Doragostea Din Tei-Love Animation Update

Anime News Service reports that Japanese music and home video production and distribution company Avex announced September 30th that the company was withdrawing its application for a copyright on an animated character called “Nomaneko” which appeared in a animation video for the O-zone song “Doragostea Din Tei-Love.”

The “Nomaneko” character and Avex’s attempt to copyright its image drew harsh criticism from the Japanese public because “Nomaneko” was obviously a version of the public domain ASCII character “Mona,” popularized in Japan’s public 2 Channel message board. Japanese public criticism speculated that approval of Avex’s copyright application would set a Japanese legal precedent that could seriously infringe on Japanese artistic creativity.