Avex Pictures Explains Blu-ray, DVD, and CD Export Restrictions

by arsonal
Mar 2, 2017 10:19 PM | 13 Comments

Last month, online retailer CDJapan announced that video content planning and production company Avex Pictures was enforcing a restriction on the export of its Blu-ray, DVD, and CD titles.

Since January, customers outside Japan have reported the cancellation of orders of anime Blu-rays published by Avex Pictures after making purchases from online retailers such as Amazon.co.jp. Among the anime products being restricted are Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume, Yuri!!! On ICE, and Osomatsu-san. These restrictions affect orders which ship directly outside Japan, but it is still possible to purchase the products through local proxy buyers.

Twitter user @onkeikun submitted an inquiry to Avex Pictures regarding the restrictions and received the following response on Monday from the company's Content Sales and Marketing department:

Thank you for your continued support. Regarding the matter you have submitted, we provide the following response.

Due to the issue of license rights, the company [Avex Pictures] must make a distinction between products which can be sold overseas and those which cannot. We provide this information to retailers and e-commerce website operators, but there may be misunderstandings in classification among some outlets. Whenever such cases arise, we instruct them to make the necessary corrections.

We infer that the product that you have indicated is not able to be sold overseas because of this correction. This is not a case that the product is suddenly prohibited from being sold overseas, and we hope you will understand that it was never meant to be available, and that the dealer has only recently made this correction.

However, we appreciate the need for anime content overseas and will make an effort to be able to acquire more rights for overseas sales. We look forward to your continued support of our products.

Avex Pictures

Source: Twitter

Companies OP ED BD DVD

13 Comments Recent Comments

Talk about failing at business.

I hope their sales drop so much that they have to backpaddle and cry about how fans overseas don't like buying anime. Won't be buying from them until they learn 2 business.

Mar 10, 2017 9:53 AM by Sakarii

F*** YOU AVEX I HOPE YOU GET BANKRUPT YOU SUCKERS, LOSERS, RACIST PIECE OF S***

WHY THEY DIDNT ANNOUNCED THIS FROM LAST 2 YEARS??? WHY NOW????

Ugh! I don't care. Like I said, I just want my Yuri on ice and Osumatsu, THATS IT.

Mar 5, 2017 2:39 PM by removed-user

I hate paying the proxy fees, but Im gonna bite the bullet for Yuri on Ice. After that Avex can suck my dick.

Mar 3, 2017 7:49 PM by Shuhan

What the fuck is that shit?
People want to actually buy your products and you force them to obtain them illegaly and earn nothing? Just how idiotic can you possibly be?

Mar 3, 2017 12:16 PM by TrashDax

I may have wanted CDs from Idol Time Pripara but now I can't get them.

Mar 3, 2017 7:54 AM by Hoppy

Prime example of why people so quickly turn to piracy. Inaccessibility.

Now everything you would have been just getting reduced revenue from you'll be encouraging others to find for free.

Mar 3, 2017 7:14 AM by SaigoKensei

rsc-pl said:
I wanted to buy OP single from Shakunetsu. Great...

Too bad you didn't buy it already. It was available for sale months ago when they were still exporting it...

This is still a crock of business doublespeak however. The people who restricted the exports was... Avex Pictures! Now... it is possible that they've sold them all to either Funimation or to some international subsidiary(ies) of Avex itself which now owns the rights but... the company who sold those rights was... Avex Pictures of Japan. So they're acting like they are just enforcing something that is beyond their control but it isn't true. They chose to sell those rights which are, for the moment, not even being exercised.

There is nowhere here to buy local copies of Shakunetsu Takkyuu Musume as it is not licensed for localized distribution in any market, at least to my knowledge. Whenever Funimation and Sentai and Madman DO license shows it is VERY rare for them to license the CDs, they usually just licence the DVDs/BDs. Occasionally for the very most popular series they might license the OST CD.

So for now apparently they want people in most markets to pirate it. Thanks, Avex.

Ah well, I bought/ordered everything I needed to buy from them before they shut the door with the "clarified" export restrictions. Guess that's the last of my money they will get.

Mar 3, 2017 3:55 AM by hpulley

I wanted to buy OP single from Shakunetsu. Great...

Mar 3, 2017 3:00 AM by rsc-pl

How is this a "fuck you"?!

It's true that you should not legally be able to purchase all those prodcts. They even often have the mention "for sales in Japan only". It's like any other country's production: check your local discs or books...

As the reason behind, it's easy: it hurts the licenses market.

Mar 3, 2017 2:42 AM by Rei_III

I also found an announcement like this on CDJapan website.

Further Announcement Regarding Avex Pictures - February 23, 2017
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/info/20170223

Mar 3, 2017 1:03 AM by sakuramochi_0

Paulo27 said:
I have no idea why MAL would make an article about this when the answer is basically "fuck you, we never wanted to sell you stuff in the first place." That makes it so much better, Avex.

Yep, that's exactly more or less how they came across lol.

I find it kind of funny because all 3 of the shows mentioned in the post were, uh, pretty popular (with Shakunetsu being a bit more niche); Osomatsu and Yaoi on Ice being especially popular with the international community. They just gave everyone a big fuck you, but the jokes on them because unlike most anime, these two could get noticeably hurt from lost sales.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Osomatsu previously available for import?

Mar 3, 2017 12:25 AM by Jonesy974

I have no idea why MAL would make an article about this when the answer is basically "fuck you, we never wanted to sell you stuff in the first place." That makes it so much better, Avex.

Mar 2, 2017 11:45 PM by Paulo27

i wonder if there is a solution for this license/rights issues, maybe a centralize digital downloads store or anime store can do the trick? who knows

Mar 2, 2017 10:29 PM by deg