Forum - View topicNEWS: Funimation Files Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Anime Haus Owner
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blaizevincent
 Posts: 407 |
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when they say imported do they mean official merchandise or pirated? I would figure if it was official merchandise then Funimation have no case do they?
*edit* seems they were importing pirate products so yeah good job Funimation |
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tempest21
 Posts: 8 |
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Better watch it. If you are a retailer and sell Funimation products, they could sue you too. If a retailer is selling legitimate merchandise, you cannot sue them. Funimation can only sue if the merchandise is counterfeit.
If Anime Haus is selling authentic merchandise that they import, and that it is not counterfeit, then Anime Haus cannot be sued. |
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Lady Multi
Posts: 675 |
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I wonder if this company was the one that I encountered at a con before. There was one that I questioned if they had the boxes for the figured; said they didn't' come in boxes but I knew otherwise. The man refused to talk to me anymore especially after I asked to see the bottom of the figure to see if the copyright writing was there. I realized then that they were bootlegs and when I bought the figures elsewhere it was confirmed.
I remembered the shop set-up and the people running it and I made a mental note to stay away forever. If only I could remember the name of the store. :/ It's quite possible that they are the same. If they show up this year, I'll remember their name and send the name to Funimation, since at least someone is doing something about these bootleg sellers. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5506 Location: Iscandar |
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@delapidated
I am not sure about that. If Funimation has the exclusive rights to sell legit merchandise, any other company selling the same products (even if they are authentic) is infringing with said rights. |
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GLindis
Posts: 14 |
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Nice to see Funi doing something about counterfeits. I remember at one of my very first cons I bought a DVD I didn't realize was counterfeit until I watched it at home. There was some skipping about 2/3 through, and the rest of the subtitles were a good 20 seconds off for the rest of the movie. I checked the package, saw random bits of writing that was not Japanese (was possibly Korean), no barcode and no logos from the company I knew had licensed the movie. I was furious. I didn't even think to check, because I was young and naive, and assumed there couldn't be anyone selling knock-offs at an actual convention. "That stuff only happens online, not in public where the actual companies are in attendance and there are hundreds of fans ready to call out the dirty thieves." Such was my innocence.
The next year at the same con I saw the same booth (can't remember the name), and I took a look through their stuff to find a ton of it was counterfeit. I raised a stink in front of their booth, showing everyone I came with and anyone passing how you could tell the booth's crap was counterfeit. Sadly, most didn't seem to care and bought away. Since then I've kept an eye out, and still constantly see knock-offs at conventions I go to. It's a real shame. I would have thought that folks at conventions would be the type to care more about what they were buying and want to support the industry rather than some lousy pirates. It's nice to see something being done, though. |
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tempest21
Posts: 8 |
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angelm, I'm not disputing that. Funimation has exclusive rights to sell merchandise that is produced and manufactured in the United States. They have no claim to imported merchandise, merchandise that is produced and manufactured in Japan.
Robert's Anime Corner Store, Amazon and many other retailers sell imported merchandise from other countries. If a retailer is importing merchandise from other countries to sell in the U.S., even if Funimation has exclusive rights to merchandise, it doesn't apply to imported merchandise and I don't see any court finding for Funimation on that part. |
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domino
 Posts: 373 |
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I'm shocked that it took them this long to do something. I stopped buying things at anime conventions and small local anime store businesses because there was too much cheaply-made counterfeit junk out there. It's disturbingly hard to find official products available for purchase.
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ChibiBritt
 Posts: 52 Location: Denton, TX USA |
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Funimation woudn't go after a company selling legit merch from Japan. They are going after the company because they are selling knockoffs of legit merch.
Basically stuff like this |
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1052 |
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If I import a (legit) figure from Japan, I have the right to sell it. It's called the first sale doctrine. Funimation signing a contract with a Japanese company doesn't alter that -- you can't take away my rights if I'm not a party to the contract. There was a Supreme Court case on this issue just last year involving college text books, and the court upheld the first sale doctrine. |
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Redcrimson
 Posts: 160 |
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Why would anyone even buy something from a store called "Anime Haus"? You're just asking for fake junk.
I mean, holy crap, look at that tryhard logo. It's bordering on self-parody. |
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AutoOps007
Posts: 245 |
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@delapidated, if you do not have rights you can not sell imported products and unless you have distribution rights. you are allowed to import products, but after that you can't distribute unless you have distribution rights. Since FUNimation have exclusive rights no one else but them can distribute merchandise for those titles unless they are a distributor of FUNimation. The reason others aren't beng sued for doing the same thing is because unlike them, Anime Haus has been selling merchandise for multiple franchises since 2010 and have made a lot of money, and ignored FUNimation when they contacted them. And FUNimation don't have all the time in the world to go after every single company or person infringing their copyrights. Countefeit merchandise is just one small part of the larger case. @Utsuro no Hako, "you can't take away my rights if I'm not a party to the contract" - These are exclusive rights, so only FUNimation has the rights to distribute this merchandise. If the rights aren't exclusive then you can do what you want. |
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EvilTaxi
Posts: 27 |
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Upon further reading of Kirtsaeng vs John Wiley & Sons, it would seem that Utsuro no Hako is correct. If the merch was created with the authorization of the original copyright holder (in this case whatever Japanese company) and then sold (to whatever distributor Anime Haus imported from), then the copyright holder loses all rights to restrict sales. To quote the court decision: "The “first sale” doctrine applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully made abroad." On the other hand, Funi can go after bootleggers all they want. No original authorized production = no first sale protections. |
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1052 |
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If, let's say, Funimation signs a contract with the Good Smile Company to be the exclusive North American distributor of Haganai figures, that means Good Smile can't export those figures to anyone else in the US, and they may require Japanese retailers not to agree not to export them either. But I'm not a party to that contract and can't be bound by it. If I find a way to legally obtain those figures, Funimation can't stop me from reselling them. If Good Smile or a retailer violated a contract by exporting the merchandise to the US, Funimation might have a case against them, but the only way they can go after a company selling Haganai figures in the US is if those figures are counterfeit. |
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Nemui_Nezumi
 Posts: 343 Location: Europe |
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well... a lot of people don't care about the quality and stuff like that and they only want things related to series they like at a really cheap price I know is a bit disturbing but somehow it's easy to see why, it's really expensive to import thing from Japan, even if it's only one of those mini keychains Last edited by Nemui_Nezumi on Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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This (particular) case is against people that are selling counterfeit merch. FUNi can bring the lawsuit as one of the relevant parties with regards to the copyright. But that does NOT mean they can (or would) sue stores for selling legitimate merchandise (American or otherwise). FUNi has a license to CREATE legit merchandise (as do companies like Great Eastern who create merch for the same shows in many cases) but not an exclusive right to SELL such merchandise.
Anime companies delay bluRays and make US companies jump through so many hoops over US releases because reverse importing (buying US DVDs/BDs and shipping them to Japan) is not ILLEGAL. And since the Japanese are creating the stuff, and therefore own the BASE original copyright, I think they could sue the heck out of say a site like Amazon who lists American DVDs & BDs on their Japanese site. |
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