> shops/dealers by executive(s), rather they were 
> sold by individual(s) who worked on or at the 
> production studio, then I'd still regard them as 
> stolen studio property.

Even that case is questionable : Most studio let their
employee keep some cels of an anime they worked on. They
perfectly know that it's a way to give a "bonus" as they
can resell those cels. So this is definitively not "stolen".

What happen now if a studio let its employee do that has
usual and then promise all the cels to a dealer ? Again, it
would be a purely internal problem between the studio, its
employee and the dealer.

Now, what really bother me is this :

1) Assume that the cels are really stolen by someone outside
   of the studio and sold to a few big shops.

   Then you can't do nothing against those shops (because you
   don't want to lose their business) and at the same time go
   against the people who buy from those shops.

2) Assume that the cels are stolen by employee of the studio

   Then you can't do nothing against those emplyee and only go
   after people or shops for bought from those person without
   knowing. (Naturaly, in that case, the argument from the point
   above is also valid)

It looks like Rick doesn't want to go against the person who stole
the cels (if they were really stolen) or again the few large
shops that put them on the market because it would be bad business
for him. But at the same time, he want to go after people that
are "down the lign" because he doesn't need them.
Either they are stolen or they aren't. But they can't be
"half-stolen" depending on if he need the people who have them
or not...

> speaking, what would AL need to do or have done, 
> to have the exclusive rights to sell them?

He can't. What I mean is :

When a reseller get an exclusivity from a manufacturer, that
mean that the manufacturer will only sell to him.

But other resellers have every right to sell the same produces
as long as they can get them legaly. (Which is often the case
because exclusivity are generaly restricted to one area.
Example : There is a company here in Switzerland that has the
exclusivity for Epson's produces. That mean that Epson won't
sell to another reseller in Switzerland. But nothing prevent
other resellers to get Epson produces from another a differant
reseller in another country and sell them here.

Ie: You get an exclusivity to receive the produce. Not to
sell it : You can't forbid someone to resell a produce as
long as it's legal/not stolen.

Cheers,
Yann Stettler