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NEWS: Touhou Project Creator Restricts Commercial Works, Anime


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ZeroDemio



Joined: 10 Jun 2010
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 7:11 am Reply with quote
I just got a more solid understanding of Team Shanghai Alice by reading this article.

I heard somewhere that the Touhou Project guy didn't have copyright on his own property, is this true?

Quote:

The anime studio ufotable announced last September that it was producing an anime project with the ANIMATE store chain's mascot character and the Touhou Project game characters. At the time, the Touhou Project creator said that he was not involved and that he did not know the details about it.

Lol, were they trying to steal a free audience?
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ninjapet



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 1517
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 7:29 am Reply with quote
ZeroDemio wrote:
I just got a more solid understanding of Team Shanghai Alice by reading this article.

I heard somewhere that the Touhou Project guy didn't have copyright on his own property, is this true?


ZUN has everything copyrighted, it's just up in till this point he wanted fans to have a lot of freedom. So they could make remix / vocal music, comics, games, and PV videos with out any harm done other then selling them yearly. It's due to events over the past two years with certain groups releasing products outside of a circle / yearly that he's worried about. Seeing as he doesn't want an anime made, because fans would lose freedom on how the storyline and characters go canonly.
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ValkyrieZeroZeroOne



Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 434
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:01 am Reply with quote
ZeroDemio wrote:
I just got a more solid understanding of Team Shanghai Alice by reading this article.

I heard somewhere that the Touhou Project guy didn't have copyright on his own property, is this true?


From a legal standpoint, he has copyright on the property when he creates it. Copyright isn't something like a patent that you need to register. In most legal jurisdictions, Japan included, it exists when the work in question is created.
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Lapis Lazuli Lolita



Joined: 01 Oct 2006
Posts: 220
Location: The N-Field
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:04 am Reply with quote
ZUN's bringing down the hammer. I wonder if this will affect that terrible yukkuri game on Xbox Live, since Reimu and Marisa are kind of in it.
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Otaku_X



Joined: 25 Nov 2008
Posts: 298
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:41 am Reply with quote
He's restricting the selling of foreign downloads. Isn't that basically the same as selling fansubs? I mean, if the games are only officially sold at doujin markets, so wouldn't someone selling downloads to foreigners be selling something they had no right to sell anyway?
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Reaper gI



Joined: 05 Oct 2009
Posts: 299
Location: UK
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:14 am Reply with quote
Otaku_X wrote:
He's restricting the selling of foreign downloads. Isn't that basically the same as selling fansubs? I mean, if the games are only officially sold at doujin markets, so wouldn't someone selling downloads to foreigners be selling something they had no right to sell anyway?

Not selling the original games, selling derivative works. (copyright on doujin is owned by the circe that made them)
Was allowed previously, Japanese sites could sell DL copies of doujin internationaly.
It's a tie in to the ban on selling stuff via XBLA and App store I assume.
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Kit-Tsukasa



Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 930
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:13 am Reply with quote
Something tells me that this is the influence of the Tokyo Manga ban.
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MJP



Joined: 06 Nov 2003
Posts: 126
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:24 am Reply with quote
So I wonder if non-sexually depictive figure manufacturers have any bearing on this? Do Griffon, figma, Revoltech, et al. have to seek ZUN's permission to make their figures since they're about as salacious as a teddy bear?

I don't think there's been any Queen's Blade-esque figures that are applicable to what these guidelines are. And honestly, what binds the manufacturers? Couldn't they just say "to hell with this, we're making it anyway" and they'd have to go to court?

If there's a market, it'll be fulfilled...
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 7400
Location: Maine
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:43 am Reply with quote
Kit-Tsukasa wrote:
Something tells me that this is the influence of the Tokyo Manga ban.


I'm not so sure. Aside from some hentai doujins the franchise has been pretty harmless. I think it's more that he's concerned about the series becoming too commercial, it's already well beyond what you would expect from any other doujin game with no sign of slowing down. Some companies are more respectful of its home brew nature than others and it shows. You aren't likely to find much TP merchandise in department stores and other mass retail places if any, most of it is exclusive to certain stores or venues. You can't even buy TP stuff at HLJ while AmiAmi managed to get exclusive sales rights to some merchandise, but not everything (no figma or Nendoroids).

I don't actually think the updated guidelines will change anything, I think this was more of a preemptive attempt to keep things from getting too out of hand.

Emerje
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2175
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:59 am Reply with quote
ValkyrieZeroZeroOne wrote:
ZeroDemio wrote:
I just got a more solid understanding of Team Shanghai Alice by reading this article.

I heard somewhere that the Touhou Project guy didn't have copyright on his own property, is this true?


From a legal standpoint, he has copyright on the property when he creates it. Copyright isn't something like a patent that you need to register. In most legal jurisdictions, Japan included, it exists when the work in question is created.


I don't know how it is in Japan, but in the US one major aspect is that you can't sue for violation of a copyright unless said copyright was registered with the government.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2246
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:02 am Reply with quote
I think he's preparing to actually do some serious rights licensing.

The first step before you negotiate for big money is to take control as best you can of what you are trying to sell.

He reigns back the commercial stuff, makes a pretty clear cut what doujinshi is allowed, then he can seriously negotiate selling generic rights to the property to someone like, say Bandai.
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zalas



Joined: 26 Jul 2006
Posts: 100
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:15 pm Reply with quote
Kit-Tsukasa wrote:
Something tells me that this is the influence of the Tokyo Manga ban.

That would imply that his general views have changed; they have not. From looking at his old guidelines, ZUN has always wanted in general for derivative works to not be distributed beyond the channels through which his games are available. In fact, uploading videos of replays is technically forbidden, although people ignore his rules and upload them to YouTube anyway. It's a pity that he has also restricted additional content, like (keyframe->inbetweening->coloring) animation and distribution of games through these other channels, but he's just adapting his views to the new environment. XBOX Live and App Stores and such weren't around when he originally made his rules. I'm guessing that (classic) animation draws a large audience and would overshadow his games in terms of impact and distribution extent. I guess he really likes having his franchise stay true to "by fans, for fans".
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Farix



Joined: 28 Feb 2007
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:19 pm Reply with quote
Mr. sickVisionz wrote:
I don't know how it is in Japan, but in the US one major aspect is that you can't sue for violation of a copyright unless said copyright was registered with the government.


You can still sue for copyright infringement, even if you don't register your copyright. The benefit of registering is that you have greater legal leverage in the event that your copyright is infringed.
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firedragon54738



Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 3113
Location: wisconsin
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:21 pm Reply with quote
Sigh so is a good thing or just more bad new that an anime is not going to get made
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:24 pm Reply with quote
Interesting that I was just browsing Touhou figures. If anything, the characters are rather young (thus probably why he wants to limit pornography), but sometimes they come up with awesome ones like this.
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