08-08-2017, 05:28 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Orem, Utah, USA
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
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While all this was going on the folks in Japan who owned the story rights to Macross started making several sequels as movies and series. They then tried to sell the overseas distribution of those stories and ran into trouble with Harmony Gold. HG asserted in court that when they got the exclusive rights to the Macross series they also had the right to anything created as a spin off or sequel (despite the fact that Japanese courts had ruled that company they did business with only had rights to the first Macross). series/movie). To further their cause, and due to the nature of US IP law they began aggressively going after anyone doing anything Macross related however loosely. This included joining with the studio behind a totally unrelated cartoon Exo-squad to do a line of Robotech Exo-squad toys (Macross and Mospedia mecha who's inclusion in the toy line made no sense from a story standpoint for either series) so they could join in a court battle with FASA who claimed that Exo-squad was a result of their pitching a Battletech cartoon to that studio. The result was a court ruling all of the mechs in the Battletech 2e and most from Citytech 1e and the LAM's from Aerotech 1e belonged to HG in spite of the rights Fasa got from the toy and model company. This is why all those mechs were relegated to the status of Unseen in Battletech until Project Phoenix came up with altered versions that they could sell. This is also why you can't find non bootleg copies of any of the later Macross movies and series anywhere Robotech was distributed. Except Macross 2 and Macross plus that sliped in before all the court mess. Mind you this is all based on my recollection of reading about the events as they happened and may contain some misinformation. Now it looks like Harmony Gold is trying to assert that their ownership of Macross, Southern Cross and Mospedia means they own the entire idea of human piloted mecha. Despite the fact that they aren't doing anything new with what they have since Shadow Chronicles bombed and their are multiple examples of others using the same idea both before and after. |
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08-09-2017, 02:55 PM | #12 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
That is the commonly-accepted series of events, but there are important details that either have only recently come to light or are still obfuscated. It's why I'm trying to avoid speculation.
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08-16-2017, 08:25 PM | #13 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
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08-20-2017, 07:04 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
I'm not a big Macross fan, but liked the feature film released way back in 82 or 84.
Isn't Japan a signatory to international copyright law? How come the Japanese ruling doesn't have any weight in American courts? |
08-21-2017, 12:00 AM | #15 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
Leonard French reviews Harmony Gold vs. Tatsunoko:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrfOtJyJpM This is only tangentially connected to the HG vs. BattleTech case, but still contains a couple of bombshells. The biggest is that Harmony Gold's license to use the anime shows that comprise Robotech expires on March 14th, 2021. After that all rights revert to Tatsunoko, and given the friction between the two companies, an extension is pretty unlikely to be granted. HG would presumably retain the rights to Robotech itself - that is, the trademark and the English voice track - but without the animation and soundtrack those aren't worth much. The other news is that there are 41 character designs that belong not to Tatsunoko, but instead to Big West. Unfortunately, nobody outside of the companies involved knows exactly what that means. Still, it is another strike against Harmony Gold retaining any rights to Macross, Mospeada, or Southern Cross past March 2021. As for how this affects the HG vs. BattleTech lawsuit, it doesn't...for now. Harmony Gold retains the rights to the mecha designs in the US for the time being. However, now that it's known that Robotech has a sunset date, this gives Piranha/Harebrained/InMediaRes more options. If they simply shelve the contentious designs they can wait until HG loses its rights, then re-introduce them, for example. It is extremely unlikely that anyone else would challenge their use at that point. The BattleTech properties have literally hundreds of 'Mech designs that they can use until then. One side effect is that this might just scuttle any plans Sony has for a Robotech movie. It'll also effect Palladium and their Robotech games. All in all, the next few years will be interesting. I suggest buying up Robotech toys and DVDs; we might not see them again. ;) Addendum: I have greatly simplified what will happen when the rights "revert" to Tatsunoko. Expect another huge round of court battles in Japan as Studio Nue and Big West try to get the rights to their work back. But that will have little effect here in the States, and none on BattleTech. Last edited by ColBosch; 08-21-2017 at 12:04 AM. |
08-21-2017, 03:21 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
Something tells me SONY, being a Japanese company, will probably not risk their reputation even if they had all the rights and green flags to go ahead with an Americanization of another Japanese media property. But, stranger things have happened, I suppose.
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08-21-2017, 05:17 AM | #17 | |
Untitled
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
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For the same reasons that US court rulings don't have any weight in Japanese or Canadian courts - jurisdiction and sovereignty. Rulings made in one country apply only in that country, not necessarily in any other country.
__________________
Rob Kelk “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” – Bernard Baruch, Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950 No longer reading these forums regularly. |
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08-21-2017, 09:24 AM | #18 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
So the "41 characters" list has been found. Big thanks to "ANS Kamas P81" over at the BattleTech forums:
via http://web.archive.org/web/200208031...nts/index.html 1 VF-1S FIGHTER 2 VF-1S BATTROID 3 VF-1S GERWALK 4 VF-1J FIGHTER 5 VF-1J BATTROID 6 VF-1J GERWALK 7 VF-1D FIGHTER 8 VF-1D BATTROID 9 VF-1D GERWALK 10 VF-1A FIGHTER 11 VF-1A BATTROID 12 VF-1A GERWALK 13 ARMORED VALKYRIE 14 SPARTAN 15 REGULT 16 GLAUG 17 SDF-1 BATTLE SHIP 18 SDF-1 19 PHALANX 20 DEFENDER 21 TOMAHAWK 22 QUEADLUUN-RAU 23 NOUSJADEUL-GER 24 MONSTER 25 QUEADOL-MAGDOMILLA 26 TOUGOU-GUN Emblem 27 ZENTRAEDI Emblem 28 Misa Hayase 29 Hikaru ichijo 1 30 Hikaru ichijo 2 31 Lynn Minmay 1 32 Lynn Minmay 2 33 Lynn Minmay 3 34 Lynn Minmay 4 35 Claudia La Salle 36 CAPTAIN Gloval 37 Maximilian Jeunius 38 Roy Focker 39 Milia Fallyuna Jenius 40 Bullitie 41 Exsedol Folmo Since Harmony Gold accepted the arbitrator's findings, including that they have no rights on these designs, this may completely scuttle the BattleTech lawsuit. I am sending this information to Leonard French immediately. |
08-21-2017, 10:22 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spinward Marches
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
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And I'm referring to the logic of the decision, not jurisdiction nor sovereignty. |
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08-21-2017, 11:06 AM | #20 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Harmony Gold vs. BattleTech, Round N
*coughs* Perhaps we could take the debate on anime art styles and quality to its own thread?
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