Bootlegged goods in AKB
Ok, what the fuck’s going on here? There have now been more than three separate occasions where I’ve seen Fluke’s (even if Fluke vectors doujin images, he credits the artist so he’s cool in my books) vectors of TimTimMachine’s work around AKB.
First Occasion
Ok, this actually wasn’t in AKB, but in Shibuya Mandarake. I also lack photo evidence (for obvious reasons), but bear with me, ok? While looking through cheap and bad doujin dakimakura I’d never buy (all the good stuff is the showcases) I came across a cover that was clearly just an older version of this vector.
It struck me as odd then. An anomaly. I don’t doubt that bootlegged anime goods exist in Japan (they exist in large numbers) but the fact that I knew both of the parties involved behind that imagery did spook me a bit.
Second Occasion
In the midst of some late-night AKB strolling, I wandered towards one of the shadier stores to check out their wares. Low and behold, I found (what looks like) a mini dakimakura, once again featuring another older version of this vector.
Third Occasion
This third run-in comes to us via Akiba Blog-san, but I do intend to check this out later myself. Long story short, some guy in the backstreets of AKB decided to make bootlegged oppai mouse pads. The imagery used is either appropriated fanart, or appropriated official imagery, but the Mikuru pad is–once again–a vector by Fluke based off of a TimTimMachine illustration. While the original can’t be found (a lot of the old vectors got lost in some site move, by the way) here’s a newer version. That’s an 18+ link, by the way.
I won’t be buying any of these since I don’t like bootlegged goods, even if official Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu dakimakura and oppai mouse pads are zero in number. Ok, so Animage did put out some low quality Haruhi dakimakura (one of which I have) but that’s it. Clearly if they want to get a one-up on these pirates, Kyoto Animation must act with official goods.
I’m waiting for that Mikuru dakimakura, you hear?
“I’m waiting for that Mikuru dakimakura…”
Hear hear, you said it.
if somebody does a fanart of some char in a dkimakura-ready design, that person release it on, idk a creative commons free, not-profit, credit auhtor license, and then you find some kind of plotter service store that allows you to print any random image on dakimakuras, and you use the image crediting the author and all…. that would be ok for your standards?
it would not be official stuff, but certainly it wouldn’t be bootlegged either
eBay is littered with these things all over the place. I could have them removed (I think) if I were to fax them information proving that those are my artworks. Since my versions differ from the original I think that it should qualify me as the copyright holder to my versions (I think).
But, it’s not going to stop them from coming back or being on the streets. Kind of cool though to see some of my stuff pop up like that, apparently they like it enough to make things out of it, I always tried to make my works look as official as possible.
Awesome post btw, very cool of you to write something like that. How big is that small daki in the picture, I almost thought of buying one haha.
Ugh, okay, this is completely out of the blue, and I only have my own lack of knowledge to blame for it, but what do you mean when you say “vector”?
Vector is shorthand for cleaned up traces of images (usually dirty scans) made with vector-based software–primarily Adobe Illustrator.