Miramax Bans Certain Import DVDs

Kung Fu Cinema has made public the fact that Disney owned film distribution company Miramax Films has taking preventative legal action to ban the importation of legitimate, official foreign DVD releases of films Miramax owns domestic distribution rights to, including Zhang Yimou’s Hero and Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer. Although Miramax has a well known reputation for editing and altering the Asian films it licenses for American release, and Miramax has repeatedly delayed and repeatedly extensively altered Shaolin Soccer, the company is still attempting to prevent American residents from importing official, legitimate DVD copies of these movies.

Banning the illegal distribution of unlicensed bootleg copies of movies is a valid policy for a domestic distributor, but attempting to ban the distribution of competing legal, official DVD releases may be considered an unfair business practice, and may also be interpreted as an infringement upon the rights of consumers that choose to purchase legal, official foreign DVDs. While such a corporate move has not yet occurred within the anime fan community, there’s very little figurative distance between attempts to ban the importation of live action Asian DVDs and attempts to ban the importation of official Asian animation DVDs.

The Appeal to Disney – Web Alliance website is still up, offering concerned consumers an avenue for expressing concerns to Miramax and Disney via online petitions and letter writing campaigns.