Seto Kaiba Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 2 hours ago, Solid Hayate said: The same as US copyright law or EU/UK/Australia copyright law cuz I heard the US is different from the rest of the world (at least in the aspect of what determines copyright ownership: US copyright laws favor the first user of a mark over the actual owner of the brand/property whilst it's the opposite in virtually the rest of the world) Trademark, not copyright... almost every country has the same basic set of laws on copyright (due to international treaties), but trademark law is more varied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikaruss Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Now I can understand why Harmony Gold is alive and kicking... Being a Patent Troll, is the most rentable business in US!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 8 minutes ago, Ikaruss said: Now I can understand why Harmony Gold is alive and kicking... Well, no... it's because Robotech isn't their main business. They own and manage apartment buildings in the Los Angeles area, which is a fairly profitable business considering what the area's high cost of living does to rent rates. They also have a private theater that they rent out for screenings of films. 8 minutes ago, Ikaruss said: Being a Patent Troll, is the most rentable business in US!!! Well, that's why Robotech is still around, at least... squatting on that trademark to Macross, making knockoff Macross merch, and suing copyright infringers on Big West and Tatsunoko's behalf is about all the brand is good for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tochiro Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einherjar Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Minmay got Furmanated for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TehPW Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 2 hours ago, Tochiro said: I think the way to fix that, is to animate 'Macross the First' and hit it with the 'It cannon!' hammer... a dozen times. either that or release an updated DYRL... rinse/repeat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight26 Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 It would be a good work around. Let HG keep the license to the OG releases (SDF and DYRL) but put the rest out there. Sure BW doesn't get the money for the first series, but they will for the rest. Then, if the above works, yes animated Mac-1st and update/re-animated DYRL under a new name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Great news, but it feels like bad timing considering companies are currently getting crucified in the court of public opinion over China... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AN/ALQ128 Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 34 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said: Great news, but it feels like bad timing considering companies are currently getting crucified in the court of public opinion over China... As long as they don't pull a massive PR bungle like Blizzard and the NBA, they should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 3 minutes ago, AN/ALQ128 said: As long as they don't pull a massive PR bungle like Blizzard and the NBA, they should be fine. Even companies that haven't, but are known to be associated (however peripherally) with dodgy behavior in China are taking flak right now. I can't see Big West doing anything as stupid as coming out in support of the Chinese government... that'd be PR suicide in Japan. It just feels like a less than opportune moment to go all-in on China when companies are currently taking a PR beating over ties to China regardless of whether or not they've voiced an opinion on China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerli Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 We always said that BigWest don't want to spend money on lawyers and Stuff on USA because the profits don't justify the expense... but what if they got a Chinese partner that had the money to expend on legals and stuff...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 4 minutes ago, Gerli said: We always said that BigWest don't want to spend money on lawyers and Stuff on USA because the profits don't justify the expense... but what if they got a Chinese partner that had the money to expend on legals and stuff...? As far as we know from available documentation, Big West itself were the ones who lawyered up and fought for ownership of the trademarks in China. Presumably they believe (correctly) that China is a potential growth market for Macross, since China has been a growth market for anime in general. Big West has been fighting to take possession of the Macross trademarks in a number of different markets and winning due to trademark law in most of the world being written to favor the owner of a property rather than the first in-market user the way US trademark law is written.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einherjar Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 16 hours ago, TehPW said: I think the way to fix that, is to animate 'Macross the First' and hit it with the 'It cannon!' hammer... a dozen times. either that or release an updated DYRL... rinse/repeat Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerli Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Einherjar said: Interesting. I agree, I too want to be hit by her in... various places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azrael Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 I'm gonna agree with Seto here. Good News: It's the China-market!. Bad News: It's the China-market. Seeing all the current issues with other companies (which I will avoid discussing here)....HURRAY? