A 34-year-old self-proclaimed modeling master has been arrested for violating copyright after he attached the head of an official Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica figure on a self-made nude female body and tried to sell it, certain to have many wondering how otaku have not learned yet that such a thing is not legally sound.
Shimotsuma police station and Ibaraki Prefecture’s Police Cyber Crime Countermeasures Division apprehended the man from Higashimurayama City, Tokyo after it was alleged that he violated the Japanese Copyright Act.
The crime took place in August of last year where the man tried to sell a figurine that was a combination of a nude female body that he made himself and a head from an official Madoka figurine; the character is said to be present in the Madoka Magica Hangyaku no Monogatari film.
This deed was performed without the consent of the copyright holder and anime distribution company Aniplex – details regarding his punishment have not been released.
Like a great man once said: if you want respect for the law, you first have to make the law respectable.
I’m going to need to see proof that this figure exists, otherwise I call bullshit.
Makaizous has been sold on Yahoo Auction for quite some time now. Police cracking down with paper-thin copyright infringement charges is a bad outlook on fan-derivative works. The majority of bigwigs in the industry started out as fans themselves, so this is kinda egregious.
Just sell naked body… and head in different container…
I wrote about it in another comment, but what if you buy a regular Nissan, mod it by adding a spoiler, fancy wheels, sunroof, custom suspension, supercharger/new injection, etc. Then you have it inspected successfully (if that’s a thing in Japan), and sell it as still a Nissan, but a modified one. According to the logic in this article, Nissan corporation would report you to the police and you would be arrested for a copyright infringement.
No, it’s incorrect because what you own is still a Nissan you can do what you want and modify it because it’s still a Nissan, still has Nissan parts, the body is still a Nissan… etc
What you meant to say is that you bought a Volkswagon and then modify it to look like a Porsche and then sell it as a Porsche instead of a Volkswagon. Your selling as a Porsche but it’s really a Volkswagon.
But in this article she still had original head, so how exactly this does not make her the original character with a modded body? Does the law specify exact percentage of original parts that must be present? If not this is just pure subjectivity.