Good Job FUNi - Protecting us all from... legit products.

[JimmyG]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=7786

Certainly tossing around the bootleg label isn't a good way to talk about your customer, so I'm sure Akadot is a little pissed. Lying to the webhost and saying it's pirated merchandise is just wrong.

Has FUNi grown so big in the last two years or so when they really started to break from DBZ only releases? Seems like they got a big ego cause of their copyright, though I wonder if it has to do with that merger. Other webstores sell legit Japanese CDs and when there is a US release, it's not the end of the world. The US company doesn't hunt down the company that is selling a legit product. Will all the webstores that sell Japanese R2s for FUNi titles also start to come down as well? Seems like it, or is this just a one time deal of FUNi being an ass?

EDIT:

Akadot put up a little message on their site about the situation, including some the messages they got from FUNi:

http://www.akadot.com/article.php?a=405

EDIT 2:

BTW - As Geoduck mentioned in this thread, you might want to nail Animenation as well -

http://www.animenation.com/cds-anime...alchemist.html

Fair is fair.

[something]

Bah you beat me by a few minutes =P I'll just paste my post here and ask for a lock on my thread.

[/i]I said:[/i] =P

So, ok then, what? They're wasting their time shutting down people selling legit merchandise? Or is it just because it's so much easier to do, because unlike the REAL problem (bootlegging), attacking legit companies that actually have to obey laws and such makes them feel like they've accomplished something at the end of the day?

I would hope there's more to this that I'm just not getting, but I'm suddenly reminded of all the other tactics employed by many large mainstream companies that only hurt legit paying customers and let the pirates completely off the hook.

There is something seriously, fundamentally wrong with the way companies as a whole approach the whole concept of intellectual property, digital rights, importation and pretty much everything. We need a corporate lobotomy.

Still, that said, I can't seriously compare anime companies (even at their absolute worst) and mainstream MPAA or RIAA or anything. It's like comparing a stubbed toe to being stabbed in the face. So, no I have no intention of being alarmist or anything, but this is just dumb.

Especially from Funimation, a company that has done a veritable miracle in turning their image around in recent years. I don't think this will or even should destroy all that effort, but as Chris says it's just stupid, pointless and a waste of everybody's time.

Edit: slightly OT postscript, but does anyone remember the poster on here who got their eBay auction for an R2 Azumanga DVD shut down at ADV's request? If they still post here and read this, or if anyone else knows, what ever happened with that? When I read this Funimation news, I was immediately reminded of that situation.

[tuffy]

I know it sounds silly to us, the consumer. But once Funi acquired to rights to sell the CDs stateside, anyone else who imports them to sell is dealing in gray market goods. From Funi's point of view, they paid a lot for the license and have to protect their investment.

From our standpoint, importing a FMA CD or DVD directly (from CDJapan, for example) is okay because you're buying it from an overseas vendor. But selling that same disc to someone else in this territory is not.

[Melazomah]

[ QUOTE ]
disarm10 said:
Edit: slightly OT postscript, but does anyone remember the poster on here who got their eBay auction for an R2 Azumanga DVD shut down at ADV's request? If they still post here and read this, or if anyone else knows, what ever happened with that? When I read this Funimation news, I was immediately reminded of that situation.

[/ QUOTE ]
I remember it. It was a poster by the name of rainking. Haven't seem this poster around lately. rainking was referred to ADV's legal department by dlw on the thread he started about the issue. I don't know what happened after that.

[Cyporiean 2.0]

Oddly Enough, about a week ago I got in a fight with the people at JoyRide (Makers of the American FMA TCG) about my shop carrying COSPA's FMA Shirts. They Called them bootlegs also -.-

[kiseki]

Funi may be covered legally, but legal doesn't mean it's smart business.
This is as moronic as the whole concept of Region encoding on DVDs or Sony trying to stop import PSP sales in Europe. Companies have to realize that this is a global economy now and all these actions do is make customers angry. It's like they want people to hate them and push them towards illegitimate means on principle alone.

[something]

[ QUOTE ]
tuffy said:
I know it sounds silly to us, the consumer. But once Funi acquired to rights to sell the CDs stateside, anyone else who imports them to sell is dealing in gray market goods. From Funi's point of view, they paid a lot for the license and have to protect their investment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course, if someone intentionally pays more to import a CD than can buy the identical (sans translated booklet I guess) product domestically, then that probably indicates Funi needs to do something better in their releases =P Unless the buyer just wants it to be in Japanese ::shrugs::

I guess they only go after CDs because music is music whether it's R2 or R1, aside from the booklet, but buying an R2 dvd is HARDLY a reasonable substitute for buying a translated, bilingual R1 (for those os us not Japanesically inclined).

[ QUOTE ]
tuffy said:
I know it sounds silly to us, the consumer. But once Funi acquired to rights to sell the CDs stateside, anyone else who imports them to sell is dealing in gray market goods. From Funi's point of view, they paid a lot for the license and have to protect their investment.

[/ QUOTE ]
Which is where Chris' point about Anime Castle comes in. I mean sure, they have the right to protect their licenses and I think they should, as this seems to be too rare an occurrence in the anime industry. But when they finally decide to do it, they do it in the most stupid way imaginable. It's just like the RIAA and whatnot suing the asses of unknowing children and grandparents (just on a slightly smaller scale.)

[Melazomah]

[ QUOTE ]
tuffy said:
I know it sounds silly to us, the consumer. But once Funi acquired to rights to sell the CDs stateside, anyone else who imports them to sell is dealing in gray market goods. From Funi's point of view, they paid a lot for the license and have to protect their investment.

From our standpoint, importing a FMA CD or DVD directly (from CDJapan, for example) is okay because you're buying it from an overseas vendor. But selling that same disc to someone else in this territory is not.

[/ QUOTE ]
While FUNimation, or any entity, is well within its rights to stop unlicensed distribution of legally produced products within its authorized territory, there are certainly larger issues at hand such as unlicensed distribution of illegally produced products within its authorized territory.

Even if the C & D orders are made to fulfill certain due diligence requirement set by FUNimation's legal department, I can't see it being anything but a PR nightmare. Really, when a sea of illegally produced bootlegs are only a search away on eBay, spending time shutting down the sale of properly paid-for, legally produced products seems trivial.

[jlazar]

Yeah, I remember when the billingual Kodansha mangas were pulled out of US distribution right after Tokyopop made some big deals for Kodansha titles. Of course, it was pointless since the billinguals were only early volumes of the the series, so people would still have to goto Tokyopop for the rest of the story.


And is funimation REALLY that worried about someone buying a overpriced Japanese Import CD over their US priced product? Very, very pointless concidering the untouched bootleg sellers is the real threat to US sales.

And on top of that, since it doesn't seem that Funimation is selling the CD separately (yet), all this does is remove legitimate Cds from the marketplace and makes the bootlegs more visible to people looking for the legitimate CD.

Bad move.