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 6 hours ago, Gerli said: I agree, I too want to be hit by her in... various places. Slow down, guys... it's a pointer not a riding crop. The riding crop is Sheryl's thing. No really, her microphone turns into one. My earnest hope is that, a few months down the road, this China announcement is mirrored by ones for the European Union as Big West is toppling HG's trademarks there as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AN/ALQ128 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: Slow down, guys... it's a pointer not a riding crop. The riding crop is Sheryl's thing. No really, her microphone turns into one. My earnest hope is that, a few months down the road, this China announcement is mirrored by ones for the European Union as Big West is toppling HG's trademarks there as well. First Asia, then the world (hopefully). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerli Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: Slow down, guys... it's a pointer not a riding crop. The riding crop is Sheryl's thing. No really, her microphone turns into one. My earnest hope is that, a few months down the road, this China announcement is mirrored by ones for the European Union as Big West is toppling HG's trademarks there as well. Isn't Robotech still a thing in China and HK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 1 minute ago, peter said: Isn't Robotech still a thing in China and HK? It became a thing there a few years back... HG was very proud of themselves for bringing Robotech to China. Macross had a presence there already, in part thanks to China's thriving bootleg market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 46 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said: It became a thing there a few years back... HG was very proud of themselves for bringing Robotech to China. Macross had a presence there already, in part thanks to China's thriving bootleg market. Yeah, gross. Well, the Chinese aren't exactly noobs when it comes to knock-offs. I guess I shouldn't be surprised companies like Kitz Concepts would pop up waiving the Robocrap banner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 1 minute ago, peter said: Yeah, gross. Well, the Chinese aren't exactly noobs when it comes to knock-offs. I guess I shouldn't be surprised companies like Kitz Concepts would pop up waiving the Robocrap banner. In a way, it's a perfect match for Robotech... both the Chinese government and the Robotech franchise have long histories of intellectual property theft. Kitz Concepts is, IIRC, an actual Hong Kong toy bootlegger that was making knockoff Macross merchandise even before Harmony Gold approached them with a dirt-cheap licensing offer. Their other resident actual bootlegger, MAAS Toys, was from the Philippines and mercifully went out of business a while back. Part of me suspects that Big West is going to China not just to grow the Macross brand, but to give themselves leverage to stop the Macross bootleggers there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chyll2 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: Part of me suspects that Big West is going to China not just to grow the Macross brand, but to give themselves leverage to stop the Macross bootleggers there. Good point. This may be similar to what is happening to Gundam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenius Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: In a way, it's a perfect match for Robotech... both the Chinese government and the Robotech franchise have long histories of intellectual property theft. Kitz Concepts is, IIRC, an actual Hong Kong toy bootlegger that was making knockoff Macross merchandise even before Harmony Gold approached them with a dirt-cheap licensing offer. Their other resident actual bootlegger, MAAS Toys, was from the Philippines and mercifully went out of business a while back. Part of me suspects that Big West is going to China not just to grow the Macross brand, but to give themselves leverage to stop the Macross bootleggers there. The SD VF-1 was released under two company names before it was released under the Robotech license by KitzConcept. I don't recall KitzConcept doing anything prior so it's probably wrong to label them a bootlegger... They may have been founded by people who did third party stuff including the SD VF-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynaman Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said: Part of me suspects that Big West is going to China not just to grow the Macross brand, but to give themselves leverage to stop the Macross bootleggers there. I wish them luck with that, it won't do a lick of good but I still wish them luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solid Hayate Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 So, Funimation is going to stream Robotech worldwide it seems. Looks like HG is retaliating in response to Big West's victories in Australia, the UK and now China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technoblue Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 9 minutes ago, Solid Hayate said: So, Funimation is going to stream Robotech worldwide it seems. Looks like HG is retaliating in response to Big West's victories in Australia, the UK and now China. Hm. This looks more like a new licensing deal which now gives Funimation exclusive streaming rights. So long Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu... I guess it could be related to Big West's actions, but I'm not sure it is any real counterattack to what's happening in other regions. At least, it doesn't jive with the context of what we've seen in the past when HG tries to place a stranglehold on their trademarks. For instance, look at how all the news articles are written. Everything focuses on the Robotech mark rather than Macross. Maybe this is being done on purpose, and we are seeing the beginning of a great Macross/Robotech divorce at work? Or I could be naive. Monday morning quarterbacking the legal stuff isn't my strong suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einherjar Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 