[Zinjo]

Originally Posted by stray

I wouldn’t be that surprised if Bandai announces they licensed Macross Frontier at either AX or Comic-Con. Although, it’s starting to get to the point where music licensing might be tricky, depending on how music rights are handled between Flying Dog/Bandai/Big West.

While Bandai certainly has the money and the market presence in the US to do such a thing, they'd probably have to be a legal agent of BW or have their authorization to act on their behalf to make any challenges. Keep in mind that Macross is not a big title for Bandai and if Gundam had the same issues, they'd challenge it in US court.

As for music, I don't think Flying Dog is nearly as big as Victor in Japan, so they don't have a large music distributor demanding rediculous amounts of money for licensing as they would have with Mac 7.

Originally Posted by stray

The only real legal leg HG has to stand on is the Macross TM, and even then it’s kind of hazy. The whole case kind of reminds me of what happened with (ah, the nerd card…) SCO v. Novell a year or so ago, the gist of which was that SCO claimed full ownership (of UNIX) over a poorly worded contract that it was shown never gave them anything more than licensing rights. Granted, BW/HG is a different animal, but I could see the result being more or less the same.

There is still the TM issue to deal with in the US, which requires expensive court proceedings. Whereas if BW was serious about getting into the North American market they could side step the US and take their case to the Canadian Trademarks Tribunal, where all they have to do is successfully argue they are the IP rights holder of the name and the HG TM would be thrown out. However I don't know of any Japanese writing fan who has ever brought this to their attention.

Another aspect is that with the announcement of the RT movie, BW may be hesitant to assert their rights in fear that WB may open its bank account against their efforts. However, a letter of intent and even tossing them a bone of first option on a Macross based movie might be enough to keep them silent during any legal challenge. However that requires some initiative from BW which we haven't seen yet.

Originally Posted by stray

I think the biggest hold up to this point with regard to BW taking any action was simply the fact that a. they had no licensors and b. until Frontier, they really didn’t have anything to license. Zero took, what, 2.5 years to make? AFAIK it wasn’t a huge success, and the whole episode 4 to episode 5 transition reeks of cancellation. By the time they established their rights in 2002 it was already 7-8 years past Macross 7’s run, and it’s kind of questionable how it would have done in the west, considering both it’s age and it’s content.

That can be an issue, considering how few Macross productions that have been made, however there is still the fact that BW would probably like to release the remastered Macross Plus here as well as Frontier and it would allow them to directly profit from overseas merchandizing. Macross (via RT) is still an enduring hit over here as we have much less anime distributed over here compared to Japan.
I also suspect it is why Manga Entertainment has never made any attempt to bring over the remastered Plus or re-issue Macross II during its re-issue blitz a few years back. If you go to their website, you'll see they are very cozy with HG now, unlike before the TM was given to HG in the US.

Originally Posted by stray

Regardless, it’s kind of a catch-22 right now; the anime industry in the US on the whole is in the crapper, but something like Frontier has namesake (that’s dwindling), and a real chance of being a crossover hit (IMO) should it get picked up on Sci-Fi or Adult Swim. The killer being that, whoever licenses it has to take the risk of incurring a lawsuit by Harmony Gold.

The problem with the anime industry here is that like most of the media industry they are dismally failing to exploit the internet to their advantage.
Fansubs are a perfect gauge for them to determine which titles to license as well as developing partnerships with studios to get simulcasting of current shows running in both Japan and North America. Sites like Youtube are also excellent free broadcasting areas that allow shows to be shown in smaller resolutions to promote DVD sales later. The industry is clinging on to outdated, failing business models and trying to litigate profits from consumers and that will never work.

Originally Posted by stray

Exactly. The movie doesn’t have a screenplay yet, and it’s not even in production. The most BW could do at this point is send a letter informing Warner of their rights regarding the elements of Robotech. Once there’s some actual money involved, and something tangible (that’s based on Macross) it would be crazy for BW to not get involved, there would just be too much money at stake. I could see Warner being much quicker to settle than HG, but if HG doesn’t want to acknowledge BW’s ownership… Although, looking at Shadow Chronicles, that’s not really the case. But with Warner’s money empowering them, who knows. I doubt HG really wants to jeapordize whatever grey area rights they have, regardless.

What is it about this forum and having to write novel length posts... uggh

Frank Agrama cares little about RT, don't be fooled. It's a property that he can make money on and will exploit to its fullest extent. If WB was set on making a Macross based movie, they'd have to "buy" the live action movie rights to SDFM from HG outright and then WB would be free to deal directly with BW without any issues.

Frank would sell those rights in a heartbeat if the money were right.

As for HG "suddenly finding out they had rights to DYRL", I'd call Bull$hit on that!

What they may have learned is that BW doesn't know who owns all the rights to the movie and that in order to find out it would cost them much. Yet again Agrama is exploiting legal grey areas. If HG did indeed have any rights to DYRL they would have released it on DVD by now and we all know that hasn't happened....