Funimation Sues A.D. Vision, Sentai, Others for US$8 Million

AN Shows
21

[quote=Tonka]
According to the article, even Funi never really had the licenses as it says they were in a “distrubution agreement” for those properties, like what they’re were doing with Geneon.[/quote]
Am I thinking in too simple of terms to believe that any company could pick up the titles after one of the companies (the one with the majority rights) holding the rights go under? Or would the other company in the distrobution agreement automatically have first-dibs on it? :huh:

If I remember anything about the Geneon and Funimation deal, Funimation took some of the titles they wanted (acquiring the rights and such) and threw the rest to the wind. Somehow or another, I don’t see where the line can be drawn from the creditor to the credited, seeing how both of them seemed to make joint funds on it through a company that now doesn’t exsist. Please tell me if I’m wrong in my assuptions. :unsure:

22

First, let me agree with someone else on this:

[quote=chrisc]
The biggest losers will be the fans.[/quote]

Without seeing the contracts themselves I can’t directly say who is in the right or wrong. What I do know is that it is legally possible for one person/company/entity to transfer a debt or credit they have to another if both parties agree to it and sign the correctly worded legal documents. When that is done the new owner of a debt is responsible for paying it, and the new owner of a credit is the one who keeps the money once it is payed. The major question here is whether ADV intentionally split up in an underhanded manner to get out of a debt or if they properly openly auctioned off their properties only to have the winning bidders be former ADV executives. If they didn’t intentionally utilize a loophole to avoid a major debt then legally the companies that resulted from the auctions are not liable for any debts that were not payed by by the funds earned through the auctions. If they did intentionally utilize a loophole to avoid paying a major debt then any company that was formed by a former ADV executive, and their associates, is still liable for the debt despite legally being separate entities. It doesn’t even have that much to do with the contracts (other than the bit about Funimation being able to collect on the debt) but with how ADV’s properties were sold off and split apart.

Also, from what everyone here is saying it almost sounds like ADV had been suckered into buying a bunch of dangerous licenses at once and the company that sold them then manipulated the situation to intentionally put ADV into default on the debt. If that is the case, and it can be definitively proven in court, then legally speaking the debt itself becomes null and void as it was used to intentionally harm or disrupt another person/company/legal entity.

Now, for an extra observation. There is an innate difference between a judge trial and a jury trial. That difference being if the judge’s decision isn’t legally sound in a judge trial they can be removed from office, barred from serving as a judge again, and all decisions they made immediately come under review, while in a jury trial it comes down to who the jury wants to win, they technically don’t have to side with the law. As such, the biggest reason to specifically request a jury trial, rather then letting the pre-trial review judge make the decision, is because you either know or suspect that you are on questionable legal ground and suspect that you cannot win it through strictly legal means, but you have a lawyer(s) who’s great at showmanship and persuasion and you suspect, or know, the other sides lawyer(s) just isn’t as good. Because of that I suspect that somehow or another something underhanded, and not quite legal, took place in the events that led up to ADV going under and Funimation acquiring the rights to the debt that ADV owed.

Regardless of what the truth is the fans are going to suffer for it, and the lawyers are going to come out ahead.

On a side not, I hadn’t known that Dragonball Z Kai had been Funimation’s translation attempt at DBZ, but even in the initial Saiyan Saga, before Radditz was defeated even, there were almost two full episodes of content that I hadn’t seen before. I might not appreciate them editing out the blood (I’m not a fan of excessive blood and gore, but I also don’t agree with eliminating it when it’s only realistic to have it either), but I do like seeing the complete DBZ story. I’m not a huge DBZ fan, but I’m not a small one either, and in anything I watch/read/play I like to have the complete, and as true to original as possible, story (Another reason to dislike Microshit, they forced SquareEnix to translate Star Ocean: The Last Hope in a specific manner such that the NA release of the game was effectively completely re-scripted, Sony didn’t do that for the -International- version, thus for someone who tries to play both they don’t even feel like the same game even though technically they are. I know, not exactly related, but it’s about my point on having the correct story and not a ‘whatever-the-hell-the-translators-felt-like-giving-us’ story which to a fair extent many early animes, such as DBZ and Saior Moon, suffered from.), as such personally I do hope that Funimation doesn’t get completely obliterated if they lose, just they’re upper management assholes and fuckups (seriously, they’re dub run of The Slayers is a horrid disgrace, I much prefer the original, but yet they did a good job with Fullmetal Alchemist and other series).

