[Radd]

Well, seeing as the old threads got wiped, I managed to save most of the Macross Legalities thread from the old forums.

This thread is dedicated to trying to clear the legal haze around the Macross franchise, Robotech, and everything related.

I copied and pasted this directly from the old forums into a text file when it was announced that the forums would possibly be starting over from scratch, so the first post is all those posts in one big post. If you're a fan of Macross or Robotech, you'll probably be willing to wade through it to find out why Macross 7 never made it Stateside, why Macross 7 Trash was cancelled, and why Macross Zero might not make it to the United States unless the Japanese owners are willing to get in a drawn out court fight with the company that edited the original series into Robotech. Or if you just want to know the differences between Robotech and the original Japanese shows from which it was cobbled together.

Enjoy!

Macross Legalities



Yo, saw a post in the 'Anime that will never be licensed' thread were someone claimed that Harmony Gold had the rights to all the Macross shows.

At least one person piped up that this wasn't the case, but I figured anyone interested might want a little more information. First of all I'll present two websites where you could find even more information than I could give offhand:

http://protoculture.lebhead.com/
and
http://www.macrossworld.com/

Both incredibly good websites and a wealth of information for any Macross fan, or any Robotech fan interested in Robotech's origins.

Anyways, here's the deal in short.

Big West owns the Macross franchise in Japan. They made it with Studio Nue which housed the main driving force behind Macross, Shoji Kawamori and Studio Artland, who housed the character designer for Super Diumension Fortress Macross and who originally would have been the main animation studio behind the series.

I've heard two things that caused Big West to pull in another studio to take the bulk of the animation. One is that Studio Artland's major studios had a fire and were set back in production in a big way. Two, I've heard that Studio Artland was a relatively young production house and so the more experience Tatsunoko Productions was brought in to take on the bulk of the work. Either way, Tatsunoko was brought in and agreed to do most of the animation for a set price.

Later on in the series production, Tatsunoko found that what they agreed to would not cover the production costs, so they decided to renegotiate. Big West gave Tatsunoko the international distribution and merchandising rights in order to compensate them further.

Tatsunoko later sold those rights into a joint ownership with American company, Harmony Gold.

This worked out well for most involved for a very long time, until around 2001 when Yamato, a toy company that had nabbed the Macross Plus toy license in Japan, was given Big West's permission to sell those toys in the Unioted States where Macross Plus had garnered a lot of attention after it was released by Manga.

Harmony Gold's new management decided to put an end to this threat to their soon to be revived Robotech franchise. They sent Toycom, Yamato's American distributer, a cease and desist letter and claimed they owned rights to all things Macross.

This came as quite a shock, after all HG had said nothing about the release of the Macross movie by Best Home Video way back in the day, nor had HG uttered a word at the American release of Macross II in the early 90's, and again said nothing when Manga released Macross Plus and then Macross Plus the movie even later. Only very recently did HG make any claimed that they had any sort of stranglehold on the Macross franchise.

HG did stop FASA from using Macross images in Battletech, but they settled out of court so no legal ruling was ever made.

Now, shortly after HG started making these claims, Big West and Tatsunoko went to court in Japan to figure things out.

I'm still not clear on some details, but I've read a full translation of the final court decision, which decided that, basically, Tatsunoko owned the animation to SDF Macross, the original tv series, and Big West owned the line art, the designs, the logos, the characters, basically, Big West owned the franchise. This seems to make all of Harmony Gold's claims to the Macross franchise null and void. Even HG's trademark of the word 'Macross' is in serious jeopardy should Big West decide to bring the battle Stateside.

HG still owns the original SDF Macross tv series, and the merchandising rights to it, there's no question of that nor was that ever in question. Robotech as it is, is safe for HG to do whatever they want with it, as Tatsunoko owned the animation and had distribution and merchandising rights that they now share with HG. This also means that HG has no right to any Macross derivatives, nor the right to block any further Macross show or toy releases. This includes even the Macross Movie, despite the movie's use of mecha and character designs nearly identicle to those in the tv series. Big West owns the designs, and they are a seperate license than the tv series, as such Big West has the right to market toys of those in the United States.

The question now is, will Big West bring the fight to the US? United States courts will first and foremost uphold the Japanese court rulings, as per international copyright treaties, but that doesn't mean Big West won't have to pour money into legal expenses. American Macross fans just have to hope that Big West thinks that would be worth it if we're going to see any further Macross releases in the States.

Pioneer is rumoured to have shown interest in bringing Macross Zero to the States, which would be a good thing as they're a pretty large company so HG might think twice about messing with them, especially given the Japanese court decisions.

Until anything is done, we're not likely to see Macross toys or animation or anything in the United States, except for the Harmony Gold approved SDF Macross DVD set from AnimEigo, and the toys HG has Toynami making.

If a legal battle does start, both sides have lots of legal precedence and many arguments to put forth, so even though lots of Macross and Robotech fans like to think everything is pretty cut and dry for whichever company they prefere, the legal battle could take every bit as long as the Japanese case did. This means, don't expect it to end for about 3-5 years after the case first gets into a U.S. courtroom.

06-17-2003 08:46


megumidk
Chii ?



Joined: Jun 11, 2003






Harmony Gold, despite many rumors, has already accepted that they have little control over the original Macross anime and even less has anything to say about the designs.

Which is why they have acceptet that other companies has purchased and are releasing the series that was originally used to produce Robotech (ADV and AnimEigo).

They have so little a claim on Macross as a whole, that it would be a waste of money and time for them to prevent a release of Macross Zero, just as they nothing to do with Macross Plus and II.

There may be some merchandice issue's, but i think few fans will worry about that, as imports from japan are often better then the US produced versions.

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Anime fansub database and CD distribution.

06-17-2003 09:31


Lucky
Member



Joined: Apr 14, 2003






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