Summer of 2014 Stream - Oreshura now up on Viewster

Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

How odd. Well, the more the merrier; I can't complain at titles which get spread around since it's what I keep complaining about wanting :D

Some potentially interesting news items which may relate to our streaming prospects in a roundabout way.

Interview with Viewster: http://organizationasg.kokidokom.net/20 ... vice-game/
The Japanese industry's new anti-piracy drive directory: http://manga-anime-here.com

I can see a few gaping problems with the latter already (like the fact that they've made the mistake of thinking that the USA is the entire world, again) but it might be worthwhile one day. Maybe.

R
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

The "Thanks, friends" video is charmingly dumb (as is "STOP!海賊版"), but the website itself seems bad and serves no purpose, at least at this point in time.

Did you mean to link something else from Viewster? You just linked a press release, not an interview. I won't fault you if you just wanted more people to read the exclamation "FUNimation is content that generates a lot of social interaction", though.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

"Our Japanese content providers are unbelievably professional and well organised"

He should let Jerome know who they work with, lulz.

A little bit of jargon and a little bit of naivete ("We believe that anime will become a pop cultural key influencer in the next few years also in western media"... I believe they call that "dreamland") aside, the interview was definitely relevant in making me consider Viewster as potentially a real player going forward (rather than a kitchen appliance).
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Rui said:
The Japanese industry's new anti-piracy drive directory: http://manga-anime-here.com
Click to expand...
In these days, “pirates” are getting advertisement revenue, kick-bucks from cyberlockers, affiliations with E-commerce sites, or selling Apps. They are exploiting Manga and Anime just for the sake of money.
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They mean like Crunchyroll was, until the industry invested in and legitimised it? What a lesson! That'll teach people that profiting unfairly from the work of others doesn't pay for sure.

Hypocrisy at it's finest. I have sympathy with the creators and the belief they should be compensated for their work is what leads me to buy legally, but I have no sympathy with the industry or this exercise in guilt tripping, at all.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Ah, you prefer the approach of cutting off your nose to spite your face. I'm not sure you can afford to have that attitude when you stand to profit from being a little more pragmatic. :p

Seriously though, I have never seen the relevance of the arguments about CR's shady past. Do you follow your logic through to the extent of not using Google because they own YouTube?
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

ilmaestro said:
"We believe that anime will become a pop cultural key influencer in the next few years also in western media"
Click to expand...

Well, I'm at least impressed that they took the trouble to find a copy of Anime UK magazine from 1992 to get a quote from. Wait...
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Professor Irony said:
ilmaestro said:
"We believe that anime will become a pop cultural key influencer in the next few years also in western media"
Click to expand...

Well, I'm at least impressed that they took the trouble to find a copy of Anime UK magazine from 1992 to get a quote from. Wait...
Click to expand...

Indeed. Like they all said last time round, and look where the industry ended up...
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Of course they'll want to be compensated as if it was still a niche local industry (£200 boxsets of My Wifu Sister is the School Girl Milky Crisis) and they will do nout to actually improve their infrastructure.

I mean for example would we be here bitching royal about Animax if it was 1:1 with japan and with CR's quality options? I don't think so but their answer is to make thier crappy service cheaper to sub to rather than make it worth the cost of a more expensive subscription so pbht to that I guess.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Lutga said:
If Animax had an iOS app, I might actually be willing to give them a try.
Click to expand...
Isn't the site supposed to work on mobile devices?

Rui said:
The Japanese industry's new anti-piracy drive directory: http://manga-anime-here.com

I can see a few gaping problems with the latter already (like the fact that they've made the mistake of thinking that the USA is the entire world, again) but it might be worthwhile one day. Maybe.
Click to expand...
This which has fuelled a storm of tweets from FUNi's Lance Heiskell:

Step 1 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians Anti-piracy project:
Add International distributors to your Manga-Anime Anti-Piracy Committee list.

Step #2 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: create outreach programs 2 educate your international audience on why the official release matters

Step #3 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: Stop being polite! 1 minute of "arigato" doesn't cause me to take action. Why is this important?

Step #4 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: Call out the illegal sites. Put them on notice. Once they know the spotlight is on them they worry
Step #4 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: Did you know FUNimation has a team of 4 people & consultants doing anti-piracy efforts? Contact me

Step #5 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: Fans want to support the industry. Tell them how. Peer pressure is 1 of the best anti-piracy tools

Step #6 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
You will always compete with free. Focus on presentation, ease of use and people will choose you.

Step #6 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: You need to police counterfeit merchandise. Even at Anime Expo our Anti-Piracy team saw bootlegs

Step #7 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: You need a spokesperson for every country or territory. US otaku act different than Japanese otaku

Step #8 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
In plain English/Japanese, tell them why.
Why does this matter?
Why should they care?
Why?
Why?

