What if the DB rights holders become overprotective of the DB IP?

[TechExpert2021]

What if either Toei, Shueisha, Bandai Namco, or Funimation/Crunchyroll becomes overprotective of the DB IP, similar to Nintendo being overprotective of their IPs? If they did, they might maliciously go after and take down the following infringing things:

- Fan games involving Dragon Ball characters;
- Torrents of the manga and anime series;
- Fansubs and fandubs of the anime series;
- YouTube videos using clips of the anime series, regardless of the footage used and audio version (original Japanese version or the dubs);
- Team Four Star's DBZ Abridged series;
- Fan-made web series featuring Dragon Ball characters;
- Fan-made edits/recuts of the anime series;
- Fan-made remasters of the original anime trilogy;
- ROMs and ISOs of Dragon Ball games.

How would you feel if they did that (which they'll never do)?

[M16U3L2015]

- Fan games involving Dragon Ball characters;
- Torrents of the manga and anime series;
- Fansubs and fandubs of the anime series;
- YouTube videos using clips of the anime series, regardless of the footage used and audio version (original Japanese version or the dubs);

It would kill the Hispanic DB fandom if they did this.

[GhostEmperorX]

Doesn't Toei already have a history of doing this kind of stuff, to the point where they get constantly compared to Nintendo (who, incidentally, also have issues collaborating with 3rd parties, particularly of the Western kind)?
They literally escalated this to the diplomatic level when people in a particular country were having a "watch party" for DBS without them being approached for anything.

[MasenkoHA]

What if either Toei, Shueisha, Bandai Namco, or Funimation/Crunchyroll becomes overprotective of the DB IP, similar to Nintendo being overprotective of their IPs? If they did, they might maliciously go after and take down the following infringing things:

- Fan games involving Dragon Ball characters;
- Torrents of the manga and anime series;
- Fansubs and fandubs of the anime series;
- YouTube videos using clips of the anime series, regardless of the footage used and audio version (original Japanese version or the dubs);
- Team Four Star's DBZ Abridged series;
- Fan-made web series featuring Dragon Ball characters;
- Fan-made edits/recuts of the anime series;
- Fan-made remasters of the original anime trilogy;
- ROMs and ISOs of Dragon Ball games.

How would you feel if they did that (which they'll never do)?

Most of these I really don't care either way? The manga is super accessible like $3 a month to subscribe to Viz's Shonen Jump. Fan subs are unnecessary when the entire series has a legal subtitle release, save for a few crappy OVAs, fan dubs are generally amateurish and shit anyways. And the ROMS, ISO, and fan edits are whatever to me.

[TechExpert2021]

And the ROMS, ISO, and fan edits are whatever to me.

In the context of video game emulation, ROMs (read-only memory) are digital file rips of cartridge-based games, and ISOs (optical disc images) are digital file rips of disc-based games.

Doesn't Toei already have a history of doing this kind of stuff, to the point where they get constantly compared to Nintendo (who, incidentally, also have issues collaborating with 3rd parties, particularly of the Western kind)?

IIRC Toei went after many Dragon Ball YTers in 2021 by taking down their videos they gave copyright strikes to that features their content. They even went after Totally Not Mark and took down 155 of his videos. There was a thread regarding this issue.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but thankfully Toei doesn't go after Dragon Ball fan games, unlike Nintendo.

[TheGreatness25]

The thing about IP law is that (at least in the US) you must protect it at all costs if you're going to protect it at all. Otherwise, you forfeit your right to be protected at all and then what's the point? You can't really pick and choose where you protect it. If you let someone run around with your IP and then someone else came along doing the same thing, you can't go after the second one if you didn't go after the first one.

There are some things that are just not enforceable. Torrents, etc.--they can have one taken down and 5 more can pop up. That's the issue that media companies had since Napster. Also, going after the consumers of pirated media wasn't getting them anywhere--they were going after a bunch of kids with no money. But going after the people actually exploiting their IP has proved challenging (VPN, etc.).

So, safe to say that Dragon Ball would be as protected as it is now. Toei is very good (I guess it depends who you ask) about protecting their IP already. I don't think it would get worse.

[GhostEmperorX]

IIRC Toei went after many Dragon Ball YTers in 2021 by taking down their videos they gave copyright strikes to that features their content. They even went after Totally Not Mark and took down 155 of his videos. There was a thread regarding this issue.

Doesn't stop there, they even once DMCA'd their own channel that was posting 2 Kamen Rider episodes per series (needless to say, officially).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but thankfully Toei doesn't go after Dragon Ball fan games, unlike Nintendo.

The games are Bandai's territory anyway.

[Saiya6Cit]

Oh what are you trying to do? Spread fear?

I recently posted that DB characters might become at some point like fairytail characters (goldilocks? humpty, dumpty little red riding hood..) it is so much embedded into worldwide culture it would be impossible to keep a track on how many times DB is being loved by someone. Because that is what fanmade material is made of: Love.