23

This thread just made me make up my mind on ordering a few Sentai animes next Rightstuf Sentai sale I have been putting off, and nothing from the Funi sale now. Like Clannad blu-ray, The World God Only Knows blu-ray, Motto To Love Ru, I am also go watch a few episodes of a other animes to see what animes I want like maybe 11 Eyes, Akikan!, MM!, La Corda d’Oro and maybe one or two more and make one big order.

24

The Geneon deal was a simple distro deal. After the Geneon rights expired to some titles Funimation did pick them up like Samurai Champloo. Now when all this was happening ADV was having trouble with ARMS and I got a sneaking suspicion Geneon’s Japanese side knew about it and thus is why Funimation got the Geneon deal instead of ADV whom it may have saved.

The ARMS deal from what my understanding was actually a full transfer. This states it was more along the lines of the Geneon deal though and sounds like ARMS may have also sold Funimation or gave control of that 20% of ADV with distro deal.

ARMS for all intents and purposes is gone. The way I always have heard it is ARMS did not understand how an American company worked and kept try to make ADV run like a Japanese company. Then when ADV would not go that way they went to Funimation. Now ARM’s invested in I think it was 20% of ADV.

Now if I understand everything when ADV folded everything that was ADV was transferred to Aesir holdings for this very reason that if anyone came back with depts it would be Aesir holdings responsibility and not effect the new separate companies such as Sentai Filmworks etc, etc , etc…

The problem is that Aesir Holdings pretty much has little if anything. Certainly no where near $8 million. Now if I get this right unless Funimation legal finds a way to force them all into one. All they could hope to get is Aesir Holdings and whatever they have.

The way the other companies were set up basically means at this time they can’t touch anything from them. Everything is for all legal purposes are separate entity’s entirely.

This whole thing in the end is just a huge cluster that I’m sure makes sense only to lawyers in the end.

25

[quote=mitamaking]
ADV signed a horrible deal with Sojitz, Funimation bought the titles from Sojitz, likely under the table, but that does not change the fact that ADV due to that horrible contract owes Funimation 8 million dollars, put yourself in the shoes of Funimation, that is 8 million dollars, that is a lot.

I’m sick of having to be the devil’s advocate here.[/quote]

That may be true, but we don’t know anything for certain. First of all, we don’t even know if ARM or now Funimation was ever do the money in the first place. That will have to be proven in court.

Secondly, if the case was very cut and dry and Funi had sound legal standings, then they wouldn’t be requesting a jury trial. They would goon before And arbitration panel. Since they are specifically requesting a jury trial their legal counsel either feels they have a weak case or they are hoping to drag things out long enough to cause significant financial damage to Sentai. Both scenarios happen quite often but don’t exactly give Funi the moral high ground.

As a business manager I can see both sides of this case. But as a fan I’m more concerned about the overall health of the anime industry than whether Funi can get money it says it is owed. If Funi wins their case, they are the only winners. The rest of us all loose.

Not to mention I hav to question why Funi would agree to take on debt owed by ADV unless they were plan int a stunt like this to keep them down and out permanently.

26

@Iron K. Tager: You posted while while I was typing up my infa-post (no, that’s not a typo, it’s short for ‘infamous post’ do to the length, and slight degree of meandering). You’re not quit right, but you’re not quite wrong either.

If a company goes under, then the properties that they hold rights to typically go up for auction. If there is more than one company with partial ownership of those rights when one goes under than the other company(s) get an initial chance to acquire the portion of the rights that the other had. Once the rights go up for auction whoever purchases them (and they don’t always go up for auction, sometimes the one who initially sold the rights takes them back and voids out the agreement, thus allowing them to re-sell them however they choose) is responsible for fulfilling the obligations the first company had regarding said rights, excluding any existing debt associated with them. The debt only transfers if it isn’t sold through an open auction, but that then requires the agreement of whoever originally sold them the rights.

Aside from that morass of technicalities and rules (and that’s not the complete mess, that’s just the basic run-down so that most people can understand them and follow what is going on, similar to what you’d be told if you were on a jury for a trial over such a matter) you are essentially correct. And it’s that lack of a clear connection that I suspect Funimation is intending to exploit by holding a jury trial instead of a judge trial, because without a clear legal connection a judge can not enforce the debt, but a jury can.

Don’t you just love our legal system that almost feels like it’s designed to screw over the little guy who doesn’t have the time or means to learn and understand all of the intricacies of it?

27

psychopuppet and dragonrider_cody both bring up good points.

