Police have arrested 2 hobbyists for the grievous crime of modifying a figure to look like another character, charging them with criminal copyright infringement.
The pair, aged 35 and 36 and involved with the operation of a Niigata toy shop, were found to have modified a figure to resemble a villain appearing in Toei’s Kamen Rider W, selling the completed figure in an Internet auction to a Tokyo man for ¥270,000.
The figure at issue was identified online:
Reportedly their work was of exquisite quality and popular with fans of the show – certainly the case considering the quality of the work on display on their homepage.
They admit the charges, explaining that “As we weren’t making mass manufactured goods but a single hand-made item, we thought they would overlook it.”
The arrests are an unhappy reminder that virtually anyone involved with doujinshi events, parody art and even cosplay is liable to be arrested should copyright holders become unhappy for some reason, or even should police get bored with arresting people for having sex in groups of 2 or more and instead decide to launch independent prosecutions for copyright infringement themselves.
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I think it looks awesome.
I WANT ONE!
apparently freedom of expression through art is illegal over there
I blame the politicians and the people that voted for them for this ridiculous law
hell for all we know it could have been a commission that the buyer asked and paid for
I don't get it instead of hiring them as artists they persecute them as criminals...
WTF is wrong with their brains?!
It was so awesome that it looked better than the original so the company sent cops out to arrest them
lolz jealous cops these days.
I was hoping for makaizo :X
I don't even follow Kamen but that's a killer mod and freakin awsm.
I got to say: this Kamen Rider figure looks awesome.
And what's with these copyright laws these days?
To be clear thats not Kamen Rider but a Dophant(monster).
Being able to turn Nazca into Utopia. Thats real craftsmanship.
Because going after real criminals is just too damn hard and dangerous.
We need Kamen Rider to defeat these crooked police and save the day!
WOW! thats pretty silly not to mention a complete waste of police resources. I have no doubt if it got so much attention that the makers of the show would of been aware of it. They know you dont want to piss off the grass roots support like this.
Sentai's not my thing and I still find that pretty badass.
LoL srsly? Copywrong has gone out of control... And the original wasn't half as cool...
This is why I have no faith in our justice system aside from the fact that the people who robbed me never got arrested for it...
BTW, did something happen? I notice that now the comment segments close up when I click "Add Comment" & then it also seems that my comments always show up now, did something get fixed perhaps?...
and those cops want it... so they falsely charge them so they can "confiscated" the evidence... sly trick from poor bastard...
Shotaro, Philip, time to make these officers count their Sins!!
How is this not in Kamen Rider W's jurisdiction... nothings out of their Jurisdiction XD
Not within their jurisdiction (sadly).
Akumetsu on the other hand...
ATASHII KIITENAI!
Police must be bored. And copyright holders are greedy.
and people with talents are punished.
Awesomeness is a crime. I better hide.
If they just gave the thing to someone then it would have been fine with the copyright holder, but they sold it.
They knew that if they had sold many of these they would have been fucked but assumed 1 would be ok.
it's japanese police and copyright holders we're talking about here... so duh.
it took 3 years to overturn the verdict against kaneko (of winny fame). by that logic, every kitchen knife, baseball bat, electrical appliance, rope, detergent, car, blowtorch, etc. etc. manufacturer could be convicted. after all, they all make tools that can be used to kill someone. japanese law interpretation ftw!
Yup, this is becoming kind of dumb
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
no dumb is stuffing a glass jar up your ass having it shatter and then digging the pieces of bloody glass all of your ass.
this is fucking retarded, harassment, and police douchebagary
thats how you get ahead, you make more arrests, and make superiors happy at the same time.
they arrest yakuza, you get yakuza layers and shit, where the charges may not stick 80%+ of the time. this pisses them off because everyone looks bad when a yakuza goes free.
arrest a kid, they have no money for defense, and some times the defense works with the system to make the prosecutors look good.
put the kids away, general public will say yay they deserved it, people who know will defend them, and every one looks good because they got an arrest to stick.
retard laws cause retarded things
there should be a paragraph clearly stating that unless you make wagons of cash selling items modelled after copyrighted material you are ok
Perhaps they instituted an arrest bonus clause.
Police must be bored. No murderers or kidnappers, they turn their look on artisans.
True. This is a case where the police should NOT have been involved, nor should this be CRIMINAL copyright infringement.
I swear..... these companies keep on wanting to put more and more people in prison, and get rid of their BEST CUSTOMERS this way.... how frigging stupid is that?
If they hadn't SOLD the figure, you might be right. As it was, they were making money off an unlicensed imitation of a copyrighted character, which can be prosecuted as criminal.
Admittedly, I still think the police are way overreacting, but I'm not going to insult them for this one.
If ALL of the law was defended this zealously there would be no reason to complain, but that's not the case...
Interesting... I have been so accustomed to seeing mods, especially in the Transformers community (JinSatome, Crazy Devy, etc...) that I am simply stunned to find out that it is actually considered illegal.
Capitalism is at great risk!
Arise ye corporate owners who still want to own slaves!
shut up you worthless commie retard
The important doujin scene(ero doujin works and Touhou) is safe. They can always change names and claim the character just looks similar. And Touhou is protected by Zun. He will never go commercial.
as long as the modifiers of the mod doesn't claim the character and claim that ZUN was the original creator, i doubt he would mind.
and buy him BEER >:D
The Copyright law is outdated in this times where we live, in where everybody is able to make and spread his art.
Actually this law have lost his true purpose, that is bring the right of make copy for sale to the distributor only, and become a tool of censure and culture repression.
I bet that this raid is done just by a angry police that loss the auction.
The copyright holder undoubtly just got pissed off because they can't do something this awesome.
If these guys are capable of this kind of detailed work they should be trying to hire them not have them arrested. Typical response from corporate fuckheads without an ounce of creative talent in them.
I guess people get really pissed when money is involved. Of course, this whole thing is completely laughable but the copyright nazis take this shit very seriously.
I think they're innocent - because of the very reason that it was a 1 of a kind. Like any other One of a Kind pieces, they should plead innocent.
An artist's interpetation shouldn't be viewed as violating copyright laws. When in fact these two creative individuals are actually enhancing the value of the franchise.
To think that Japan traditionally has a high regard for artists on a national pride standing in the international community.
The case should be thrown out, because whom ever brought up the charges should be ashamed, they're supposed to be going after the pirates that mass produce copies. Not the dedicated fans and artists that make the franchise what it is.
:P
i like the design . i mean ALOT
i don't understand law
I don't blame you.
our Justices system only favors those who have wealth and power not the common man.
Blame capitalism.
Did they try to sell it without saying it was a converted model?