FUNimation Sues ADV, Sentai, and Others for US $8 Million

Sanguis said:
The heck is going on with the American anime industry..? Everything seems to be falling apart all of a sudden.

Mormegil said:
Wow. This year has been bad for the American anime market. First, Bandai's collapse. Then, Media Blasters lets go of 60% of its staff, and now...this. WTF is going on, and even worse, it's only January.

EmperorH3ctor said:


It's looking that way. :(
I'm even shocked that this is happening 'cause I grew up on Funi and ADV. I've grown to like Sentai despite what the haters say.

*hard facepalm at some comments* I'm glad I passed business law a few months ago (and found myself loving it) because to those of you who are "demonizing"--for lack of a better word--FUNI for filing a lawsuit against the following parties for BREACH OF CONTRACT as stated in the article, let me explains what it means: when one or 2 or more parties are failing or have failed to comply to the terms of any sort in a WRITTEN contract, in general. The one party that feels cheated can sue the other party.

Think of it this way, if you give me your end of the bargain as written in contract and I don't (or fail to), you have the legal right to sue me. And if you have solid evidence to prove that, I lose and you win the case. It's that simple.

Now, all that Funi and the other parties need is solid evidence that prove the claims to be true. Again, written contracts would be the best source of evidence. If not, then Funi loses and Sentai don't have to pay squat. It's not about Funi trying to destroy Sentai (though I hope it doesn't turn out like that) or the competition so please, don't assume it is that just b/c you don't like Funi or simply biased against them. It's just taking legal action that they think is right against the parties not complying with their end of an agreement. This is how business law works! Sentai would've have done the same thing is some other company tried to hustle them. This could happen to any company as well.

On a note, I'm not defending both sides. Just stating the facts of what I've learned and how it may--not WILL--turn out in this situation for both parties given the evidence. If the accused parties did something wrong (or illegal, God forbid), that's their fault, not Funi's.

I hope this clears some misunderstandings and notions of the "big guy picking on the little guy".

Exkalamity said:
I think more people than you realize already are aware of what you said. From the original news post, I vaguely gather that Funi is largely pulling this accusation out of their ass. Funimation's accusation seems to stand on shakey ground (the whole bit about redistributing the assets with malicious intent and what not. The malicious intent has to be established and proven first,) and ADV's rebuttal seems quite sound. I think most of the readers were able to pull that vibe from the post and thus respond harshly towards Funi.

Yanoflies said:
Who gives a shit about FUNi.

EDIT:

Why do you guys care anyways? I'd much prefer if no anime made it to the states.

RyanSaotome said:


And while this is kinda blunt, I agree. No license holders makes it easier for the fansub industry to thrive.

Redfoxoffire said:

And all us people who want to actually own the anime we love on DVD/Blu-ray as well as support the creators of it can all just go fuck ourselves, right?

RyanSaotome said:


Well, it would suck for the people who like to build DVD/BD collections... but if you truly wanted to support the original creators, you should buy directly from Japan instead of through a middleman at 1/10th the price. The original creators get a fraction of what they'd get if you bought the import release.

Redfoxoffire said:

That is an acceptable solution if and only if:
1. English subtitle quality is good and common across many/all new releases.
2. Shit really hits the fan with NA market and there's no saving it.

Otherwise, I like my English dubs and localized releases in general. Reasonable prices are a plus. I mean, I like supporting the people who make what I like and all, but I wouldn't pay those prices for anything except my top favorites.

Plus these are the people who brought me and probably ~98% of you into the anime fandom in the first place. Without these companies bringing us stuff like DBZ and Pokemon, most of us would not even be here. Have a little respect. Hoping the NA industry goes down so fansubbing can flourish...I don't even know what to say about that. Even many fansubbers themselves have standards and try to avoid getting in the way of the industry.

jmal said:
I can't get all teary-eyed and sentimental about businesses that couldn't care less about you or me or anything but our wallets.