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NEWS: Otakon Enforces Copyright at Artists' Alley

Otakon also needs to explain just how such a "non-finalized" policy got disseminated at the very least. Until I see a convincing explanation, my money is on the cries of innocence being little more than an elaborate bait and switch.

Those done by more successful circles who can afford printing, yes. But most people who sell their doujinshi at events like Comiket can only afford to photocopy a small amount of them at a local convenience store (there's even a term for these doujinshi, but I can't remember it). Note that not all doujinshi are comics, many of them contain either only fanfics or both comics and fanfics concerning one or more series. Basically, most doujinshi are your usual very amateur fanzine, the kind one can buy for a few bucks at sci-fi/fantasy/other conventions.

(I'm not even close to being a lawyer, but) as I understand it the thing with copyright is that it's mainly handled through civil law rather than criminal law. The only way to really punish violations is by suing someone, which dumps us squarely into that odious territory where having money to spend on laywers plays a massive part in determining who wins out in court. When it's a multinational corporation against an individual, the 800-pound gorilla can put the terms of the copyright just about anywhere he wants, and very is working to force him to make those decisions with regard to what's best for public interest.

Whether it's harmful or even helpful (like serving as free advertising or how emulators are in some cases preserving video games that would otherwise be all but gone from human history) doesn't matter; the copyright holder has the authority to decide when, where, and how a work can be duplicated. There are some exceptions for fair use, not to mention some things worked out as compromises (music is played on the radio at a much reduced fee because it serves as free advertising).

Few fan works can fall under this and even if you consider it to be parody the company in question may not. Penny Arcade is a good example of what happens then. They created a comic stripe that involved something hallmark (if I remmeber correctly, it was them or american greetings) trademarked, Penny arcade being about making fun of just about anything this shouldn't legally be a problem. However the greeting card company threatened legal action and Penny Arcade couldn't afford to spend years in court to challenge it so they eventually took the stripe down (though they created a parrody of the whole mess as their next stripe).

Ok, you know what...

When we had the whole Slam Dunk piracy issue, I commented that with the vagueness of copyright laws, we might as well ban fanart because that's a huge act of piracy.

And it is.

But I was JOKING. Oh my crack, is this world really that screwed up? I mean, aren't the publishers always putting fanart in the back of manga titles? OK, that's not for profit, but what's the point of Comicket but a "giant piracy-fest?"

Wow. What genius thought of THAT?

I mean, aren't the publishers always putting fanart in the back of manga titles? OK, that's not for profit, but what's the point of Comiket but a "giant piracy-fest?"

you can't forget Newtype, Animerica and several other respectable AMERICAN Magazines that all want your "FANART" for their books. MMmm fishie........ yeah.........

crimsonsplat wrote:

Otakon also needs to explain just how such a "non-finalized" policy got disseminated at the very least. Until I see a convincing explanation, my money is on the cries of innocence being little more than an elaborate bait and switch.

yeah... you gotta admit... it does seem a little... well, off. especially since it WAS labeled official.

Well in a way I don't think this is right, but Otakon is within their rights. I mean they can be held liable bnecause some companies might say that Artist's Alley is selling bootlegs or something.

Artist's Alley is a place for original works right? I guess over time, the community has been borrowing anime characters to sell works. I'd suppose that would fall under the Fair Use Law, but I might be wrong on that.

Last year a friend of mine was forced to stop selling FMA hats due to pressure from Funimation put on the con staff (or so I'm told). In the end, Vic (VA for Ed) heard of this and put in a custom order from her, which is cool. I suspect that was done because FUNi and the dealer's selling FMA merchandise was losing sales.

I suspect this is happening because of a drop in sales from the dealer's room. I mean you have the Dealer's Room and Artist's Alley selling anime merchandise, and I suppose getting it from Artist's Alley is more meaningful. I went to AZ last year and I barely spent money in the Dealer's Room, but I did buy a lot of merchandise from Artist's Alley such as NARUTO and Final Fantasy artwork.