Hi, Im really curious why are there businesses that are illegally using popular anime characters to make merchandise to sell for profit and does not infringement with copyright issue.
You can find merchandise like this in the form of stickers, tshirt designs, mugs, etc being sold on online marketplace like eBay, Shopee. They are mainly counterfeits from China.
by Wiserlul
6 comments
Simply too much work. Countless cases like these. When it’s worth to pursue legal action they will do so.Â
When there’s billions made (in yen) from official stuff, the millions lost from unlicensed merch ain’t worth the trouble.
Source: my unresearched guess.
Because they’re in China.
Popular existing anime characters is an issue best is to ask permission from the rights holder and get some license agreement. But you’re always free to design your own.
However there is kind of a legal grey area involving products related to anime, that don’t have official merch.
For example in the early days there were merchants selling “death note” notebooks. This was kind-of tolerated as there were no official ones, so you could argue that the original license holders didn’t lose money as they’re not selling that product.
Same as some merchants selling fantasy swords “inspired by” certain series. There is no original, so as long as you don’t claim it’s official, you’re in the clear, but barely.
Put yourself in the shoes of the copyright holders and ask yourself if it’s lucrative to pursue cases against the infringers. Do you think it’s worth the time of Kyoto Animation or some studio to act as a fly swatter against tens of thousands of Chinese vendors on Etsy or Alibaba?
> online marketplace like eBay, Shopee.
But can you find them with their own website or brand?
I guess they just evade law with low profile ebay accounts. Which may be all onwed by just a few merchs in China. Not that far fetched.