Funimation confront fansubbing

M

Mangaminx

Stand User
Fansubbing group Shinsen-Subs, have been contacted by American anime licensor Funimation. Fansubbing is the process where fans subtitle their own anime titles and release them for download on the internet. Shinsen had several properties belonging to Funimation available for download on their website, as well as some properties previously unknown to belong to Funimation. Funimation issued Shinsen-Subs with the following message. <ul class="menu">"We own or control various exclusive copyrights and trademarks related to the animated motion pictures, including but not limited to, the series known as "Speed Grapher", "Trinity Blood," "FullMetal Alchemist," "Dragon Ball," "Solty Rei" a.k.a. "Origin," "Detective Conan" a.k.a. "Case Closed," and "Tsubasa".</ul> Funimation also contacted Shinsen-Subs domain provider resulting in their website being suspended. Of the titles listed in Funimation's message to Shinsen, neither Solty Rei or Tsubasa have been announced as official licenses from them as of yet. [ANN]
 
I'm kinda wondering what sort of renaming of a title is "Origin". This certainly looks like Solty Rei and Tsubasa are licensed by FUnimation (who appear to be the only anime company licensing anything lately). Shinsen have apparently removed all these titles from their download tracker.
 
Ryo Chan said:
and so it begins again...........

AND I DIDN'T FINISH DOWNLOADING TSUBASA!!!!!

funi's head will roll :(
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Lol. I'm sitting here alone in the house, with a bowl of porridge, "This Morning" on the TV, and that just really made me laugh. Thanks.

Without going into the same old debate, this doesn't really affect me, but the people it does involve must have known it would happen sooner or later, so I guess it's par for the course...
 
Although they are well within their rights to do so, Funimation aren't really doing themselves any favours with this. If they're not careful they'll get the negative publicity among fans in the same way that Metallica did with Napster all those years ago - it strikes me as taking their pound of flesh.

The phrase 'biting the hand that feeds' springs to mind.
 
Again, I must agree with Badger on this point. I'm firmly of the belief that fansubs only aid the anime industry; if I had not seen the afformentioned Fullmetal Alchemist subbed, I would probably have dismissed it before even watching it rather than adoring it.

This raises an interesting point, too. If Tsubasa Chronicle is licensed, or about to be licensed, by Funimation, would this apply to the previously broadcasted first series, or that series and the two projected continuations during 2006 and 2007? If the latter, it may influence sales as those who saw the first series subbed, had an ambivalent or lukewarm opinion about it, and so declined to go to the effort of finding fansubs to revisit Fye and co. in the second series, which they could have found far more stimulating.
 
it will only be season 1 chomo,

they had to register the different series of tenchi and dragonball

just like ADV have to with full metal panic and its sister series
 
Ryo Chan said:
it will only be season 1 chomo,

they had to register the different series of tenchi and dragonball

just like ADV have to with full metal panic and its sister series
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It depends, with some licenses it covers the anime and its sequels.
 
I don't mind either way really, so long as something like Naruto doesn't disappear. I don't really like downloading, and it's not as if I won't be able to see a subbed version when the DVDs come out anyway, so I don't mind waiting a bit.

[whispers]But I prefer English dubs anyway[/whisper]

*runs*
 
I love the way people get het up about stuff like this. So Funi went after some series that have for the large part already finished? Fans got to see a fair chunk of these, right? Doesn't that give an incentive to buy the inevitable DVD release?
 
To be honest I think Funi were well within their rights to enforce this. Fansubbers, well supposedly, operate within a strict code -- once a series is licensed they pull it -- if Shinsen were blatantly parading subs of licensed series under Funi's nose it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

I don't think it's worth getting up in arms over, at the end of the day you'll still be able to see these series in some capacity -- I daresay if you look hard enough you could still even 'aquire' them. On another note wasn't everyone bemoaning the lack of a forthcoming Tsubasa license a few months back anyway? At least we know the series is finally on its way now, every cloud has a silver lining and all that. ;)
 
I find it amusing looking through all these American anime sites like AoDVD and ANN, you get people going on about how fansubs are no longer needed, how they are now pointless. What about all of us in the UK? Or the anime fans in Trinidad & Tobago? It smacks of ignorance, as if to suggest that just because their country now has a large anime industry, the rest of the world is essentially irrelevant.

FUNimation are well within their rights to complain about fansubs (especially the FMA ones etc) but I'm not convinced that fansubs are indeed harming the worldwide industry. Convention attendances are up, not down. Further more, this simply drives a wedge between themselves and many hardcore fans. I wonder what is more important, the industry and all the companies or the actual fans?
 
Damn, damn, damn, DAMN. *said like Rex Harrison*

How the hell am I supposed to catch up on FMA now, hm!?

*strolls over to Funimation, from whence the sounds of boomstick-based mayhem can be heard*
 
While there are some good points being raised in this thread, and obvious arguments for the advantages of fansubbing, I think we're becoming in danger of expecting too much, and getting too cosy.

First off, it isn't our right to have fansubs in the first place, they're technically illegal, and simply a luxury that we've gotten used to. A business has the right to pull subs if they've already licensed a show, even though they could take a less heavy-handed approach, and try and work with it like Viz seem to be doing.
 
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