Skip to content

The rights of Toei Animation published games are on limbo?

Talk about whatever you want. General forum rules still apply.

Moderator: Staff

The rights of Toei Animation published games are on limbo?

Post by Sonic of 8! »

Recently, I was looking at the Famicom Mini Jump Edition website right here. And then, something at the bottom of the website did get my attention. Was the following phrase:
本商品のうち、「北斗の拳」「北斗の拳3 新世紀創造凄拳列伝」は、平成30年3月16日に著作権法第67条の2第1項の規定に基づく申請を行い、同項の適用を受けて作成されたものです。
Which means, in English:
Among the titles, an application for Hokuto no Ken and Hokuto no Ken 3: Shinseki Souzou Seiken Retsuden was filed in March 16 of 2018 under the provision of Paragraph 1 of Article 67 of the Copyright Act.
Then, I googled about what this Article 67 says from CRIC:
(Exploitation of works in the case where the copyright owner thereof is unknown)
Article 67. (1) Where a work has been made public, or where it is clear that it has been offered to or made available to the public for a considerable period of time, the work may be exploited under the authority of a compulsory license issued by the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and upon depositing on behalf of the copyright owner compensation the amount of which is fixed by the Commissioner as corresponding to an ordinary rate of royalty, in the case, designated by Cabinet Order, where, after the due diligence, the copyright owner cannot be found for the reason that he is unknown or for other reasons.
(2) A person, who intends to apply for a compulsory license mentioned in the preceding paragraph, shall submit to the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs an application stating means of exploiting a work and other matters designated by Cabinet Order, together with data for explanation to the effect that the copyright owner can not be found or other data designated by Cabinet Order.
(3) Copies of the work reproduced under the provisions of the preceding paragraph (1) shall bear an indication to the effect that the reproduction of these copies has been licensed in accordance with the provisions of that paragraph and give the date when the license was issued.
So, Nintendo, who published the Famicom Mini Jump Edition, released these two Fist of North Star games on the miniature through this article, meaning that Toei Animation only handled the original publishing of those games, despite the company not being anymore in the game-publishing business (most of their published games development was done by Shouei System or by other subcontracted companies, such as Micronics.)

This could mean that Toei Animation doesn't hold the control of their games anymore? Or even Bandai Namco, which owns at least 10% of the company, does not hold the rights of them? If we count the Fist of North Star games only, it's just 8 games right on the Copyright Hell status (4 on the Famicom, 3 on Super Famicom and 1 on original Game Boy). It's strange, because I think that a similar situation happened with MUSHA Aleste on Mega Drive Mini rerelease, where the website itself don't credit who is the actual copyright holder of the game (it was previously handled by Kaga Create on the Wii Virtual Console era, but the company closed in 2018).
オモいカルチャーをオモチャーと言う - 細野晴臣

Post by patsm00re18 »

They have the rights on it.
Post Reply