The Tokyo High Court ordered an animation company and its subsidiary Wednesday to pay approximately 88 million yen in damages to 361 voice actors for converting cartoons they performed on into videos and DVDs without their consent.
The plaintiffs -- voice actors belonging to the actors' association Nihon Haiyu Rengo -- sued Nippon Animation Co. and its sound and image subsidiary, Onkyo Eizo System Co., in 2000 for converting 31 cartoon series produced in the 1980s and 1990s into videos and DVDs without paying royalties for the use of their voices.
The Tokyo District Court in November ordered that only the subsidiary, which had direct contracts with the voice actors in question, had to pay damages.