TheLoneWolf

Great work!

vinne, while I do agree that it's a waste of time to debate the merits of Robotech on MacrossWorld, this thread was specifically created for "HG and Robotech Debates," so Capt Christopher Donovan is in the right place. If he wanted to discuss Robotech on other portions of the site, well that would be another story.

Same here, I always thought they were supposed to be blue. MastaEgg, are those Bandai Visual screencaps taken from a downloaded divx rip? The video looks like it's been artificially smoothened. And yes, the Bandai version is slightly cropped for some reason. I've attached a screencap comparison taken directly from the actual discs. Sorry if the picture's not the best test candidate, but I honestly didn't spend much time on it.

Just to clarify, but Harmony Gold was referring to Tatsunoko Production's master footage, not Big West's. I don't believe any of us have ever seen what Tatsunoko's footage looks like, so it's going to be hard to deny. Ironically, Harmony Gold's claim that their Macross video was the cleanest was actually true for its time. Shawn reviewed the AnimEigo DVD's back then and confirmed that it was indeed superior to Bandai Visual's 2001 DVD release. Though, Harmony Gold probably should have mentioned that their masters were better due to AnimEigo's excellent restoration process.

Bullseye! Someone give that man a VF-22! Mods, we've already answered these questions way back. Could one of you guys add my original post to the beginning of this thread? Or are we supposed to be retreading the same path?

LOL! Now I see your point. That's a pretty amusing situation. Yeah, I suppose Big West could go off their rocker and completely give away the Marcross intellectual property to Catalyst. But Big West's agreement with Tatsunoko would still have to be honored. It's just like Disney buying Marvel. Even though Disney now owns the IP to all of Marvel's characters, Disney can't make Wolverine toys if Marvel already had an exclusive agreement with company X to sell Wolverine toys.

It's not complicated. Hasbro cut their deal with Tatsunoko/Matsushiro for the 1/55 VF-1 before Harmony Gold did. Harmony Gold eventually did cut a deal with Tatsunoko for merchandising rights, which is how that chubby non-transforming Super VF-1 got released in the 80's. But Harmony Gold was never able to get the 1/55 VF-1 since Matsushiro (and later Bandai) already made a deal with Hasbro. I'm not sure what to make of that statement. Are you trying to explain the color differences, the Jetfire/Skyfire relationship, or what? Going back to your original question. If the Tomahawk were to appear in a Mechwarrior movie, you would see a Big West copyright on all the movie's marketing materials because the Tomahawk is the intellectual property of Big West. And since the Tomahawk is still Big West's IP, Catalyst Game Labs would not be able to sell Tomahawk movie toys. Catalyst could ask Big West for the Tomahawk's merchandising rights in the USA, but Big West would have to tell them that they gave away those rights to Tatsunoko back in 1982. Catalyst could go rogue and sell Destroid movie toys anyways, but Harmony Gold/Tatsunoko could easily file an injunction since they still have the Tomahawk's exclusive merchandising rights in the USA.

Good question. Yes, Big West could license the Tomahawk likeness for use in a Mechwarror movie, but Catalyst Game Labs would not be able to sell Tomahawks from the movie. Merchandising rights are merchandising rights. Think of the old Jetfire toy. As well all know, Hasbro was able to sell Jetfire toys in the USA under a license from Tatsunoko/Matsushiro. But just because Hasbro had a Jetfire/VF-1 toy under its belt, they still weren't legally allowed to include Jetfire's (or the VF-1's) likeness in the actual Transformers cartoon because Tatsunoko only had the merchandising rights. I hope that's not a promise.

First off, there's a 0.01% of Big West getting involved. They've given up on marketing Macross outside of Japan. Second, Mechwarrior 5 is a game (ie: merchandise), so Harmony Gold can claim that if falls under their merchandising rights. Even if Big West we were to allow Mechwarrior to make use of the Tomahawk intellectual property, it's still a game. I suppose that Piranha Games could try to argue that a game with such a lavish and expensive production exceeds the realm of mere merchandising, but that would up to a judge to determine. And going to court should never be your first option, it should only be used as a last resort. A plaintiff could easily spend thousands of dollars in litigation and walk away empty-handed if the judge rules against them. Or, they could spend thousands of dollars in litigation and win the rights to include the Warhammer/Tomahawk in their game, but the game ends up flopping on the market. If I had to advise Piranha Games, I'd say let it go. That's a lot of money to spend, and the inclusion of one mecha isn't going to make or break Mechwarrior 5.

Thanks Gubaba. But I already have a copy of the 25 February 2002 court summary, I'm looking for the 2003 court ruling that Seto mentioned. Seto, thanks for providing the date of the initial 2003 ruling, at this point any factual information is helpful. You guys rock

Speaking of courts, is anyone here familiar with navigating the Japanese Courts website? http://www.courts.go.jp/ I'm looking for the court summary that was mentioned in the ANN article below. That article is thin on specifics and can easily be misinterpreted, so I'd like to see the actual court summary to know exactly what went down. I tried to search for the court summary on my own, but I don't know any case numbers, court names, etc. Any help would be very much appreciated. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2004-...macross-lawsuit

MisaForever, I know how much you loathe Japanese, but these instructions are pretty much self-explanatory.

