Japan starts crack down on fansubs and scanlations

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
With the continuing saturation of Japanese pop culture across the internet being largely based on illegal distribution, it appears that Japanese officials are finally starting to take a firmer stance on unauthorized reproduction of their digital works (and essentially, anime and manga).
<ul>
<li>First up is news that Japan's government is <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-09-25/japan-plans-to-toughen-copyright-law-on-downloads">tightening laws</a> on the downloading of copyrighted media. As the country's rules stand now, it's actually perfectly legal to download something as long as it's intended for "private use" (though uploading is against the law).</li>
<li>A couple of days later, it emerged that Gonzo (via FUNimation) <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-09-28/gonzo-halts-romeo-juliet-fansub-with-funimation's-help">had requested</a> that anime fan-subbing group Shinsen-Subs cease translating and distributing subtitled copies of their as-yet unlicensed anime TV series Romeo X Juliet; marking one of the first times that a Japanese company, rather than a US DVD distributor, has made an effort to stand against fansubs. FUNimation say that "Japanese producers are highly motivated to stop unauthorized distribution" and "there will be a strong trend toward these types of anti-infringement actions being taken more regularly".</li>
<li>Finally, <a href="http://www.manganovel.com/">MangaNovel</a> and Toshiba have <a href="http://www.anime-ni.co.uk/?p=670">joined forces</a> to combat manga scanlations (scanned copies of comic pages distributed via the internet for free) by offering a legal source for online manga downloads. Not only will manga fans be able to download "raw" Japanese manga, but create their own translations and sell them <a href="http://www.manganovel.com/">online via MangaNovel</a>, effectively offering a rapid translation service to manga fans eager to get their fix of new Japanese manga without having to wait around for a domestic release.</li>
</ul>
 
Interesting. It's nice to know people are taking a stand for once. Now that the rest of the world is taking a proper interest in the culture, I think they timed it right.
 
Although its good that they are taking a stand. I think its really annoying in a way.
If i didnt watch some fansubs i would be paying out alot of money in order to watch the anime i do every day, which i cant exactly do at the moment.
Also some fansubs arent to bad because when the show gets licensed they try and stop the distribution on their sites.
I know some people will probably say that fansubs are bad, but they really arent for some people. I know it stops the business making as much money and all but if i couldnt watch fansubs i wouldnt be able to watch any anime atall.
 
I am not really interested in fan subs and the like. I do however feel they can serve some purpose that the anime creators and distributors may regret losing if they manage to completely shut them down, and that is creating buzz and interest about the latest series.
 
depending how fast and tough they are, this can either help anime out, or do more damage than the US housing market problems

I'll admit, if it wasn't for seeing fan subs, i'd of saved Thousands on animes by now, as i wouldn't of risked buying them
 
Taylor said:
Although its good that they are taking a stand. I think its really annoying in a way.
If i didnt watch some fansubs i would be paying out alot of money in order to watch the anime i do every day, which i cant exactly do at the moment.
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So? That's not the fault of the anime industry.

Also some fansubs arent to bad because when the show gets licensed they try and stop the distribution on their sites.
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Nonsense. That's never effective in any way.

I know some people will probably say that fansubs are bad, but they really arent for some people. I know it stops the business making as much money and all but if i couldnt watch fansubs i wouldnt be able to watch any anime atall.
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Fansubs aren't bad for people at all - it's free anime, how is that bad? It is bad for the people spending hour after stressful hour, and millions of yen on making the anime you enjoy so much, though. Because they make less money than they should, less money to invest in more anime, less money to invest in genre-defying anime. If this continues, I'm sure anime will lose it's originality as publishers struggle to make money and concentrate only on series they think will make money.

Ryo Chan said:
depending how fast and tough they are, this can either help anime out, or do more damage than the US housing market problems
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???

What? What are you talking about? Are you seriously comparing the problems in the US housing market to the issue of fansubs damage to the anime industry?
 
CitizenGeek said:
Ryo Chan said:
depending how fast and tough they are, this can either help anime out, or do more damage than the US housing market problems
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???

What? What are you talking about? Are you seriously comparing the problems in the US housing market to the issue of fansubs damage to the anime industry?
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well seeing how important anime is to the Japanese market, the less people who buy, the higher the prices will go, and so their economy will fluxuate
 
Ryo Chan said:
well seeing how important anime is to the Japanese market, the less people who buy, the higher the prices will go, and so their economy will fluxuate
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Anime/manga isn't nearly big enough to properly affect the Japanese economy, I would think. Definitely not on the scale of that the housing market affects the US economy. I think I read somewhere, recently, that the 'otaku' markets are worth about 1 billion US dollars in Japan and about 600 million in the US.
 
Kudos must go to MangaNovel for their innovative approach to the issue. I very rarely use the internet for obtaining scanned comics, as I prefer to thumb through the real thing, but if a distribution system where fans can download untranslated material, translate it and then a translated version can be offered works then this could be a brilliant model for officially-endorsed 'fansub/scanlation' material.

