Media Factory Inc. attacks Animesuki.com

[gkanai]

Removal of Media Factory Inc. Works

Removal of Media Factory Inc. Works

AnimeSuki is a website that aims to be a portal for finding all unlicensed English anime torrents. By limiting the content to only unlicensed anime, we had tried to avoid associating AnimeSuki with piracy, even though as stated on the Licensed Anime page, fansubs are technically a violation of copyright. By not listing licensed anime, AnimeSuki avoided getting into any legal trouble with US anime companies, simply because we don't list anything they hold the copyright of.

As also stated on the page mentioned above, up until now (or we must unfortunately say: up until recently) fansub groups and anyone involved in the publication of fansubs had little to worry from legal pressure from Japan (ie. from the anime studios - the original copyright holders). We believed that at best Japanese anime studios condoned our actions or at least ignored us as being not much of a threat to them (in terms of revenue, etc).

Unfortunately, it seems times have changed. On December 7, 2004 AnimeSuki received an email from a Tokyo law firm who represents the interests of Media Factory Inc. (a Japanese anime studio) requesting us to stop uploading "works" (anime series) of MFI to our website and/or stop "inducing" our visitors to websites where their "works" can be downloaded.

Needless to say, AnimeSuki has never offered direct downloads of any anime series, nor (with very few exceptions) had anything to do with facilitating the downloading of any of the anime series listed on the site. Also, considering the circumstances it's not entirely sure if, in case this issue ever goes to court, whether they would succeed as AnimeSuki is nothing more than a collection of links, which should not be illegal.

However, the legal notice was addressed at me (GHDpro, creator and webmaster of AnimeSuki) personally and I do not wish to get involved in any kind of legal trouble. Therefore I have decided to remove any links to any "works" (anime series) by Media Factory Inc. from the site immediately. I hope you can understand that I don't wish to become the target of any legal action that Media Factory Inc. might take if I fail to comply with their request, regardless of the level of success such legal action might actually have. I simply want avoid any legal trouble, period.