The Law of Anime

cudwieser

cudwieser

Student Council President
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2013-02-15/

I came across these articles on ANN. It is quite interesting and while it may not add much beyond what we know but provides a strong technical basis for copy rights and what they are about. There are a couple of cases cited and statements relating to anime. While not an anime specific article, it still should give some legal insight into what fans face,
 
Although interesting to an extent the value of that for UK based consumers is limited. The UK is not subject to US law. At least not directly anyway. If you can find a UK equivalent of that article it would be very helpful.
 
Fairly interesting reading cudwieser - Thanks for reminding me to underline Harmony Gold a couple more times on my enemies list.

With a global computer network as a distribution platform, the problem of copyright infringement is really one for those enforcing the laws rather than those breaking it. And short of martial law, I don't really see how they can win. I'd love for everyone to receive fair compensation for their work whether they're a bricklayer or an animator, but that also means making their products available for a fair price in a global marketplace or simply accepting that some sales will be lost to piracy by those the product isn't being made legally accessible to (language barrier) or is unaffordable to (high prices). I don't even begrudge the poorest people stealing, but what does worry me is people who could afford to buy legal releases that are available in their language pirating instead - there's really no excuse for that in my opinion. But there's also little anyone can do about it - Morality is subjective and as such, if people believe it's okay then they're going to keep doing it.

The point about advertisers potentially suing fansubbers is pretty implausible - They had to pay for that product placement, I very much doubt they'd begrudge anyone widening the audience of their adverts for free.

In no place is the limitations a rights holder can place on a licensee more noticeably present than in Blu-Ray production and sales. Since the United States and Japan share a region code for Blu-Ray (a Japanese Blu-Ray will play just fine on an American player and vice-versa) Japanese companies are leery of Japanese citizens importing cheaper American Blu-Rays with the original Japanese audio on them.
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If they wanted to use region locking for market protectionism (and let's face it, that's region locking's only use) then why on Earth did the powers that be think putting the one of the most expensive and one of the cheapest countries for home video releases IN THE SAME REGION was a good idea - A decision made even more baffling by the fact that Japanese electronics and media companies comprise much of the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
 
ayase said:
If they wanted to use region locking for market protectionism (and let's face it, that's region locking's only use) then why on Earth did the powers that be think putting the one of the most expensive and one of the cheapest countries for home video releases IN THE SAME REGION was a good idea - A decision made even more baffling by the fact that Japanese electronics and media companies comprise much of the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
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I will never understand what they were thinking with that decision. I still dream of the day that region-locking becomes a thing of the past but as long as we have regional price-gouging that will never happen.

It's a very good series of articles though. I'm looking forward to any future entries.
 
ayase said:
If they wanted to use region locking for market protectionism (and let's face it, that's region locking's only use) then why on Earth did the powers that be think putting the one of the most expensive and one of the cheapest countries for home video releases IN THE SAME REGION was a good idea - A decision made even more baffling by the fact that Japanese electronics and media companies comprise much of the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
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I can only presume that the representatives of those companies were sufficiently clued-up to see the attraction of an endless stream of cheap Hollywood movie BDs for themselves, without realising that everyone else was going to think the same thing.

I maintain that regioning is a pointless waste of time (I have this fantasy where if I say it every time the topic comes up, people will stop doing it). Even my mother-in-law - who can generously be described as a novice when it comes to technology - happily circumvents geolocation by means of a proxy plug-in so that she can watch her favourite TV shows. Which aren't in English, because incredibly not everyone in a country only speaks one language. And my own mother has a multi-region BD player so she can watch foreign films that will never come out here, even though she doesn't know what "DVD" stands for.

I just wish someone would get all of the studio leaders together in a room and slap them around a bit with a wad of cash until they realised regioning does nothing except piss people off.

R, who is sort of annoyed she bothered learning so many languages uselessly in this world of geolocking
 
You're preaching to the choir Rui. None of us appreciate region locking (but do condemn piracy). If companies want money then make things widely available instead of limiting the market. Here's a question. I have a dream that anime and other media will become download to own (not a fan of streaming although the ******s at Microsoft have put new blocks to stop disk sharing for the next sh*tbox). How do you think the article will be influenced?
 
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