Laws regarding Broadcasting Unlicensed Anime?

[Andrue]

Hi,
I have an idea for the public access station in my town. I have been researching various licenses on some of the older series in my tape collection. I have been wondering what laws are in place about broadcasting unlicensed/previously licensed series on a non-profit, public access station. Is anyone familiar with these? I have seen some conflicting answers regarding fair use, but it gets tricky with international media. I am having a meeting with them soon to discuss my show, but I want to have at least some facts before I make plans to start showing stuff! Thanks!

[SteveH]

Short form? You're breaking the law. No ifs, ands or buts.

You do not own the material. You do not have a contract with the owners to broadcast. They are not public domain. Saying they are does not make it so.

You could broadcast a short clip, about a minute, and that's covered by 'fair use' for review purposes.

You will read online that I'm completely wrong and nobody cares and hey, information should be free, man and all that nonsense.

They are all wrong.


If they are commercial tapes, read carefully. You are LEASING the content from the owner. You can sell the physical tape, that's protected by 'first sale' doctrine, but in a strict legal sense you do not OWN the contents of the tape. (this is one reason why Hollywood is glad that the age of physical media is being killed off, it returns complete control to them just like it used to be. Wanna watch that movie you love, or that TV episode? Pay up, bubby)

Cutting off the copyright info from the credits does not negate the copyright.

Now, the PRACTICAL reality? If your public access station feels like taking the risk of legal action, they'll probably OK your show. The Video Police isn't going to drive up in black vans and kill you. So in the end it goes to morality. Your action, in broadcasting video you do not have the rights to, that you have not licensed from whatever agency, is intellectual property theft.

Comfortable with that? OK then.

[Andrue]

Thank you for your insight.
I have read way too many conflicting things, and what you said is what I've generally assumed. Personally, I've always loved physical media, and don't like the more digital trends with anime and manga. But my goal was to show people things that couldn't be found on DVD, or even in some cases on the internet. A lot of great stuff is trapped on tapes, with no future releases being planned, and their releases have been out of print for 15+ years. I was just wondering the inner workings of that side of it.
I don't know how an anime series would become public domain, or even if any are, but if a tape or LD was produced by a company that no longer exists, or doesn't hold the rights to it anymore, and it's not available for sale, or online, what becomes of it? Does it die in a box in a basement somewhere? Does it succumb to laser rot, never to be seen again? I just feel bad that so many great shows will be forgotten. That's just how I feel, I am still on the side of "probably not going to do that show", but if I got a convincing argument otherwise, I might reconsider.

[davemerrill]

I don't believe there is any such thing as "unlicensed anime".

And ditto what Steve said. Unless you have a license agreement or permission from the copyright holder, it's not legal. Just because you have no idea who the current copyright holder is - and even if a production company goes bankrupt, their assets belong to SOMEBODY, even if it's a bank - doesn't automatically render a property "public domain".

That being said, you could easily screen small segments legally under the "fair use" policy for review purposes.

You could PROBABLY get away with showing whatever you felt like on a public-access cable TV show, as long as the station's owners didn't care. They are really the ones with the most to lose in this situation.

Back in the day when my brother worked at the local cable TV station they would show the Fleisher SUPERMAN cartoons and other public domain cartoons from time to time. I believe some anime may have found its way onto the air on a few occasions. But there's no pretense we had any permission whatsoever to do so.

[SteveH]

Anime Evangelism never goes away.

Are we talking about 'released in America' anime, or 'only in Japan' anime, or what? How about listing some titles?

but as Dave says, nothing is really 'lost'. SOMEBODY owns the rights, even if it's a bank that bought up assets from a company that went bankrupt.

[ForzaBot]

the only thing that you might be able to air would be some of the Korean rip-off anime that was never licensed to begin with. Stuff like Mazinger X, Golden Bat vs. Darkstar, Iron Man 007, etc.

[Heero]

Let me start by saying I AM NOT A LAWYER. That said, I've been doing some amateur investigating into a related topic for various reasons. To that end, I just want to note that THEORETICALLY (again, reference my first sentence) there are some OLD titles that are now "public domain" IN THEIR ORIGINAL JAPANESE. (not sure at all how the English translation does or does not complicate things) For example "Hakujaden" (aka "The Tale of the White Serpent"), which was Toei's first anime movie and the first anime Hayao Miyazaki worked on, is now (theoretically) public domain. (Hakujaden was released in 1958, JAPANESE copyright law (for non-individual works) was good for 50 years, since extended to 70, but not grandfathering works prior to 1970, but the law is fuzzy AND in a foreign language, so YMMV) I WILL note that the translated version "Panda & the Magic Serpent" is either public domain OR bootlegged all to hell and I swear I once saw DVDs for it in Walmart. THEORETICALLY, the original "Speed Racer" (aka. Mach Go Go Go, circa 1967-68) will free up in a few years, but again my definite knowledge is limited. Altho, much like in the above, if you want to show OLD, old Japanese shows that are borderline public domain that have no real interested party in the US on a public access channel, well I don't think you're going to find an issue there. XD

[SteveH]

Speed Racer/Mach Go Go Go is most definitely NOT going into public domain in the next few years, due to all the projects/revivals since the '90s. These acted to 'grandfather' the copyright and the clock started over.

It's the same reason Disney did some horrible 'sequel' videos to their earliest movies like Sleeping Beauty.

I, too, am not a lawyer, but I've been paying attention to this stuff since the '70s.

[Heero]

While I will again note my lack of definitive knowledge, I'll point out two things.
#1. Foreign laws <> US laws, and anime copyrights are not definitively the same as US copyrights. There are similarities to be sure (most of which are intentional) but there are also differences
#2. "New works" do NOT "restart the clock". Peter Pan has had numerous redos, remakes and even "licensed" sequels, but it still went public domain (the wife is a HUGE Peter Pan fan, and we also both truly respect that Barrie gave the rights to charity upon his passing). Each NEW work gets it's own copyright, but the original work has a copyright that is unaffected by the new one.

The conventional wisdom is that Disney keeps paying off lawmakers to keep moving the goalpost so that Mickey Mouse NEVER goes public domain, but we'll see.

In THEORY (and again, I grant that I am NOT a lawyer, and the law COULD change tomorrow even if I'm right) the ORIGINAL Mach Go Go Go could go public domain soon, but the courts ruled in the industry's favor in terms of extending the copyright life for Kurosawa works from the 50 yr mark to the 70 year mark, so that's why I say "who knows". (apparently some courts have gone with 50 for pre-1970 works, but another case went 70 for certain other works) Now, I will again note, that I have ZERO idea how or where the copyright would stand on the English language dub version of the original Speed Racer.

(and Disney does horrible sequels for the same reason small animation houses do TERRIBLE knock-offs: because they can SELL them. MOST awful Disney sequels are for properties released less than 5 years prior (see: sequels to: Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Lion King and Aladdin, I think some moron even thought it was a good idea to make a Hunchback of Notre Dame sequel or Direct to Video thing))

[llj]

Heero, this is the Panda and the Magic Serpent DVD in those wal-marts: