Bandai Entertainment Cracks Down on DVD Piracy

[treatment]

Fyi.

Bandai Entertainment Cracks Down on DVD Piracy and Intellectual Property Infringement

Cypress, CA (July 7, 2004) ﾗBandai Entertainment announced today that it has served lawsuits against several retailers for engaging in the duplication, importation, distribution, and/or sale of unauthorized merchandise infringing upon copyrighted and trademarked properties at this year’s Anime Expo convention in Anaheim, California. Defendants in Bandai’s lawsuit include:

Otaku Entertainment, Inc., dba MANGA HOUSE

EJ International, Inc., dba ABCTOY4ME.COM and ANIMECIRCLE.COM

Anime Combo

MTWC Group, Inc., dba Kawaii Anime and Kawaii-Anime.com

John Lo, Inc., dba House of Anime and Houseofanime.com

[soze]

were those vendors just stupid????

why did they sell bootlegs at AX when bandai is going to be there???

Edited July 8, 2004 by soze

[jasonkimberson]

i didn't see any bootleg dvd's but maybe they were forced to put them away?

[BoBe-Patt]

were those vendors just stupid????

whey did they sell bootlegs at AX when bandai is going to be there???

well, I believe it was only pretty recent that they decided to crack down on vendors at Anime Expo. Out of the 7 years I've been going this year was the first year I didn't see any bootlegs. They always sold bootlegs in front of bandai, pioneer, manga, and other big named distributors, they just never did anything about it.

[treatment]

were those vendors just stupid????

whey did they sell bootlegs at AX when bandai is going to be there???

Those vendors are just dumbasses. lol!

Why the heck would anyone sell bootleg-dvd's in a convention sponsored by Bandai???

lol!

dumb people.

[Jolly Rogers]

If Bandai would spend 10% of their crackdown efforts on actually releasing their own DVDs on schedule, maybe people won't have to resort to boots.

* cough * Zeta * cough * F91

[Panon]

Good news.

I just wish they'd turn their attention to the bigger problem in Ebay and online bootleg sellers though.

[Jolly Rogers]

No kidding. If they were serious, they should go after those who actually manufacture the discs in HK. These retailers are just like hydra heads. You cut a few off, more sprint up to take their places. They're just treating the symptoms and not the disease itself.

[areaseven]

Wow...Kawaii Anime actually stooped down to that level.

[Mechafan]

Why the heck would anyone sell bootleg-dvd's in a convention sponsored by Bandai?

Ain't that the truth. On Ebay yes. At a sponsored convention no.

[Radd]

I'm generally against bootlegs of anything you can easily get licensed in your own country, unless the distributer did an absolutely wretched job of it.

That said, I agree with those who point out that these vendors had it coming when they decided to sell said bootlegs at a convention sponsored by the company they were ripping off, even if said company had been more lenient in the past.

[Myriad]

Maybe they will come here looking for Keith and take him away!

Edited July 8, 2004 by Myriad

[BoBe-Patt]

Wow...Kawaii Anime actually stooped down to that level.

are you kidding? Have you ever stopped by their booth at frank and sons? Nothing but bootlegs against the wall! They even have a TV showing those bootlegs to everybody. They've always sold bootlegs at AX, so it's no surprise to me that they got cracked down on.

[jasonkimberson]

see, i am not sure that this bootleg crack down is a good thing...how else would be get Macross Zero on DVD with english subs? Bandai sure as heck isn't doing it....

[Radd]

see, i am not sure that this bootleg crack down is a good thing...how else would be get Macross Zero on DVD with english subs? Bandai sure as heck isn't doing it....

Fansubs. Plus I believe Bandai is mainly going after those who are selling bootlegs of stuff that they have licensed. They really can't go after anyone who's selling bootlegs of something Bandai doesn't have rights to. Of course, they can go after those who are selling bootlegs of stuff that Bandai Japan has rights to.

In addition, this 'crackdown' seems to be centered entirely on those distributers who sold bootlegs at AX, not affecting bootleg sales online and whatnot.

[JELEINEN]

see, i am not sure that this bootleg crack down is a good thing...how else would be get Macross Zero on DVD with english subs? Bandai sure as heck isn't doing it....

Import it from Japan and sub it yourself. It's the closest thing to being legit. (No, I'm not really being serious, but it is an option)

[Sumdumgai]

Wow...Kawaii Anime actually stooped down to that level.

are you kidding? Have you ever stopped by their booth at frank and sons? Nothing but bootlegs against the wall! They even have a TV showing those bootlegs to everybody. They've always sold bootlegs at AX, so it's no surprise to me that they got cracked down on.

Geez, if you've ever stopped by the kawaii anime store across the street from Pasadena City College you'll find only bootleg cds...

Hous of Anime sold me a set of gashapon that they had glued to together and was their promo piece... The thing is they didn't warn me when I ordered, so I was expecting some new gashapon still in bags, not some glued together crap...

Just wondering since this has to do with bootlegs. What would you guys do if you went to the equivalent of a Suncoast, a Virgin Megastore, or Target, and you found bootleg anime cds and bootleg dvds for sale? Like made in Taiwan cds and Chinese dvds of movies.

Bootlegs of cds that are produced by JVC, Bandai, and some other big companies.

[Jolly Rogers]

Why the heck would anyone sell bootleg-dvd's in a convention sponsored by Bandai?

Ain't that the truth. On Ebay yes. At a sponsored convention no.