The existing fansub groups can still do what they enjoy doing, the animation studios can get the chunk of the money they deserve and the anime fan can get anime legally over the internet at an affordable price (hopefully!). It might seem a naive idea but if it can be done, I'd be all for it.
 
You can't stop fansubs, the group subbing Death Note also received a cease and desist back in the day. What did they do? Created a new fansub group called C&D (hint hint) and released the remaining episodes. Shinsen also created a new group (Shakespeare Subs, I think) and released the last few.

They're gonna have to do a lot more work to crack down, and frankly I hope they don't, as I don't buy anime. <.<
 
CitizenGeek said:
Ryo Chan said:
well seeing how important anime is to the Japanese market, the less people who buy, the higher the prices will go, and so their economy will fluxuate
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Anime/manga isn't nearly big enough to properly affect the Japanese economy, I would think. Definitely not on the scale of that the housing market affects the US economy. I think I read somewhere, recently, that the 'otaku' market in Japan is worth about 1 billion US dollars in Japan and about 600 million in the US.
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Yeah, but it's not just the otaku market, that's a small segment of it. It's the way it's ingrained into the culture - businessmen read it on the way to work, etc. That adds up to a lot more than just the otaku.
 
Doberman Pharaoh said:
as I don't buy anime. <.<
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Then I don't know why you should even bother watching fansubs...
Even though I watch Fansubs myself, I only watch the ones that I really enjoy, and agree on buying them in the future.
In my opinion, you have no right to watch fansubs, and should stop going onto youtube or other sites that provides you anime.
 
Chrono Mizaki said:
Doberman Pharaoh said:
as I don't buy anime. <.<
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Then I don't know why you should even bother watching fansubs...
Even though I watch Fansubs myself, I only watch the ones that I really enjoy, and agree on buying them in the future.
In my opinion, you have no right to watch fansubs, and should stop going onto youtube or other sites that provides you anime.
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but if we go go down that moral highroad, how many people would watch movies, listen to music, play games

if the BBC are right, 85% of the people with broadband are "criminals" in some sort of way, with the average person having 1500 criminal offences to their name (i assume they mean every time u download/watch something u haven't paid for)

Yes it's criminal, but i can't honestly see anything changing in the next 5 years, the prisons are full enough as it is, and cops have too much paperwork to fill in to do anything.

So whether we agree with fansubs and people not buying anime or not, the most we could ever do to support anime is ban people who don't buy animes from the site (and lets be honest here, AUKN would be a ghost town if that happend) XD

*awaits the usual flaming he seems to be getting lately*
 
Ramadahl said:
Yeah, but it's not just the otaku market, that's a small segment of it. It's the way it's ingrained into the culture - businessmen read it on the way to work, etc. That adds up to a lot more than just the otaku.
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You misunderstood me - when I said 'otaku' I meant manga and anime, regardless of whether it's hardcore otaku or train-bound salary men reading or watching it.
 
Ryo Chan said:
Chrono Mizaki said:
Doberman Pharaoh said:
as I don't buy anime. <.<
Click to expand...

Then I don't know why you should even bother watching fansubs...
Even though I watch Fansubs myself, I only watch the ones that I really enjoy, and agree on buying them in the future.
In my opinion, you have no right to watch fansubs, and should stop going onto youtube or other sites that provides you anime.
Click to expand...

but if we go go down that moral highroad, how many people would watch movies, listen to music, play games

if the BBC are right, 85% of the people with broadband are "criminals" in some sort of way, with the average person having 1500 criminal offences to their name (i assume they mean every time u download/watch something u haven't paid for)

Yes it's criminal, but i can't honestly see anything changing in the next 5 years, the prisons are full enough as it is, and cops have too much paperwork to fill in to do anything.

So whether we agree with fansubs and people not buying anime or not, the most we could ever do to support anime is ban people who don't buy animes from the site (and lets be honest here, AUKN would be a ghost town if that happend) XD
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Yep, and it's so easy to get anything on the net for free. That is one thing that will never ever change as long as the internet exist.

Unless off course, the media persuade the goverment to destroy the internet. But they are left off a lot worse than before

*awaits the usual flaming he seems to be getting lately*
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It's whatever I say, I get flamed because I'm logically wrong. Urgh... It's back to the old days, just on a different forum.
 
Doberman Pharaoh said:
They're gonna have to do a lot more work to crack down, and frankly I hope they don't, as I don't buy anime. <.<
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Well, you should.

As less and less people actually spend money on anime, the value of the medium will decrease and decrease. If you pay money for something, you're more inclined to properly appreciate it. When it's all free (as it is in Doberman Pharoh's case) then anime loses it's worth.

(I'm pretty sure that if people were paying for trash like Clannad and Kannon and Air, they wouldn't be as popular!).
 
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