Bleach Plagiarism

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Hige
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Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Hige »

Some of you may have heard about this, others may not have.
Nick Simmons, son of Gene Simmons came out with a comic book last august called Incarnate, which at the moment is under heavy speculation of plagiarising various Manga's, most of the speculated work is of Bleach origin.
So without further adieu...
I bring to you a link!
Thoughts and comments?
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Grell »

Ah, the great american dream. Be famous without the work.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Ace »

ATLEAST plagarize something GOOD dammit :0
~ Something something........ yeah~
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Athos »

Hige wrote:Some of you may have heard about this, others may not have.
Nick Simmons, son of Gene Simmons came out with a comic book last august called Incarnate, which at the moment is under heavy speculation of plagiarising various Manga's, most of the speculated work is of Bleach origin.
So without further adieu...
I bring to you a link!
Thoughts and comments?
Interestingly enough, I have not been able to find a lawsuit on behalf of either parties (I've looked as far as I could in the United States District Court for the Northern District Court) and I've looked through much of the orders at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. But still, I checked under the District Court to be safe (I looked there since Viz Media, LLC has HQ in SF and Radical is also HQ in good ol' Cali). It's odd to see a quite striking similarity between the works, but I honestly don't know if that is enough in the IP arena.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Grell »

Enough? Man, it looks like he took paper and traced the panels. xD I don't think he could pass it off as a coincidence.

Not just that, but from what I can tell, is the plot line fairly similar also?
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Athos »

Grell wrote:Enough? Man, it looks like he took paper and traced the panels. xD I don't think he could pass it off as a coincidence.

Not just that, but from what I can tell, is the plot line fairly similar also?
The thing is though about literature, is that everything builds off of each other. (Although, I have to admit, it isn't a strong argument because probably by the other action-adventure novels came about, Robinson Crusoe was already in public domain). Copyright infringements happen when a copyright holders rights have been violated (i.e: Person X held a copyright for XYZ while Person Y began to either distribute a mutation, or perform, etc...XYZ without a contract from Person X). The problem too is that it isn't necessarily clear when a mutation is just a mutation and when 2 people have a similar drawing style...Hey, it is possible.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Grell »

I suppose it is, but quite honestly, the characters seem waaaaay to similar to just call it a similar drawing style. If the kid had prior work, I might believe it, but I doubt it.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Athos »

Another interesting fact is, if you go to the copyright catalog, there is only a copyright listed for a Bleach wall calendar.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Grell »

o.O So, you mean, this guy looked it up so that he COULDN'T get sued for copyright. What a smart (stupid) cookie.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Athos »

Perhaps that is what he did. If you'd like to take a whack at it click here

And if that were the case, then if this were to be adjudicated, it'd be hard to Tite Kubo's party to claim infringement because the only thing found is a wall calendar, not a manga.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Grell »

Huh.... Is it possible he has a copyright via something/someone else?
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Athos »

It should have come up either under: Tite Kubo, Bleach manga, Shueisha, or Viz Media Inc. Either one of those should have generated a hit within the copyright catalog. Each of the things I said all correspond to a copyright--Shueisha as a publisher, Viz Media Inc. being the Northern America distributor, Tite Kubo as a creator--these are all things that are found when you open any book, on the title information where you can find the ISBN-13/EAN....You know. I just had an idea. Next time I go into work, I'll have to grab a Bleach manga and look to see the Copyright number. All of that is on the page of info that's in all print media.

And do you mean He as in Simmons, or He as in Kubo? (I'm assuming your referring to Kubo). I tried various keywords that should have brought up the Bleach manga. Although the original Bleach manga was published/copyrighted in Japan, it still had to be registered with the US Copyright Office for distribution (and I'm not entirely sure about how international copyright law works). Otherwise, you're stuck with trademarks, etc...and for those at Radical publishing, they clearly didn't violate any trademarks (and yes, I've already checked).
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Grell »

xD I love how we've turned this into a "FIND THE COPYRIGHT!" game.

But the catalog, is it just for american/US copyrights? I mean, if that's the case, then I could see why the original copyright for Bleach isn't listed. The calender could've been the only item copyrighted and made in the US.
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Athos »

Yes. As far as I'm aware of, there isn't a international database for copyrighted material. Like I said, I'm pretty sure to distribute Bleach here, it would have to have a copyright. Otherwise, I'll have to go look into the following agreements:Berne (Paris) July 15, 1899; Bilateral May 10,
1906; UCC Geneva Apr. 28, 1956; UCC Paris Oct. 21, 1977;
Phonograms Oct. 14, 1978; WTO Jan. 1, 1995; WCT Mar. 6,
2002; WPPT Oct. 9, 2002
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Grell »

Sorry, I don't speak spiffy law language. o.O What is all that?
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Re: Bleach Plagiarism

Post by Athos »

Those are all treaties in force (with the exception to the Bilateral May Treaty of 1906 because it has been superseded by another treaty) on intellectual property between the United States and Japan.
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