Ryan Matthews Wrote:

Otaku@nashville.com (James Bateman) wrote:

Now what you DON'T want to do is write Kitty, or Shogakukan, or Takahashi
and ask to use their characters.  In order to protect their copyrights,
they will have to tell you "no" [...]

Huh?  Why would they have to tell you "no"?  If someone using your
characters has explicit written permission from you to do so, that doesn't
weaken your copyright, does it?

Not precisely weaken their copyright, no, but weakenm their *control* yes.
That is why Paramount, for example, is so tightassed about the Star Trek
novels - and why they are all published under arrangements that essentially
make them "work for hire" - that allows Paramount to control a large part
of what an author can and cannot write about a set of characters - and
keeps Paramount in control of how those characters are developed, what
their history is, basically, what constitutes "canon" in the Star Trek
Universe (not that they are very *good* at it, mind you...)

Most copyright holders do not find that the potential return is worth the
hassle, so rather than compromise their control, they will refuse to grant
anyone license to mess with their property.

Beyond that, there comes the issue of trying to select the persons to whom
they might grant license, and the criteria used to select them - the "why
was Johnny selected and not me?" complaint would become an issue.

And lastly, there is the matter of the license fee... The value of a
property is directly proportional to the fees that the owner receives for
the licenses to that property.  The courts, in an infringement case, will
award damages based on that value, determined in part, by what fees that
property commands as licensed.  For example - Lets say that Shogakukan
sells a license to Bandai to make Ranma model kits, or say, a Tendou Dojo
playset.  Bandai is gonna pay big bux for that license, because they expect
to sell a hell of a lot of playsets - the initial license fee c easily will
be in the twenty to fifty thousand dollar range, PLUS a percentage of the
gross income from the sales of the playsets.  Now suppose that Shogakukan
grants a license to Joe Fanfic to use the Ranma characters in one of his
stories, or an RPG or something - particularly if the fic or game is wholly
derivative from Ranma, they have a reasonable expectation that Joe will be
able to make a lot of money from the piece.  Not too many fanfic authors
can come up with twenty G's to drop on a license.
Let's say then that Shogakukan, in a fit of wanton generosity, just says to
Joe, "Sure - go ahead - do what you like." - and they do NOT charge him the
license fee...
Now, GK Industries comes up with a cheap knockoff of Bandai's Tendou
playset.  Shogakukan and Bandai both sue (and rightly so!) - their
principle claim to damages is based on the lost revenues from the property
- Bandai paid a lot for the license, and Shogakukan expects to collect a
piece of every playset that Bandai sells.  If GK is selling their knockoff
cheaper, that hurts both Bandai, and Shogakukan.
The courst look and say yes, GK must now pay damages - BUT GK says,
Shogakukan gave carte Blanche to Joe over here to do whatever he wanted,
and they didn't charge him a cent.  If the property is really as valuable
as they say it is, then they *never* would have done that.

Keep in mind that GK will STILL lose the suit - they are bootlegging, and
will have to pay damages - but how MUCH they have to pay will be dependent
on just what Shogakukan can *prove* that they will have lost - The court is
quite likely to look at the "license" they gave Joe as evidence that the
value placed on the property for the Bandai deal was grossly inflated, and
the infringer will get off paying much less in the way of damages.

Now if Joe just publishes his doujinshi on his own, Shogakukan can defend
their copyrights adequately by claiming that they never knew anything about
it - they do not have to justify their lack of action in defending their
property.  Joe will publish his 'zine, and more people will discover Ranma,
and in theory, Shogakukan will make more money as people buy the books, the
vids, the toys et al, after having read the 'zine and wanting more.

As long as they take no official notice, they can regard the fan force as a
source of free advertising, and leave it at that - But once you wake the
giant, the rules say he's gotta squash ya.

Sorry to have rambled again - I hope this makes it a little clearer.

Zen-


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[[                  James Bateman (Otaku@nashville.com)                  ]]
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