Kevin Wayne Williams wrote:

> Eric Takabayashi wrote:
>
> >>Because the piracy should be dealt with harshly by the domestic legal
> >>authorities, not treated as a minor civil infraction. A few fansubbers
> >>serving long jail sentences would solve the problem fairly rapidly.
> >
> > It would solve the problem of unauthorized releases and piracy, not the problem of
> > pricing itself, as can be seen in the price differences between Japanese and US
> > video releases of such as animation.
>
> But that isn't a problem. In both markets, the seller prices his product
> at the point that he believes maximizes his profit. Those price points
> are different in different markets. Basic economics.

Is that what you really believe such a discrepancy represents? Even when a current,
remastered, upgraded US DVD release exists, when one has never existed in Japan and
there is NO current release of the 33 year old product in the home market? You don't
believe some remastered release of "Kikaida" on DVD for $20 a volume in Japan would
make TOEI more sales and profit than NOTHING?

On the other hand I can see that the licensed US production company does not have a
problem selling to people in foreign markets. They certainly don't have a problem with
hordes of Japanese shopping at Ala Moana picking up their products.

Does this represent a problem to you?

I forgot to ask in my last post: Why do you draw the line at the fansubbers or pirates?
Why not prosecute and jail the fans and customers as thieves as well? That is what
would really be required to address the problem, even with the existence of authorized
products.