On Tue, 1 Aug 1995 DDecker157@aol.com wrote:

> I just got back from the San Diego Comics Convention! The anime companies
> were out in force. One day, the Pioneer people even had a professional
> model walking around in a Moldiver (female) costume, which was very well
> made and looked just like the anime, but only served to show how silly
> the thing really is.

I'm surprised I didn't see this at AX (although she'd be ineligible to 
compete in the masquerade).

> A dealer called San Francisco Laser Disc was there. The operation
> seemed to be an Asian family, I think Chinese. They had a zillion
> SM Records CDs, as well as a bunch of LDs. Many of the LDs seemed
> to be rental stock they were trying to get rid of; I was interested
> in a Hong Kong movie called The Heroic Trio until saw how scuffed
> and scratched the discs were from a few too many rentals. They were
> also selling Ranma and other posters, most if not all pirate copies.
> Some of the posters were obviously shot directly from the pages of
> the 1995 Ranma calendar, with the month and copyright noticed blocked
> off, often a little off center or even a little blurry. Yet people
> were buying them. I mentioned this to Toshi Yoshida at Viz, and he
> just gnashed his teeth and said they were well aware of the pirates,
> but when he had gone over to complain, the SF Laserdisc people 
> produced all kinds of legal-looking shipping invoices, basically
> claiming they had acquired the goods honestly and in good faith,
> and if there was a problem with the copyrights, take it up with the
> people in Hong Kong. I guess pursuing the matter would be more
> trouble than it's worth, so Viz was grimly tolerating them until
> some favorable opportunity for action presented itself.

This is where it gets messy. Pirated character goods (e.g. wall scrolls,
posters, t-shirts) are legal in Taiwan (not 100% sure about Hong Kong),
since Taiwan is not a signatory of the Berne Convention (which guarantees
international upholding of copyrights). However, they are illegal if they
are sold outside of Taiwan; shipping invoices be damned. Prosecuting them 
is a _really_ messy process.

The only way to ensure that the character good you bought is legit is 
look for a copyright message and a certification sticker.

This wasn't as bad as some bootlegger in a booth behind Viz's openly 
selling bootlegs of Fatal Fury.

Video bootleggers are much easier to prosecute than sellers of SM CDs and 
pirated character goods, since they're local.

> I spoke to the AnimEigo people and told them I'd like to see the Urusei
> Yatsura OAVs on disc. The guy at the table (not Woodhead-san) just said
> they'd do them if I could guarantee a minimum sale of 500 discs. 500
> copies aren't all that much, and there are some real Lum fanatics out
> there (hey, I bought a Japanese import LD that's nothing but UYTV 
> coming attraction announcements). You'd think nothing would be simpler
> or easier to unload on the panting fans.

Sign me up too. I maintain the UY page, so I _have_ to be a fanatic...As
for the UYTV coming attraction announcements LD, I bought mine for $10. It
was well worth it for the BGM. 

However, word had it that AnimEigo had trouble getting 500 people to 
pre-order the UY LD10 boxset.

> Several dealers were pushing Sailor Moon goods. I'm not sure I'd want
> a lifesize poster of Sailor Mercury with a caption in fractured English,
> but the dealers seemed to think somebody must. In a couple of months,
> we'll see if the show will go over here like the media moguls are
> hoping it will...

I almost succumbed to buying a Sailor Jupiter poster at the Books Nippan 
booth at AX. Such as steal at $15 (after discount).

______________________________________________________________________________
                                John Chennavasin
                            chennav@haas.berkeley.edu
                        http://haas.berkeley.edu/~chennav