excuse me for not know, but what's chaiyo?
Aoi Kurenai's explanation wasn't exactly quite right... Eiji Tsuburaya died in 1970, years before Tsuburaya Pro had any dealings with Chaiyo. On SciFi Japan we ran a detailed history of the battle between TPC and Chaiyo. It only covers up to 2007 (the year the article was posted) but it explains how this whole mess got started and should answer any questions you might have...
http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2007/07/01/legal-victories-for-tsuburaya-productions/
I'm hoping that if this does well, if Chaiyo is behind it, then it'll light a fire under Tsuburaya and they'll double their efforts to release a truly official version to the US.
As long as Chaiyo is in the picture, Tsuburaya is legally prevented from releasing the first six Ultra shows in the US.
Why would THEY have anything to do with it? The past times have all been with either Mill Creek or that other one, and I doubt that since the ruling they would screw around like that. IT would be suicide for them as well as Shout Factory to be infringing.
The Japanese courts ruled in Chaiyo's favor, so at this point they're legally able to offer the show and companies like Shout! can license it.
I find it PATHETIC that Tsuburaya has made ZERO attempts at localizing Ultraman for the US. It was extremely successful the last time aka Great, so why not recall the thunder especially when the Toku lightning is hot?
From the early 1980s until 1996, TPC made several attempts to do Ultraman productions in English markets, particularly the US. Most of the projects they developed never saw the light of day, and the few that did get made-- the animated movie ULTRAMAN: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS, the Aussie show ULTRAMAN: TOWARDS THE FUTURE and the US show ULTRAMAN: THE ULTIMATE HERO-- were not successful. After 15 years of getting nowhere, TPC turned their attention back to Japan where they found a lot of success starting with ULTRAMAN TIGA and THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ULTRAMAN.
How the **** are they STILL releasing ANYTHING when they have lost the case in Japan?
Because they didn't lose. All the fan reports saying TPC completely defeated Chaiyo last year got the story wrong.
Why aren't Tsuburaya allowed to distribute their own stuff, exactly?
Because the Japanese court ruled that a 1976 contract granting Chaiyo permanent international rights to the first six Ultra series is valid.
Also, the wording makes it sound like they'd want to "overturn the court decision", whatever that is.
Tsuburaya says the Chaiyo contract is a forgery and have gone to court several times to get the rulings for Chaiyo overturned. You can see photos of the contract in the article I linked to above, and see how legit it is or isn't.
Will any of the money this would make actually go to Tsuburaya?
No.