My guess is that, back then, that announcement was put up there to reassure current and potential business partners that Big West still retained Macross' intellectual property rights. Now that the intellectual property is a non-issue (except to the uninformed and those who willingly stick their heads in the sand), Big West probably saw no reason to keep it up.

The link below contains Kawamori's explanation behind Macross' visual inconsistencies. Some people think it's a very creative idea, other consider it a cop-out. http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=760765

While I don't hate any of the protagonists listed, here are the ones I liked least. Male Protagonist Shin - Another cookie-cutter emo protagonist. Next! Runner up - Hibiki - He's a pretty unique protagonist in the Macross universe, but the script never really made me care for him. Female Protagonist Mao - Err, who was she again? Runner up - Myung - She was depressing and immature, a difficult combination to like. Though she did finally take a stand in the end and also sang a beautiful song.

I'm no Southern Cross legal expert and what I'm about to say is hearsay. But it was my understanding that Big West only owns/owned the Southern Cross merchandising rights in Japan, which is why ARII and Matchbox were able to produce Southern Cross models & toys in Japan and the USA during the 80's. Whether or not Big West still has the Japanese merchandising rights is unknown. If my information is correct, then Harmony Gold is free to use Southern Cross characters and mecha is TSC. I suppose the lack of Southern Cross in TSC is due to its small fan base and the movie's time restraints.

Big West does own the original design for the Tomahawk, and Harmony Gold owns the Tomahawk's merchandising rights in the USA. It appears that Harmony Gold has taken the position that the Mechwarrior 5 video game is merchandise, therefore they contend that the Tomahawk cannot appear in it without their approval. Only an uninformed person could make that sort of baseless argument, I would suggest reading this. And Macross is not a "stupid anime."

MacrossWorld is an independently owned website, which is why we can openly criticize Yamato and Macross products. Robotech.com is a corporately owned website, which is why they don't like people criticizing their own corporate products. It's no mystery to me.

If Bandai Visual included English subtitles on their Japanese Frontier discs, Harmony Gold would have no legal ground to block them. As it is, Frontier discs are marketed and distributed for Japan only; if they are sold outside of Japan through means of a private sale (which is how paying USA fans obtain their discs), then Harmony Gold can't do anything. Though, what technically constitutes a "private sale" is a discussion for another day. IMO, if Bandai Visial were to include English subs with Frontier, it wouldn't be cost efficient as they'd probably only sell an additional 75 or so sets. Fans will find some excuse to rationalize why they shouldn't have to pay for Frontier. They'll complain that it's too expensive (despite having thousands of dollars in Yamato toys sitting on their shelves), that they don't have a BD player, that they don't want to pay extra for shipping, that the subs aren't accurate enough, that they're waiting for a USA release, that it's against their moral beliefs, that it'll increase greenhouse effects, etc etc etc.

Yes, Warner Bros. would be able to replace all the mecha and characters with original ones. Though the new mecha and characters would have to be different enough so that no reasonable person could confuse them with SDF Macross mecha and characters. Likewise for the story; it would have to be different enough so that no reasonable person could confuse the RLAM story with the SDF Macross story.

That's too bad. While I have modded PS2, I was interested in playing it on my Xbox to check out the extra added filters. Playing PS1 games off the dvd drive would've been sweet because, otherwise, I'd easily fill up the hard drive with rips. Kinda. You'd need to rip both Policenauts discs to your hard drive, apply the patch, then burn them.

Like azrael said, Disney also owns Miramax Films, a studio that has cranked out several family-unfriendly films. I don't see Disney meddling with Marvel's comic book writers and editors. I think Disney just wants Marvel's extremely lucrative film & merchandising rights.

Holy shnikey, that's news to me! I signed up to be on their mailing list a few years ago, I guess they forgot about the list. This has been a wonderful time for patched PS1 translations; first we got the Tales of Phantasia PS1 patch, and now Policenauts. Btw, did you have to rip Policenauts to your modded Xbox's hard drive? Or is there an emulator that's finally gotten the Xbox dvd drive to efficiently read PS1 discs?

You're right, I am scrutinizing that line. But only because that line seems to be the biggest piece of documented evidence supporting MEMO's belief that, outside of Japan, Harmony Gold owns everything to SDF Macross. I only know of one site that Harmony Gold ever shut down: www.robotech.com. That website used to be owned by a fan, but the day after Congress passed the anti-Cybersquatting law (15 USCA § 1125), Harmony Gold's general counsel sent the owner a certified letter requesting that he give them control of the domain, pursuant the anti-Cybersquatting law. The rest is history.

Thanks for posting that link. Is it just my computer, or does that video unexplainably begin to stutter, stop, and speed during Tommy Yune's explaination of Harmony Gold's rights to Macross? Oddly enough, that doesn't happen during any other part of the video, just Tommy's explanation. An odd coincidence, to say the least. While the poor recording makes it difficult to hear all of the details that Tommy is saying, I think this is the one line that MEMO wanted us to hear: As an officer of Harmony Gold, I accept Tommy Yune's word at face value. Though, the first part of that statement is ambiguous. "We had pretty much acquired all of the international rights" does not equal "We had acquired all of the international rights." The "pretty much" phraseology implies that there are some international rights that Harmony Gold does not have. If Tommy had simply said "We had acquired all of the international rights", then MEMO's opinion would be correct. As it is, everything that Tommy is saying is technically accurate. MEMO is misinterpreting Tommy's words into something that supports his personal beliefs.