What they should do if they want profit is to make and sell stuff with the DB license, not to hunt down multimedia fan made stuff because at the end it is free publicity, when someone is out there wearing a DB t-shirt, isn't it as when someone walks by displaying the adidas or nike brand on their t-shirt? Now guess what, that guy wearing the DB t-shirt happens to be the guy making the DB fanmade content. Please realize of that DB Copyright holders. Please do that before doing something you could regret ( cough* cough* star wars* cough* cough*)

Peace!

[Kamiccolo9]

What if either Toei, Shueisha, Bandai Namco, or Funimation/Crunchyroll becomes overprotective of the DB IP, similar to Nintendo being overprotective of their IPs? If they did, they might maliciously go after and take down the following infringing things:

- Fan games involving Dragon Ball characters;
- Torrents of the manga and anime series;
- Fansubs and fandubs of the anime series;
- YouTube videos using clips of the anime series, regardless of the footage used and audio version (original Japanese version or the dubs);
- Team Four Star's DBZ Abridged series;
- Fan-made web series featuring Dragon Ball characters;
- Fan-made edits/recuts of the anime series;
- Fan-made remasters of the original anime trilogy;
- ROMs and ISOs of Dragon Ball games.

How would you feel if they did that (which they'll never do)?

What do you mean by "maliciously?"

[TechExpert2021]

What if either Toei, Shueisha, Bandai Namco, or Funimation/Crunchyroll becomes overprotective of the DB IP, similar to Nintendo being overprotective of their IPs? If they did, they might maliciously go after and take down the following infringing things:

- Fan games involving Dragon Ball characters;
- Torrents of the manga and anime series;
- Fansubs and fandubs of the anime series;
- YouTube videos using clips of the anime series, regardless of the footage used and audio version (original Japanese version or the dubs);
- Team Four Star's DBZ Abridged series;
- Fan-made web series featuring Dragon Ball characters;
- Fan-made edits/recuts of the anime series;
- Fan-made remasters of the original anime trilogy;
- ROMs and ISOs of Dragon Ball games.

How would you feel if they did that (which they'll never do)?

What do you mean by "maliciously?"

I meant the rights holders going after the aforementioned infringing things in a hostile way.

[VegettoEX]

I meant the rights holders going after the aforementioned infringing things in a hostile way.

Far be it from me to be a corporate bootlicker, but my friend:

What exactly is "malicious" or "hostile" about, for example, a rights holder requesting takedowns for torrents of their material?

[Dr. Casey]

The thing about IP law is that (at least in the US) you must protect it at all costs if you're going to protect it at all. Otherwise, you forfeit your right to be protected at all and then what's the point? You can't really pick and choose where you protect it.

I don't think this is actually true since companies and people vary widely on how accepting they are of fan material. Nintendo and Square try to shut down every fan game project they ever learn of, whereas other companies like Sega and Capcom openly support them so long as they're not sold for profit. Anne Rice tried/tries to ban fanfics of her work despite 99.9 percent of companies and authors tolerating the existence of fanfics. All companies try to prohibit piracy of their product but acceptance of fan content isn't nearly as uniform.

Far be it from me to be a corporate bootlicker, but my friend:

What exactly is "malicious" or "hostile" about, for example, a rights holder requesting takedowns for torrents of their material?

It can come across as malicious if they're excessively punitive. In 2018 Nintendo tried to sue LoveRoms (a retro emulation site) for $150,000 per every game that was available on the site, which is... excessive. Trying to get 150k per game for NES titles that I haven't seen being sold in stores (new) since I was a third grader around 1996/1997 is pointlessly cruel. Simple cease and desists aren't malicious or hostile, no.

[capsulecorp]

- Team Four Star's DBZ Abridged series;
How would you feel if they did that (which they'll never do)?

YES PLEASE lmao

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

Haven't they already been doing this for years?
Toei has been by far the most persistent in taking down content. At least that can be observed here in the west. Part of the reason TFS cancelled DBZA was because of the constant takedowns by Toei. I hate to side with the corporation, but legally speaking if Toei were to take TFS to court they would've been forced to shut down a long time ago. The only reason that they never did is because a lawsuit probably would've costed more money than it was worth to stop production on a silly internet show. And no matter how much we cry fair use DBZA would never fall under fair use protection because the show was made entirely of Toei's original animation. (Even with the heavy editing they used it's still entirely made of copyrighted footage, and had just been a high production fan dub, not a legit parody for years.)
I think that Toei only has the copyright to the all of the animated productions and doesn't hold any rights to the IP. I imagine that if they did that they would've gone full nuclear like Nintendo has.

[sangofe]

What if either Toei, Shueisha, Bandai Namco, or Funimation/Crunchyroll becomes overprotective of the DB IP, similar to Nintendo being overprotective of their IPs? If they did, they might maliciously go after and take down the following infringing things:

- Torrents of the manga and anime series;
- Fansubs and fandubs of the anime series;
- YouTube videos using clips of the anime series, regardless of the footage used and audio version (original Japanese version or the dubs);
- Team Four Star's DBZ Abridged series;
- Fan-made edits/recuts of the anime series;
- Fan-made remasters of the original anime trilogy;
- ROMs and ISOs of Dragon Ball games.

How would you feel if they did that (which they'll never do)?

They're already taking action or taken towards all of these I quoted and it's their right to do so. Especially roms, torrents and fansubs.