Quote:
Originally Posted by 4Tran
The Big West/Studio Nue vs. Tatsunoko lawsuit was strictly on the basis of the rights to SDF Macross, so neither Southern Cross nor Mospeada are affected by the ruling. Presumably, Harmony Gold still has clear rights to them - they certainly felt that they can use all sorts of Mospeada material for Shadow Chronicles (admittedly, they seem to be avoiding Southern Cross as well).
It's less that Harmony Gold has any legal claim to Macross works that's the problem; it's more that there's a possibility that they can launch a lawsuit to challenge any license, thereby making it unprofitable. The obvious remedy is to license a show with Harmony Gold's cooperation, but then there's the problem that Big West probably won't want to deal with them. To give you an idea of how much trouble this can potentially be, bear in mind that FASA folded up largely because of the costs incurred from their lawsuits against
Technically, Harmony Gold is already operating under this criteria, so there's no reason for Big West to pay for what they already own.
The problem here is that it was Harmony Gold's threats of legal action that lead to the Big West/Studio Nue vs. Tatsunoko lawsuit in the first place. Big West hasn't shown much interest in bringing any Macross works to North America, but if they do, it probably won't be with an American company that, in essence, threatened them.
As far as I can tell, there won't be any US rights issues until it's settled by some sort of legal action. If the Robotech movie actually gets made, it might clear a lot of things up.
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Ah I see, well business 101 in order to make money you need to spend it, by making a specific contract with HG to not "interfere" with future macross publications this gets HG some money and holds a hefty monetary pentailty if they try anything, the point of it is to move the process forward protecting as many assists as possible but even in the best circumstances its tricky business, still I would assume from TV to DVD they are missing out on millions and it would would be worth their while to work with HG
IF
HG understands that they have no leg to stand on other than costly court tactics that will ultimately bankrupt them, working for a middle ground to let the new stuff though on the macross name unopposed and let the older stuff work its way through the system would be best for both IMO, but I guess big west has had it with HGs nickel and diming and will wait out the next 5+ years to have things settled for once and for all.