First, when ADV went under, if all of their properties were initially transfered to Aesir Holdings then only Aesir Holdings can be held legally responsible for any outstanding debts owed by ADV, and not whoever Aesir sold the properties to.

Second, although it’s hard to prove that Funimation took on the credit with the intent to prevent ADV from ever recovering, if the defendants indirectly present it as a possibility (thus the judge can’t tell the jury to disregard it) that could severely hamper Funimation in a jury trial (because once the jury believes you intentionally did something underhanded so that you could cause problems for someone else in the future it’s nearly impossible to win them over, remember: ‘You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.’).

Together with what I’ve mentioned before, and dragonrider_cody reinforced, it’s rather obvious why Funimation is seeking a jury trial, and it’s not because everything is on the up and up.

editYes, I have two posts in a row, however the first post was typed while chrisc, psychopuupet, and dragonrider_cody were making their posts, so this one is a true separate post. Rare, isnt’ it?

28

Both Psycopuppet & Dragonrider are correct. This lawsuit won’t affect Sentai,Section23 or any other enitities since they’re all tied to a different investment group “SCION/SX23”. AEsir Holdings is carrying ADV’s debt so it’ll be Funimation VS ADV & A.D. Vision Inc and its 5 LLCs will be dismissed from the suit.

I have every reason to believe that this case won’t go to jury. A settlement or a Judge ruling is more possible. Somehow out of this I think Funimation will pick up AEsir Holdings & THUS finally put whats left of ADV Films out of its misery

29

[quote=Razmoudah]
The debt only transfers if it isn’t sold through an open auction, but that then requires the agreement of whoever originally sold them the rights.[/quote]

So it would have to have been a closed-door deal; ok, now I understand. Thank you for clarifying. :slight_smile: I haven’t kept up in my knowladge of company handlings, I guess. :blush:

Is there currently, or a release date to which, an offical claim posed by Funimation will become available stating the specifics (per company claim) of what is going on here so the not-so-involved people (such as people who don’t pay much attention to these dealings and have a hard time understanding the legality without detailed documentation and explination) can understand? Or will I have to wait til the actual court date?

If I have little availability to such information, and if anyone feels like putting up with me, please message me so I can get an individual explination. I would like to get it from someone here rather than from Funimation… [size=1]since I know Funimation sometimes has a tendency to lie.[/size]

30

[quote=TornadoTamaki]
Both Psycopuppet & Dragonrider are correct. This lawsuit won’t affect Sentai,Section23 or any other enitities since they’re all tied to a different investment group “SCION/SX23”. AEsir Holdings is carrying ADV’s debt so it’ll be Funimation VS ADV & A.D. Vision Inc and its 5 LLCs will be dismissed from the suit.

I have every reason to believe that this case won’t go to jury. A settlement or a Judge ruling is more possible. Somehow out of this I think Funimation will pick up AEsir Holdings & THUS finally put whats left of ADV Films out of its misery[/quote]

Source - http://www.advfilms.com/

[quote]FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A.D.VISION, INC. CONCLUDES SERIES OF ASSET TRANSACTIONS

HOUSTON, September 1, 2009 — A.D. VISION, INC. (“ADV” or the “Company”) announced today that June 1, 2009, the Company concluded a series of transactions that are expected to result in seamless delivery of home video products and television programming to customers.

Through an asset purchase agreement, AEsir Holdings, LLC (“Aesir”) acquired a subordinated interest in selected programming from ADV’s film library together with other intellectual property subject to all liens and security interests of the Company’s senior secured lender. The transaction requires Aesir to assume specific obligations and scheduled liabilities of the Company under legacy license agreements associated with the acquired programming.

Concurrently, the Company concluded an asset purchase agreement with SXION 23, LLC, doing business as “Section23 Films,” a home video distribution company, under which it assumes account servicing and distribution operations in connection with the library acquired by Aesir, subject to all liens and security interest of the Company’s senior secured lender.

John Ledford, ADV’s President and CEO, states “We believe the actions we initiated and completed provided the same or more value to the Company’s secured lender and its programming licensors while giving other key stakeholders such as employees and customers some potential value or the reasonable probability of realizing value.”

In a separate transaction, Valkyrie Media Partners, LLC (“Valkyrie”) acquired a 100% equity position in Anime Network, Inc. (“ANI”), formerly ADV’s television unit, pursuant to a stock purchase agreement between ADV and Valkyrie. That transaction includes an assumption by Valkyrie of specific liens and security interests of the Company’s senior secured lender.