I am not sure if you guys read Bandai's press release correctly. Bandai served the defendants at this year's Anime Expo (less work for them since everyone's in the same room, they didn't have to serve them in multiple states and cities).

Vendors were banned from selling unlicensed merchandise at this year's Anime Expo, they weren't sued for engaging in the alleged activities at this year's Anime Expo.

[Anubis]

ADV's been going after fansubbers lately. First they "messaged" anime.mircx and the site was taken down.

This week they went to boxtorrent's host and had the host shut them down. They have since relocated and are working to getting back online, without ADV's vids of course.

[CID]

Recently there has been harshy crack down on Pirate DVDs from China, HK, etc.

by the original holders.

Larger distributors are already requesting help from FEDs to crack down.

I hope that most of those pirated DVDs are off the MKT soon. Unless, legits are not avaliable in the US.

[Valkyrie]

Perhaps this will finally convince AX to ban bootleg products in its dealer room. When I went in '02, I couldn't believe how widespread they were. Bootleg DVDs, CDs, and even toys and art books were everywhere.

I thought for sure a con that big and comercially sponsored would have banned them.... but no.

I've been on staff at Anime Central since the beginning (1998), and from day one, we haven't allowed bootlegs of any kind. It's in the dealers' contracts. If they try to sell bootlegs, ACen has grounds to eject them from the con.

And actually, House of Anime has been an offender to this policy just about every year, dating all the way back to 1998. One year they were even kicked out of the convention when, after being told to remove bootleg items, they put them back on the tables after ACen staff had left.

I'm glad to hear House of Anime is going down.

And I hope more conventions will follow suit in banning bootleg products from their dealer rooms...

[Radd]

Of course, bootlegs of unlicensed anime, especially that out of print even in Japan, can sometimes be the only way to discover something new, or to get a series that no one seems to be willing to pick up.

[Vinny]

They always over charged with the HK DVDs at conventions, anyways. I wouldn't mind paying ten dollars a disc, but charging fifteen? Come on! Especially when you can get them online for six or seven bucks a pop.

[hevangel2]

If the bootleg and fansub bittorrents are gone, where can we find our source of anime? I rather save money to buy more toys, items than buying official anime DVDs.

[eugimon]

Anime was never the cash cow in the US that it is now... there are tons of licensed anime on the air now, it's become a pretty major pop culture phenomenon (sp?)... even NPR is doing pieces on it now.

So now that the big companies know what's at stake, of course they're going to go after the boot leggers...and of course they'll sell their subpar DVDs for obscene prices.

[Radd]

If the bootleg and fansub bittorrents are gone, where can we find our source of anime? I rather save money to buy more toys, items than buying official anime DVDs.

This I disagree with completely. When available, you should support the shows you love. Do you think the people behind them live a life of luxury? Perhaps studio execs and backers, but the actual creators don't live very well at all. Buying the merchandise is all well and good, but if the anime is not selling, it will be dropped by the studio making it, along with any chance of future toys and sequels.

[Anubis]

I'm actually surprized they haven't cracked down before now, especially when you have convention dealers selling bootlegs in plain view. Not very bright of the dealer.

I'm a believer in supporting as well. I buy they vast majority of titles I've had fansubbed, except for a couple I just didn't like, or don't agree with the episode counts per disc. 3 episodes of inu-yasha per disc for example forget it. The season boxes for example, are much more tempting. The season 1 box has the first 27 episodes on it. Much better deal for a show that may hit ep 170 by the time it ends.

HK discs I don't particularly like, only as a last resort when there is simply no other US release. M7, DYRL are the only ones I have, and eventually I may get uncut subtitled Yamato (I'm not buying starblazers), and Legend of Galactic Heroes.

As for the fansubbers I'm not complaining really that ADV acted, just to clarify, ADV was within their rights to do something because many of their released titles were on these sites. I however disagree with going straight to their host. That was harsh, they could have went to boxtorrent's admin first and requested their titles be removed.

[Blaine23]

I think it's typical. And not really all that impressive.

First they try to chastise fans by telling them that they shouldn't buy bootlegs, yet do nothing to stop hordes of bootlegs from being created and sold wherever they want.

Now they bust some stores that were right under their nose at a convention. Wow. A lot of effort went into that.

If they really want to see a difference, they need to go after those creating the bootlegs in a big way. Until then, the problem will continually occur.

It's digital media, which means it can be copied easily and copied well. Same thing goes for music CD's - but the RIAA goes after pirates with a vengence... thus, you don't see nearly the same amount of bootleg material being created and distributed.

[bsu legato]

* cough * Zeta * cough * F91

No kidding. Having never seen Zeta, I was impatient as hell to get those DVDs. Then after all the delays I ended up borrowing a set of fansubs from a friend. Now...I'll still buy the R1 DVDs. Someday.

[maxjenius81]

Im not a legal expert, but i think its a lot easier and cheaper in this case to remove the hydra heads (the stores) rather than the body itself (the makes of the discs) as the makers of these disks are mostly in China and Taiwan countries with whom Japan is not on the most friendly of terms with. The US and Japan have good diplomatic relations and that may have lead to the crack down on the distributors.

On the other hand, cut of the heads of a Hyrda and it cannot feed and the body will die.

[Jolly Rogers]

Even if not a single copy of booted anime DVD was sold in north America, China alone is a huge market big enough to support all the boot DVD makers. They have an economy of scale where booted DVDs can be bought for a buck a pop. People are only fooling themselves thinking that cutting its distribution off in the US will make a significant impact.