Last month a very curious case appeared related to Kimetsu no yaiba in Japan. A woman selling cakes adorned with character designs from the series was sued.
All because he used them not only without permission, but also for profit. Each dessert sold cost between 13,000 and 15,000 yen, about $ 2,446 to 2,823 Mexican pesos. She was one of the producers of the series who filed the lawsuit.
And it all started with selling Kimetsu no Yaiba cakes
In this case, Aniplex He explained why he did so, especially in a country where cakes decorated with motifs related to any manga or anime are common.
One of the main accusations was for accepting orders via mail, where it is not possible to see the communication between the buyer and the seller, in addition to not revealing the sales office. Another accusation was for posting many images and photos of the products.
At least for Aniplex the way of proceeding of the saleswoman of cakes Kimetsu no yaiba it was ‘malicious’. The company said it was concerned that the illegality of the unauthorized use of the series was unknown.
In short, they are using this case as an example to Japanese society. What is not known is what will happen to the accused, who was detained by the police. She has already admitted the charges, so there is nothing more to say.
Copyright came into play in this case.
In Japan what this person did is considered to be ‘reproduction’ when copying an existing work. What he did was retrace the designs of the characters in the series, not create them from scratch.
Perhaps that was the main problem with what he did, since he practically ‘traced’ the illustrations that the clients sent him. It’s not like creating original illustrations about the cakes. That makes it different from the many fan arts circulating on the Internet.
Could it be repeated what happened with Kimetsu no yaiba outside of Japan? It all depends on the company involved. When there is an intention of profit, companies usually act.
This has led to very notorious cases, such as the threat of lawsuit from Disney against a kindergarten for having walls decorated with their characters. Or when The Pokémon Company demanded to the organizer of a themed party of Pokemon to collect the entrance ticket.
Both cases mentioned above occurred in the United States. But nothing like these cakes Kimetsu no yaiba.
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