saint Seiya Eternal Box CD set they have-13 cds containing all the music up to Hades Hen for a mere 19000 yen ($173). I keep wishing we could get Legend of the Galactic Heroes over here. I seem to recall a special set issued a couple years back in Japan for about $2000. One can get box sets of 26 eps for about $443.

You cannot compare the Japanese pricing system to ours at all.

perhaps that's the real problem then. There are many Japanese people who'd rather import anime in from the US than buy it for way more in their own country. I honestly believe Japan should rethink their whole pricing and production costs to further combat pirating. Not to say the people who produce and sell pirate goods are justified in some way, but the truth of the matter is people ended up buying those pirates and I'm sure if the prices were a little less outrageous people would be more inclined to not settle for a low quality bootleg.

However, look at the original price of the box sets he was pirating...uh, who is the criminal exactly? It probably costs like $5 to make, and they sell it for $500? Come. On.

Ps. I am not saying the guy was right to sell it, but maybe people wouldn't have bought from him if the prices were a little less insane!

Onsokumaru wrote:

These brave men are falling

Now people who sell bootlegs are "brave"? I suppose by your definition of integrity Adolf Hitler was perfection incarnate.

Onsokumaru wrote:

These brave men are falling

Now people who sell bootlegs are "brave"? I suppose by your definition of integrity Adolf Hitler was perfection incarnate.

Well he made like $9000, and I forgot if he had 3 or 4 sets, but it was $500 a set so about $2000 so he made about $7000...not much if you are risking jail IMO.

Bootleg DVD manufacturers rarely use dual layer DVDs. They copy the originals, take out all of the extras and compress the video to death until it fits on a DVD-5. To make them even cheaper, sometimes they squeeze more than one set of episodes/movie on a disk. And regular DVD-Rs are dirt cheap.

Also, if he's making a business manufacturing and selling DVDs, he probably has equipment that can burn more than one DVD at once. I did some volunteer work at a church a few years ago and they had a gadget that burned 10 copies of a CD at once.

Free market economies dictate that prices are set by the amount people are willing to pay for them.

But never mind, let's excuse all piracy because people on the internet from another country think it's too much money.

Free market economies dictate that prices are set by the amount people are willing to pay for them.

But never mind, let's excuse all piracy because people on the internet from another country think it's too much money.

Free market economies dictate that prices are set by the amount people are willing to pay for them.

doctordoom85 wrote:

Onsokumaru wrote: These brave men are falling Now people who sell bootlegs are "brave"? I suppose by your definition of integrity Adolf Hitler was perfection incarnate.

You guys need to stop with this crap. Freedom of Speech is being jeopardized here, stop being self righteous. We all have different perceptions concerning “piracy” and that’s just how things are. Who cares if you don’t agree with what he says? People have different opinions. Let Onsokumaru say what he truly believes in. It’s better to have someone portray what is truly on their mind, rather than having that person go along with what the crowd says.

kakoishii wrote:

perhaps that's the real problem then. There are many Japanese people who'd rather import anime in from the US than buy it for way more in their own country. I honestly believe Japan should rethink their whole pricing and production costs to further combat pirating. Not to say the people who produce and sell pirate goods are justified in some way, but the truth of the matter is people ended up buying those pirates and I'm sure if the prices were a little less outrageous people would be more inclined to not settle for a low quality bootleg.

You, my friend, obviously do not know the economics behind Japan. For one, the Japanese try not to import things if they don't have to. Two, DVD and CD prices are not the only things that we might consider expensive in Japan. Three, people get paid in a way that they can afford these things, not like the minimal 8 bucks an hour that you would make working at Best Buy. And we have people complaining about the prices of DVDs over here? Give me a break

You, my friend, obviously don't live in Japan. The fact is wages in Japan are NOT higher than in the US. Most basic minimum wage jobs pay 900 yen an hour...(that's about... $8.50) You can get part time jobs that pay 1000 or 1100 yen an hour, but they are usually only part time. Starting salaries for new employees are LOW, around $20,000-$25,000 a year for college grads. You get raises only through seniority, bonuses are few.
Especially for those that live in the city, you don't have much if any cash to spend if you are making this kind of money and have to rent an apartment.
The only people who can afford $500 DB movie box sets are 35+ year old salary men who worked up the food chain or spoiled 20-something children of well off families who sponge off their parents and still live at home (the majority of otaku, I think ).