In another separate transaction, Seraphim Studios, LLC acquired Amusement Park Media, the production unit of A.D. Vision, Inc.

Further announcements are expected from the respective acquiring entities over the coming days.[/quote]

Sentai Filmworks, Sentai Holdings, Unio Mystica Holdings (A.K.A. Switchblade Pictures) has no conection with ADV at all.

31

Okay, assuming that the way things are worded in chrisc’s last post are concurrent with how the sale contracts were written out here is my understanding of it.

ADV sold of they’re assets (the licenses and such, most likely including physical property) in multiple transactions to primarily three separate companies. AEsir Holdings purchased one portion, including responsibility for any liens (aka. debts) directly associated with the specific assets that they purchased. SXION 23 purchased another portion (from the wording of it the remaining assets with the exception of Anime Network), again including responsibility for any liens directly associated with the specific assets that they purchased. Valkyrie Media Partners purchased the final portion of the assets (Anime Network), once again including responsibility for any liens directly associated with the specific assets that they purchased.

Now, I don’t know enough of the corporate sub-sets of law to have even a decent understanding of just what AEsir Holdings specific responsibilities are that are referenced in the last line of their section. And, that might even require seeing the actual sales contract itself, as it might not be specifically spelled out in the legal code anywhere (the portions that I am familiar with are mostly private citizen and small business focused, and although they apply to larger legal entities there start to be a lot of sub-rules that get involved that don’t normally apply to the small legal entities).

Without seeing the contract itself to see if Aesir specifically took full responsibility for all of ADV’s existing debts or not it is possible that Section23 does technically owe some portion of that debt, but it would be specifically limited to only those assets that they took on that were originally a part of the debt. With Funimation pushing for a jury trial either a) Aesir did take full responsibility for all of ADV’s existing debts or b) Section23 got a very small portion of the assets, if any at all, that were originally a part of the debt and Funimation is wanting them to cover the difference that Aesir can’t pay (in other words they’re after the money specifically and don’t care that much about the actual assets associated with the debt other than that there is an outstanding debt owed on them). Again, the main reason to push for a jury trial, instead of just letting a judge make the final call, is because similar to a courtroom drama show (they might be overly dramatized, but they do have a few extremely important small details correct) in a jury trial the law is just a strongly advised guideline and not absolute rules, thus whoever has the better showmanship and/or is more persuasive wins regardless of the legal particulars and small details.

Although, another significant question is did the licenses that this whole debt fiasco is over get ‘sold’ to one of the companies that purchased ADV’s assets, or did they get returned to the original owner and resold? If so then as far as I know (and this could be where those sub-rules change things) ADV doesn’t owe a single penny in regards to them. The debts would only continue to exist is the licenses involved in them were sold off as part of ADV’s assets, such as I understand the details mentioned regarding the sales.

At this point further speculation is meaningless without significantly greater details regarding the particulars of the sales.

I do agree with TornadoTamaki that this most likely won’t go before a jury, as unless the specifics of the entire mess hit a legal gray area (meaning there isn’t a distinctly defined legal course of action, and no other judge has made a specific ruling to cover it) I highly doubt any judge would subject a jury to the kind of legal minutiae battle this would become, as most jurors don’t know enough about the law and would just be overwhelmed by the details.

32

[quote=Razmoudah]
Although, another significant question is did the licenses that this whole debt fiasco is over get ‘sold’ to one of the companies that purchased ADV’s assets, or did they get returned to the original owner and resold? If so then as far as I know (and this could be where those sub-rules change things) ADV doesn’t owe a single penny in regards to them. The debts would only continue to exist is the licenses involved in them were sold off as part of ADV’s assets, such as I understand the details mentioned regarding the sales.[/quote]

The licenses themselves, as far as I know, were completely pulled from ADV by ARM, (at least the ones purchased through ARM), most of which, ended up in FUNimations hands in July 2008.

I’m not sure what’s going on with Best Student Council.
TAN still has it (they could have licensed it directly from the JP company though) and ADV released a complete set in Aug. 2008, which in Jan. 2008 is when all the Sojitz/ARM stuff started to go down, which lasted a few months while in negotiations to try and keep the licenses.

The new neo-ADV companies weren’t filed until May 2009, so none of the actual ARM licenses should have been involved in any way.

