Can I be criminally charged because a comic that I co-created with others became the subject of a legal dispute?

Question

I am someone who draws fan-made/doujin comics based on existing works. Around February of this year, I worked on a comic project jointly with several other artists. However, in November, one of the comics I had originally published became an issue, and a request for a refund was made.

The person in charge of the doujinshi compilation is demanding that I reimburse the entire amount, even though quite a long time has passed and I was not the person responsible for the overall publication of the compilation.

Furthermore, I did not receive all of the proceeds from the book sales myself, and there are no receipts or contracts concerning the production of the book.

I would like to know whether the person in charge can file a criminal complaint against me under these circumstances.

Answer

Since you mentioned that this concerns a fan-made/doujin comic, it appears that you created a work based on an existing copyrighted work.

In that case, the first issue to consider is whether your fan-made comic is sufficiently similar to the original work to be considered substantially identical to it, or whether it contains enough independent creativity that it should instead be regarded as an independently created work. If the latter is the case, there would not be a copyright issue in the first place.

If, however, the work is considered a reproduction or a derivative work because of its similarity to the original work, then an important question is whether you obtained permission from the copyright holder of the original work before creating, distributing, or publishing your comic. If you did not obtain such permission, there could indeed be a legal issue.

The next question is who should bear liability if the copyright or the right to create derivative works of the original work has been infringed.

In this case, as you are asking, it does not appear that you alone would necessarily bear responsibility simply because you were the person who created the comic in question.

It appears that the comics created by several artists were compiled and published together. In such a situation, not only the creator of the allegedly infringing comic but also the person who edited and compiled the works may bear responsibility for infringement of the right to create derivative works. The person who distributed and published the compilation may also bear responsibility.

Therefore, it would be inappropriate to place the entire responsibility solely on you, and you should definitely dispute such a demand.

Finally, with regard to copyright infringement, the person in charge cannot file a criminal complaint on the basis of copyright infringement itself. However, they may potentially file a criminal complaint based on another criminal offense, such as fraud. Even in that situation, however, it would be necessary to examine whether there was deception and whether any property or financial benefit was obtained.