Original audio track. :up: :up: :)

To clarify points raised earlier in the thread regarding importation of copyrighted material: the US Copyright Act contains the following provision:

"Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of [copyright]." 17 USC § 602(a).

There are exceptions for government use, non-profit education/religious use, and for private use. The private use exception is as follows: § 602(a) does not apply to "importation, for the private use of the importer and not for distribution, by any person with respect to no more than one copy or phonorecord of any one work at any one time, or by any person arriving from outside the United States with respect to copies or phonorecords forming part of such person’s personal baggage." 17 USC § 602(a)(2).

If someone imports a copy of a copyrighted work without the permission of the US copyright holder and sells it on eBay, that is a violation of § 602(a). Anyone who buys an import and sells it on eBay is obviously not using that import "for the private use of the importer and not for distribution."

DJ

Artwork can be found here:

http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?r=0&s=1&c=6704

Yeah, let's leave that to the CIA.


http://img151.echo.cx/img151/4194/kfhboxset3gc.jpg
Great film and I love my DVD of it (which I've had for months like many others who didn't wait for it to appear in the West).

I hope I'm not breaking the Patriot Act by posting my Sony bought back DVD cover here?

I can understand Sony US being a bit scared but annoying real fans who buy legal products from Sony in other parts of the world will do them no favours.

For some reason that cover doesn't thrill me.

I agree that the cover art could have been so much better however, I'm still going to be buying this R1 DVD.

Sony needs to come through with a good transfer for this movie.

Cover sucks but then, so does the R3. I'm double dipping for the features.

The problems are:

1) Sony has no idea which resellers on eBay are "real fans," and which are people just in it to make a buck.

2) The Sony that you bought the R3 from isn't the same Sony that is releasing the film in the US. Columbia Pictures Asia released it in R3, while Sony Pictures Classics is handling the US distribution. While both have the same parent company, each division is responsible for their own budget and profits. Sony Pictures Classics never saw a dime of that money you spent on the R3. All they know is that its sale could harm the theatrical run and DVD sales of their release of the film.

djtoell is correct in that Sony has every legal right to stop the sales of the R3 in the US, and that right extends to eBay as much as it does to any traditional retailer. Normally most distributors don't bother with enforcing it on eBay, but Sony is a bit stricter that others. However, once their R1 DVD is out, I highly doubt they'd have as much of a problem with the R3 sales.

Finally, I wouldn't be so quick to sell the R3. While it's short on extras, it does have the "Unrated" cut of the film, which has a few shots of violence not in the theatrical cut. There's no details yet on what cut the R1 will contain.

Fixed :D

Right, because we got a dubbed and edited release that was delayed for years on end....

No wait, that was Miramax and Shaolin Soccer. Sony actually did a damn fine job with the release that any real fan should be happy with.

Sony's R1 DVD for House of Flying Daggers contains only the edited US theatrical version of the movie. I wouldn't expect them to treat this movie any differently.

new cover

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...uhustledvd.jpg

:down: I prefer the original R3 cover.

Meanwhile I can find a couple hundred Ebay auctions for obviously bootleg anime disks. Goddamn hypocrites.

Would you rather Sony let every title they have be overrun with bootlegs and imports on eBay?

Does Sony even have that many anime releases? I can only think of the Cowboy Bebop movie and Metropolis offhand.

The only times I've heard Sony cracking down on imports is when the title in question gets a US theatrical release. They did the same thing when Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon came to theaters. Considering that in both cases they gave us in theaters the original theatrical cut with the original soundtrack and subtitled, it's not unreasonable for them to want to protect the rather large investment they made in releasing it in the US. Once the film hits video, their enforcement seems to slack. They even let retailers like pokerindustries.com carry import versions of films they carry, like Once Upon A Time In China , unlike Disney and Miramax, who crack down on *every* import version.

Astro Boy: Complete Series
Cowboy Bebop the movie
Memories
Metropolis
Steamboy (coming soon)
Tokyo Godfathers