[Radd]

Yet more from the original thread:

06-17-2003 09:38


Haunted
The Branded One



Joined: Jun 6, 2003






Thanks for the detailed and interesting post, I knew a bit about the legal situation, but alas, I didn't know that this quarrel also expands to new (future releases) e.g. Macross Zero.
I don't know how many of the forum users here are actually interested in the Macross franchise (and its history), but I hope that with the release of Macross Zero, more people will get interested in its excellent predecessors. I appreciate the work you've put into the post!

__________________


06-17-2003 09:43


Radd
Brave King of Steam



Joined: May 6, 2003





quote:

Originally posted by Lucky
Inspite of all above, HG has been quite successful in preventing any part of macross from being licenced.



Actually, Big West hasn't done anything to bring more Macross shows/merchandise over to the states since the court rulings in Japan.

Also remember, you do not need to have solid legal ground to take someone to court over something. Companies make rediculous and undefendable lawsuits agains other companies all the time to delay products, force smaller companies who can't afford the legal fees to back down, and other reasons. Go look up the details of the lawsuit against 'Austin Powers in Goldmember' by the company that owned the rights to 'Goldfinger'. Goldmember is most certainly a spoof and wasn't tready any shaky legal ground in the slightest, yet the other movie studio was releasing a film and didn't want competition, so they sued the company making Goldmember to delay the release of the film. Harmony Gold could be doing the very same tactics in hopes that Big West won't think the legal battle is worth it.

Also, a couple things worth mentioning. Big West and Tatsunoko went to court after Harmony Gold starting making their claims. Big West successfully defended their claims in three seperate court battles and even went on to copyright other Macross derivatives in the United States (which is merely a formality, as having the copyright in Japan extends to the U.S. via international copyright agreements).

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Radd on 06-17-2003 at 17:59.

06-17-2003 17:56


Radd
Brave King of Steam



Joined: May 6, 2003





quote:

Originally posted by Lucky in another thread
Biggest problem with macross series is that harmony gold has openly threatened to start legal action against anyone who tries to get a license for any part of macross. That threat, combined with the fact that no one can release macross tv series (which was the core of macross story) makes macross license a pretty bad investent.



Umm, Harmony Gold let AnimEigo release the original SDF Macross tv series on DVD, digitally remastered and everything. 9 DVD set, runs around 200 bucks. Excellent quality, wonderful liner notes. I highly reccomend the purchase.

Also Macross Plus was one of Manga's cashcows for a while, and is still pretty popular.

There's a Macross fanbase already in place in North America even with just the old Robotech fans that have grown up and want to see more original, un-Americanized anime.

06-17-2003 18:09


Lucky
Member



Joined: Apr 14, 2003






True. But the whole legal mess with the macross toys was a clear message to all retail outlets that HG is out for blood. Add that to the fact they had robotech released on dvd a few years ago (Aroud the same time as they sent c&d's), and you pretty much understand why macross tv series aren't available from the shelves like robotech is. Sometimes a threat of legal action, even totally unjustified, is efficient enough (good example: nintendo and the european retail outlets that import games from NA/Japan).
I didn't know that someone actually got around to translating the macross commercially though. I'll need to try and look those disks/cassettes up...

06-18-2003 21:08


hentai_wolf
Vivisectionist VI



Joined: Feb 16, 2003






Read the last post Lucky (hell, read the first post). Animeigo released the entire Macross TV series. It's in stores. I have it sitting in front of me. The only reason you might not be able to find it is because Animeigo does not do distribution very well.

And guess who's name is on the DVDs as well? Harmony Gold's.

06-18-2003 22:11


Radd
Brave King of Steam



Joined: May 6, 2003






Yes, Harmony Gold unquestionably shares ownership of the original SDF Macross tv series with Tatsunoko and Big West. But they only own the show itself, not the story or designs which are property of Big West alone.

The SDF Macross DVDs would have been out before the Robotech DVD sets except for the fact that AnimEigo wanted to make the best possible DVD set they could. They paid a company to start cleaning up the show, but the moment brand new remastering technology came out that was far better than what they were doing, they started again from scratch. It's a beatiful set. Check out AnimEigo's website. They even offer free shipping.

The Macross movie 'Do You Remember Love?' also has a legitimate North American release both as the horrible edited 'Clash of the Bionoids' and as the mostly uncut (other than the title) but horribly dubbed 'Super Dimensional Fortress Macross', both distributed by Best Home Video and only available on VHS. You can find that at Amazon.com.

Flashback 2012 has not been picked up for a U.S. release and likely won't be because it contains a large portion of the tv series' animation. I think if a new release of 'DYRL?' was ever made, it would be great if they included only the original 'Flashback' animation as a special for the DVD. The new animation shows the launch of the SDF-2/the Megaroad-01.

Macross II (not made by Studio Nue or Shoji Kawamori and not sanctioned as an official part of Macross but produced by Big West in the early 90's) was released by U.S. Renditions, and then Manga eventually nabbed it up.

Manga then went on to release Macross Plus and Macross Plus the movie. Their DVD of the movie is unfortunately a straight dump of the VHS version (so the video quality isn't nearly as good as it could be), with hard encoded subtitles, plain subtitles that could have just as easily been done so you could turn them on or off (which would have been perfect for music videos).

Macross 7 was supposedly made with the American market in mind, but it's too expensive for any American distributer to want it. Big West owns the show, but every bit of music is owned by another company, Victor I believe, and has to be licensed seperately at huge cost.

The Galaxy is Calling Me also shares the music problem so it won't be licensed. Also it would be difficult to only license this 30 minute movie and not the series.

Dynamite 7 shares the music problem with M7, and also bneing a direct sequel to M7, it would be hard for some to get into it with no background to some of the major characters.

Pioneer reportedly wants to pick up Macross Zero, but that's simply rumour at this point.

I think that covers everything. Some people who have been following the legal battle expect Big West to make a move for the North American market, but are taking their time to make sure the odds in a legal battle are overwhelmingly in their favour. Hence the Japanese court battles.