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Answerman - How Hard Is It To License Western Music For Use In Anime?

I used to think it was an age thing. With vintage, pre digital TV, they'd have had rights for TV broadcast, and maybe at the most VHS releases, but not digital releases, which was why so many more DVD releases had music replaced than video releases. But it's still happening with modern TV which ought to be made with full home video and streaming rights in mind. But the British Life on Mars, which also had a whole lot of period music replaced, as Yes, and The Rolling Stones didn't want their music on the DVDs or BDs, but were happy with it on the broadcasts. In an ideal world there would be an encompassing license, issued when the show is made, and that should hold for all subsequent broadcast and distribution.

I don't buy this whole Jojo character name change thing. Everything I can find on copyright law seems to suggest this should be fine. The only time this should be an issue is if someone wanted to use the name for their own band or were making defamatory claims about said band. It almost seems like someone decided to just change the names rather than bothering to look into the issue at all.

I don't buy this whole Jojo character name change thing. Everything I can find on copyright law seems to suggest this should be fine. The only time this should be an issue is if someone wanted to use the name for their own band or were making defamatory claims about said band. It almost seems like someone decided to just change the names rather than bothering to look into the issue at all.

It's not just anime that falls afoul of this. The same thing happens with TV and movies. The Star Trek episode City on the Edge of Forever originally had Goodnight Sweetheart playing in one scene, but it was replaced for the VHS and DVD releases, only restored for the Blu-ray and remastered DVD.

Quantum Leap had a whole lot of period music in its episodes, some of it remained, some of it was replaced, and with Muzak instead of another song. It made a mess of the Good Morning Peoria episode, while the Dark Skies TV series remained in limbo for years until its music rights were cleared, only released on DVD a couple of years ago. The first season of Baywatch had 'Save Me' by Peter Cetera as its theme song. Not only was the show released on DVD with that song changed, but it can't even be broadcast on TV that way anymore!

I used to think it was an age thing. With vintage, pre digital TV, they'd have had rights for TV broadcast, and maybe at the most VHS releases, but not digital releases, which was why so many more DVD releases had music replaced than video releases. But it's still happening with modern TV which ought to be made with full home video and streaming rights in mind. But the British Life on Mars, which also had a whole lot of period music replaced, as Yes, and The Rolling Stones didn't want their music on the DVDs or BDs, but were happy with it on the broadcasts. In an ideal world there would be an encompassing license, issued when the show is made, and that should hold for all subsequent broadcast and distribution.

I have no doubt companies like Viz have attorneys to turn to in order to give them advice on what to do so as to avoid unnecessary lawsuits. Even if they can win, it still costs time and money, which they'd rather use for normal business than on lawsuits.

I definitely know of at least one case where a name is not allowed for anything else, even unrelated ideas: McDonald's will go after anyone who uses the name "Big Mac" regardless of what it refers to (hence why Little Mac's transformation in Punch-Out!! is named Giga Mac and why the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic character is named Big McIntosh).

You also want to look up trademark law, not copyright law. In the case of names in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, that's what it concerns.

Regardless, I can't find any information that even begins to suggest they could possibly be in real trouble due to using band names. Even the Big Mac example seems dubious, as Hasbro has used the name Big Mac on their My Little Pony show/products. Trademark appears to work in the same legal manner as copyright. The general rule of thumb when it comes to this stuff seems to be that you can't use the same name on a similar product (obviously Burger King can't come out with their own sandwich called the Big Mac). Otherwise I have yet to find even an unrelated instance suggesting that Jojo, in this case, would be legally infringing on anything. I mean, I can't speak for Viz but I'd be interested to find out their actual reasoning.

"Fly me to the Moon" By Kaye Ballard (Who am I kidding? Frank Sinatra made it so big, this is practically his song now.) is another famous case of a Western song used in anime, most notably Evangelion. It's used as the ED. With the numerous home video releases this series got, I'm not sure if the song and its renditions were intact in each and every one of them.

I used to think it was an age thing. With vintage, pre digital TV, they'd have had rights for TV broadcast, and maybe at the most VHS releases, but not digital releases, which was why so many more DVD releases had music replaced than video releases.

I definitely know of at least one case where a name is not allowed for anything else, even unrelated ideas: McDonald's will go after anyone who uses the name "Big Mac" regardless of what it refers to (hence why Little Mac's transformation in Punch-Out!! is named Giga Mac and why the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic character is named Big McIntosh).

You also want to look up trademark law, not copyright law. In the case of names in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, that's what it concerns.

Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark on or in connection with goods and/or services in a manner that is likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods and/or services.

I can see how McDonald's might sue Wendy's if the latter introduced a "Big Mackie" sandwich, but I can't see much reason to think a character in My Little Pony would "cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source" of the iconic hamburger.