I don’t think propping up a number of creative missteps in addition to the main body of work Robotech is known for counts as an effective “retaliation” to anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Solid Hayate said: So, Funimation is going to stream Robotech worldwide it seems. Looks like HG is retaliating in response to Big West's victories in Australia, the UK and now China. Oh my, no... if this were Harmony Gold's idea of retaliating against Big West, that'd be absolutely f*cking hilarious. This is nothing more or less than the latest round of the Robotech streaming rights changing hands like the regifted fruitcake that license is. Harmony Gold goes through this every few years, when whatever streaming platform the show is currently on informs Harmony Gold that they don't intend renew their license because its average viewership and ad performance isn't meeting expectations. Harmony Gold cuts its asking price for the streaming license and shops it around until they find another service to carry it for a few years. Lather, rinse, and repeat. If nothing else, this is a pretty good indication of how desperate Harmony Gold has become in the face of increasing pressure from Big West and Macross. That Harmony Gold ended up back at FUNimation's door is some pretty hilarious karma, given that HG acted like they were too good for FUNimation back when FUNimation had the license to Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles a decade ago. Robotech was a D-list property whose owners made demands like the franchise was a AAA property, and that arrogance was part of what caused FUNimation to drop the license after a few years. Now Harmony Gold is crawling back to FUNimation after breaking up with garbage-tier streaming services like Crackle because nobody else will have them like a bad ex-girlfriend sending desperate texts at 3am. I bet FUNimation took them to the cleaners on the cost of the license. This is Robotech down on its knees, pleading with tears in its eyes that it's still relevant honest! Edited October 21, 2019 by Seto Kaiba Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einherjar Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) Robotech is going to be on another streaming service with a potential paywall in the future. Helmed by the same company who released the most recent ventures of the franchise on DVD/Blu-Ray and probably had a personal stake on them at one point and might as well have been part of their catalog all this time? Hooray? Edited October 21, 2019 by Einherjar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azrael Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 While I won’t comment on the hilarity, yes they are just shopping streaming rights around the block. This time it’s FUNMation, next time it’s Crunchyroll, then back to Amazon, then back to Netflix, etc.. It’s musical chairs. Took them to the cleaners? Nah. Probably gave them a standard deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seto Kaiba Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 7 minutes ago, Einherjar said: Robotech is going to be on another streaming service with a potential paywall in the future. Helmed by the same company who released the most recent ventures of the franchise on DVD/Blu-Ray and probably had a personal stake on them at one point and might as well have been part of their catalog all this time? Hooray? The most recent venture in the Robotech franchise was actually released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, not FUNimation... the bastardization of MOSPEADA: Love Live Alive. They're also the ones who were handling the last couple rounds of print-on-demand DVD re-releases. FUNimation got sick of Harmony Gold and dropped them after Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles came out to a decidedly chilly reception even among Robotech fans and dropped them entirely after a few years when Parts II thru IV of the OVA turned out to not be coming after all. Just now, azrael said: While I won’t comment on the hilarity, yes they are just shopping streaming rights around the block. This time it’s FUNMation, next time it’s Crunchyroll, then back to Amazon, then back to Netflix, etc.. It’s musical chairs. I doubt Crunchyroll would be interested in Robotech... they're more about simulcasts and streaming cult classics with lapsed licenses. Just now, azrael said: Took them to the cleaners? Nah. Probably gave them a standard deal. I dunno, FUNimation has (bad) history with Robotech and Harmony Gold... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einherjar Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 A new TV series or an actual movie has not been announced or anything, or something that actually matters. Stop freaking out social media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solid Hayate Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 3 hours ago, Einherjar said: A new TV series or an actual movie has not been announced or anything, or something that actually matters. Stop freaking out social media. Anything involving Harmony Gold not losing anything will make social media freak out. And there will never be a new Robotech TV series of movie ever. It's only a matter of time until Frank Agrama's death puts Robotech and Harmony Gold to sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azrael Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 39 minutes ago, Solid Hayate said: Anything involving Harmony Gold not losing anything will make social media freak out. And there will never be a new Robotech TV series of movie ever. It's only a matter of time until Frank Agrama's death puts Robotech and Harmony Gold to sleep. Hate to spoil the mood but Frank Agrama hasn't been heavily involved in RT since...forever. He's just the ATM. All the ideas come from other people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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