33

Source - ICv2: Interview with John Ledford, Part One

Posted on 10/20/2008

This is the first posting I can find for Sentai Filmworks & Switchblade Pictures on October 20, 2008, Ann Sojitz to Dissolve ARM Subsidiary for Anime Overseas - News - Anime News Network Sojitz Dissolved ARM Subsidiary on October 22, 2008, Funimation FUNimation Entertainment Awarded Rights to Titles Previously Held by AD Vision - Anime News Network the 30 animes from arm on July 4, 2008. Adv asset transaction happend on September 1, 2009.

Welcome to the NHK, Vol. 5 was the last ADV dvd that came out that is now licensed by funi the release date was July 8, 2008.

Source - ADV Films - Anime Expo 2008 - Anime News Network

Posted on Jul 4th, 2008

This is proof that Sentai Filmworks is not part of ADV.

Source - ADV Gets Indian Summer Anime, Five Live-Action Titles - News - Anime News Network

Posted on August 10th, 2008

I am confused about this.

34

I blabbered about this on twitter for awhile. I can’t help but feel you guys are on the right track here. Pretty much agree with your general viewpoints. One important thing to note is we have no idea if Funimation is doing bad lately or not. Sure they have been slowing down, but for all we know DBZ and FMA could still be treating them nicely. They might have slowed down recently in order to prepare for these upcoming legal fees. We really can’t know.

Here’s some important things to keep in mind.

We don’t know how much money Sentai, Section 23, Switchblade Pictures, Seraphim Digital, and AEsir Holdings have.

  • We don’t know who their partners or investors are, if they exist. Nor do we no how deep their pockets go*
  • We don’t know how badly 8 million would hurt them*
    *We do know that in cases like this, it’s pretty uncommon to get everything you want, so I wouldn’t expect anyone to lose the whole 8 million even in the worst case scenario. *
    I personally like to think John Ledford is a smart guy, and wouldn’t have set up all these different companies in such a way unless they were legally protected
    *Then again Funimation wouldn’t have done this unless they thought they had some legal basis. *
  • We’re not sure when the clock begins on the statue of limitations, but I’m on the side of “it’s over 2 years by now”*

Anyway I find this will just be a terrible thing for everyone. I hope the judge just throws it out, or they settle out of court. I miss the days when anime companies were focused on just getting anime to us. I miss the days when companies weren’t out to put their competitors out of business . Maybe such a day never existed, but I’d like to think this situation wouldn’t have happened in the early 90’s, when it was about getting anime out there, seeing if it would work here. A time when people were working out of closetes in other companies, opening companies on their kitchen tables, and doing work in their living rooms. Personally I don’t plan on buying anything from Funimation in awhile. I don’t like this one bit, and find them to be an agressor here, doing what they want over what’s good for the entire market. it seems very underhanded of them. I was going to buy some old school anime, but instead plan to pre-order “The World God Only Knows” and either buy something from them thats out already or pre-order “ef ~ A Tale of Memories” .

35

[quote=Prede]
Then again Funimation wouldn’t have done this unless they thought they had some legal basis.[/quote]
I can’t actually support that statement. There are a lot of times when a legal entity (as this has been done by all of the different classifications) has started a case where they either had a very hazy legal basis, or none whatsoever. The overwhelming majority of these cases never make big headlines, as normally they are handled behind closed doors and the side filing the charges doesn’t normally request a jury trial, but for those who watch any single industry closely it can be seen to happen more often then most realize.

In the US companies have been actively trying to put their competitors out of business in most areas since the 1700’s, as that basic practice nearly dates back to the renaissance. The difference is that they didn’t start to do so through lawsuits until the 1900’s. Also, for any new industry, where it just isn’t possible to attempt to start big and there may be several small groups interested in being a part of it, the companies usually don’t do anything more than passive competition by offering different subcategories of products/services within that industry for a few years. Once the ‘new’ industry itself has been around long enough to have a strong passive consumer base, which basically means there isn’t much room left for general industry growth, the companies start to more heavily compete with each other, taking direct actions to eliminate competitors so they can have a greater portion of the industry. Pair that with a severe recession/mild depression (what the US economy has been like the past few years) and things get even worse as there is effectively less money in every industry as a whole making it harder for those who don’t have significant portions to survive. If the economy was still extremely strong (like it was in the late 90’s) we probably wouldn’t have seen ADV go under over this mess in the first place.

