Forum - View topicA Question About Renting Anime
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darksideoftheanime
 Posts: 155 |
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I like to rent anime off of Netflix. It is an easier and cheaper way to watch anime. My question is how much money do anime companies make when one of their titles is rented? For example, when I rent Friuts Basket off Netflix does FUNimation receive any sort of payment?
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goins007
Posts: 291 |
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Yes, they don't make money from it every time you rent. But places like Netflix and blockbuster and any other rental store pay for a "renters" copy. They are usually pretty expensive, I think the woman at the video store near me told me once that she often paid 120 or more for movies depending on the title. So they make a ton of cash off places like netflix and blockbuster.
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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I agree with what was said but I just wanted to mention the possibility that some of the "any other rental stores" may not be in full compliance with the law and they may be renting out animes that they simply purchased at wholesale price ($10 or whatever) instead of the expensive rental price.
Another issue that was brought to my attention recently is that libraries these days rent out DVDs, including lots of anime DVDs. Over here it costs $1 to rent a single DVD from the library. How this relates to profits and legality is interesting to me also...as I doubt libraries can afford to pay the $120 or so per copy of a DVD with rental rights granted to it.... |
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murph76
 Posts: 3291 Location: Akron, OH |
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I think most of my library's DVD collection was donated. I hardly ever see new or recent titles on the shelves, and no anime. I'm sure if demand called for it, like the new Harry Potter book, the library would purchase new releases. And, I can check out a DVD like a book, but the due date much sooner.
-Murph |
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Porcupine
Posts: 1033 |
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I've also heard "donations" as being the explanation of how libraries obtain their DVDs. But to me that's not an acceptable explanation legally. Even as a donation, the library still found a way to avoid paying the $120 or so rental fee. I would think that to be illegal. Another explanation is that the library is not making much if any profit off of renting their DVDs (for free or $1 each). To me that's still illegal. Copyright law prevents individuals and organizations from lending their DVDs whether for free or for profit, unless they've paid the distribution/licensing companies for the right to do so.
The only plausible explanation I've thought of, is that maybe somehow a "library" gets government exemption from copyright law. After all, books and such are copyrighted material also and libraries naturally lend those for free to everyone...that's what they are made for. But even this explanation brings up issues for me. Exactly what is required to become a "library" and what exactly can libraries lend and what can't they lend? It doesn't make sense for me to let libraries do as they please. What if someone set up a "library" that lent all DVDs and books to everyone for free, everyone (anime companies, book companies, etc) would go out of business. Hmm, libraries are interesting from a legal standpoint, at least to me. 
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goins007
Posts: 291 |
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actually in the case of something like a library, having the DVD donated is perfectly legal. And having them donated by people usually only applies to the smaller libraries that can't afford to buy the high priced DVD's, the bigger libraries that take donations will sometimes get the DVD's donated to them by the company themselves.
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Porcupine
Posts: 1033 |
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You say this but offer no proof.
Why does a donation somehow enable a library to freely obtain a copy of a copyrighted material that they can then lend or rent to others? In the case of a properly-operating rental store, they obtain these privileges by paying a large fee. The library avoided the fee by receiving the disk as a donation, is that it? Then why can't I open up a store or location and start lending my DVDs for free (or $1 or $2 as libraries may charge) too? My friend can buy the DVDs for $10 to $20 each (wholesale or retail price) and then donate them to me. I still think this has something to do with "libraries" somehow getting government exemption from copyright law in the name of education. However, the exact legal details of this are still a mystery and interesting subject. |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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That used to be the case with VHS, but I don't think it is any more with DVDs. Blockbuster pioneered a revenue-sharing deal with the movie studios instead, which is why you see more copies of new releases (and guarantees they'll be there for your to rent). I'm not sure what Netflix does, but here in Canada, when equivalent Zip started out, they sometimes had to send an employee running to a Best Buy or Future Shop to buy a DVD the same way you or I would. The market changed a lot with the advent of DVDs because now everything is priced like what used to be called 'sell-through' releases. DVDs are cheap and quick to produce, so sales directly to consumers are providing huge profits for the studios. Whereas back in the VHS days, we rented more than we bought. (And all this is especially true of anime in North America.) |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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Aren't you the same guy who said movies are illegal to rent in your view? |
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Porcupine
Posts: 1033 |
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I'm probably the same guy you are thinking of. And, movies ARE illegal to rent out, depending who is doing the renting...that was our conclusion in the other thread, which is also being supported in this thread.
Blockbuster and Netflix can rent DVDs legally either because they pay a large fee for a rental copy, or because they report and share their revenues with the production studios like TheVok said (I'm not sure which is correct exactly). Any video rental stores other than these two big names, *may* be renting videos out illegally. |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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Aren't libraries usually municipal facilities to begin with? All the ones around where I live are "*Town name* Free Library", and I believe that they are funded by local taxes, which would make sense to follow different legal regulations than a commercial enterprise. |
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Zewerr
 Posts: 539 Location: Tacoma, WA |
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Here's something I found suprising today. I've never ran across this before, but today, the disk I recieved from Netflix was a dubbed copy. Wonder if that's a renter's copy.
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Dubbed copy of what? |
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Zewerr
Posts: 539 Location: Tacoma, WA |
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It was a copy of Green Green, disk 3.
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