In response to what The Coffee God posted, if all of the licenses that were part of the ARM deal were pulled by ARM and sold to another company before the asset transactions to the neo-ADV companies then I don’t see how ADV still legally owes on the debt involved with acquiring the licenses, let alone any of the companies that acquired ADV assets. Again, that could have something to do with how all of those legal sub-rules for larger companies affect the details, but I doubt it operates on the complete opposite of how things work on the private citizen and small business level. I could understand a lawsuit for ‘loss of income due to failure to meet contractual obligations’, but the right to file such a lawsuit cannot be transfered. In addition most contracts have some sort of ‘penalty’ clause for failure to fulfill your portion, but again to the extent of my knowledge the right to collect on, and keep, that ‘penalty’ cannot be transfered to another legal entity, it can only be collected and then transferred to whomever it would’ve originally been owed to. If the legal entity it is owed to no longer exists then once again to the extent of my knowledge it cannot be collected on at all, exception being if is something owed to a private citizen their inheritors/descendants can still collect on it.

Regardless something sounds extremely screwy here, and without seeing the contracts, and relevant sections of legal code, I don’t have the slight clue what is correct here, but the more I here the more it sounds like a BS case meant just do disrupt the business practices of Funimations competition. Filing such a case is actually illegal, but many companies are willing to eat the fines for it if they think they can gain more profits than what they will lose to filing the lawsuit (which then implies that Funimation is actually doing rather well and they’re just trying to keep their competition from doing well, which makes sense considering they have their own cable network on certain cable providers but the companies they filed against don’t as far as I know). From what most people have been saying here though I suspect that this will (I don’t have the slightest doubt on this) hurt Funimation more than the neo-ADV companies in the end though, regardless of just what the truth is and who wins the lawsuit (assuming it doesn’t get settle out of court or thrown out).

In another little tidbit, I’d forgotten I was on the Funimation mailer list until I got an e-mail Friday mentioning they have a sail on Fruits Basket and X ($15 for either complete series). Although Fruits Basket is on my ‘Anime to buy’ list, and $15 is a great price to get a complete series even if I don’t decide to keep it, I just don’t have the money at present, and of course the sale ends on Monday, weeks before I might have the money. I might not like what Funimation is doing with the lawsuit, but a good anime series is still a good anime series regardless of who has the legal rights to sell it at present.

36

You know, I was just thinking…

Most of FUNi’s ‘license rescues’ over the past few years have been old ADV licenses.
It makes one curious if those were somehow connected to this.

37

I find it funny that they’re going after ADV, Sentai, etc. and is asking the judge to null, void ADV’s assests transfer when they themselves were involved with dare I say, “shady” deals:

TV Tokyo, Nihon Ad Terminate Yu-Gi-Oh! Deal, Sue 4Kids

4Kids Files Shareholders’ Report on Yu-Gi-Oh! Lawsuit

Course the suit was put on hold then dropped,

4Kids’ Yu-Gi-Oh! License Is Still in Force, Court Rules

but it doesn’t change the fact that they were named by the Japanese licensors themselves. Seems Funi’s taking a page out of “The Book of Japan.”

P.S. Spread the word, my minions…

muahahahahahah… :silly:

38

[quote=TheCoffeeGod]
You know, I was just thinking…

Most of FUNi’s ‘license rescues’ over the past few years have been old ADV licenses.
It makes one curious if those were somehow connected to this.[/quote]

I wonder if there are a few titles from the past that ADV won’t let go of. It dos seem Funimation is trying to kill of the competition. If not that, they are hard up for cash. Notice the licenses they have been acquiring has tried up quite a bit. There is no way they are making good money off dubbing everything. These events won’t kill the R1 industry BUT it will kill dubbing. Bet on that.

39

For anyone wanting to keep track, I’ll post this (which was posted on the ANN forums)…

[SIZE=“15”][URL=“http://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/eDocs/Public/Search.aspx?Tab=tabCivil#”]Harris County Clerk [/URL][/SIZE]

By searching for:

Case (Cause) Number:
201167220

Listed as:
FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT vs. A D VISION INC (Court 151)

40

So a thought has occurred to me recently. We know many of ADV’s assets were purchased by Valkyrie, Seraphim, and others. But as far as we can tell, Sentai and Switchblade didn’t purchase any assets from the company and didn’t benefit from the deal in any manner. Thy hired away some key personnel and even occupy the same offices, though there is no law against that as companies do it all the time.

Even the ADV licenses that Sentai acquired were purchased from the Japanese rights holders after ADV’s licenses had lapsed. Funi may be able to prove their case against Anime Network, Section 23 and others, but they may have trouble pulling Sentai and Switchblade into it. The licenses such as Clannad, Princess Resurrction, Canaan and others may be relatively safe.