Step #9 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
Estimate the amount of torrents & illegal streams are shown each day and compare to legal streams

Step #9.5 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
Estimate the lost revenue to the studios & how many anime series could have been produced w/$

Step #10 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
"I can't wait for "x" on Blu-ray, I'll torrent"
Show how this decision effects the industry
You compete against free with consumers who don't care where the content is coming from.
The most important issue.
PERIOD.
You live in a society of "NOW."
You compete against time.
You compete in an internet culture without borders.
There are illegal streaming sites that look professional. A lot of times fans don't know they are at an illegal site.
A lot of illegal sites are not based in the US now. Most are international where legal proceedings are more difficult. Cat and mouse game

Also, as companies, we ALL have to understand fair use and the remix culture. I LOVE AMVs and parodies.
I've gone to Anime Weekend Atlanta for vacation twice specifically for their AMV programming.

Peer education and peer pressure is the best way to thwart piracy.
We need to focus on tools and resources to make this possible.

In 2008 several reps and lawyers from the US anime companies tried to make the case for this type of group to Japan. There as no traction.

I am glad that this is happening, don't get me wrong. I just want to help their learning curve.

It's all about policing counterfeits and piracy.
It will always be here, it will never go away. But you can reduce it.

Step #11 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
Report illegal streaming search results from Google.
We do this EVERYDAY
https://www.google.com/transparencyrepo ... rtainment/

Step #14 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
Read the following:
Free by Chris Anderson http://www.amazon.com/Free-Smartest-Bus ... 0043RT912/ …
Blueprint to compete with free

Step #15 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
Read
The Master Switch: The Rise & Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu
http://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Inf ... 307390993/

Step #16 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians:
Read
Appetite for Self-Destruction: Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age

All 3 books talk about disruption.
New technologies affect old business models. If you don't adapt, the disruptors will eat you alive.
Also, big established companies who do adapt will either compete or buy the disruptors. Facebook bought Instagram, Google is buying Twitch
With anime and manga, you can't buy the competition because they are illegal sites and disparate torrent distributed networks
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ayase said:
They mean like Crunchyroll was, until the industry invested in and legitimised it? What a lesson! That'll teach people that profiting unfairly from the work of others doesn't pay for sure.
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Kun Gao would have it the other way, and indeed the initial investment came from outside the industry (from Venrock):

when we started in 2008, CR was a platform where users were uploading a lot of anime content. We knew we needed to license everything but were incredible naive about how content and licensing works.
So we literally put on our backpacks and went to Japan and started knocking on doors.
At first, there was a lot of pushback. Some of the first meetings were frankly very challenging. But we stuck with it and showed our partners how persistent we were to licensing anime for simulcast.. they weren't going to get rid of us that easily!
Over time, we won people over with how passionate our audience was, and how pesky we were. In the end, it also helped that we didn't really know how hard it was going to be when we started.
Click to expand...
to clarify, we started in mid 2006 as a nights and weekends project to build a youtube clone. we shared it with our friends and they uploaded a bunch of shows they couldn't watch in the US, instead of cats hanging on shower curtains.
Beginning of 2008, we incorporated as CR, took investment from Venrock. At the time the site had already a lot of fans with other fans uploading to the site. We went to Japan all of 2008 to figure out licensing. By the end of 2008, we had secured partnerships with a number of content partners, including TV Tokyo. We had told them how we got to this point, and we were really passionate about bringing anime to the world.
Our content partners got behind us, and new years day 2009, we turned off the site, and rebooted it with only licensed content and official materials.
.. thats more or less the full timeline of our humble beginnings
Click to expand...
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Shiroi Hane said:
Step #4 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: Did you know FUNimation has a team of 4 people & consultants doing anti-piracy efforts? Contact me
Click to expand...

Man, four people and consultants! I used to report piracy to them but admit that I stopped when I didn't think they were doing anything about the things I mentioned ^^;

This isn't FUNi's fault, but I really wish there were more robust measures in place for letting fans help drive things a bit more underground - it's a full-time job (times four, I guess) to get things removed and even then they're struggling just to keep their own shows policed. So annoying when illegal apps have sat there on the Android and iTunes stores for years with no action taken, fooling people (and newspapers -_-) into thinking they are legit.

R
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Rui said:
Shiroi Hane said:
Step #4 to improve Manga-Anime Guardians: Did you know FUNimation has a team of 4 people & consultants doing anti-piracy efforts? Contact me
Click to expand...

Man, four people and consultants! I used to report piracy to them but admit that I stopped when I didn't think they were doing anything about the things I mentioned ^^;

This isn't FUNi's fault, but I really wish there were more robust measures in place for letting fans help drive things a bit more underground - it's a full-time job (times four, I guess) to get things removed and even then they're struggling just to keep their own shows policed. So annoying when illegal apps have sat there on the Android and iTunes stores for years with no action taken, fooling people (and newspapers -_-) into thinking they are legit.

R
Click to expand...

I once reported to Funimation that Youtube was hosting a ripped version of Wolf Children. I got a thank you line some four months after I e-mailed them.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Peer pressure is 1 of the best anti-piracy tools
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Lol. I think peer pressure is in exactly the opposite direction, especially among the young - To not pay for things. The last time being upstanding, honest and law abiding was "cool" and likely to encourage your friends to behave that way (rather than to ditch you for being uptight) was... well actually never, probably.

This sort of statement reminds me of the hilarious drugs and alcohol literature you'd get in high school where the (obviously) fictional kids were impressed when someone showed restraint.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Yup, agree. There was a sizeable ad campaign on US TV a few months ago in a similar vein but wrt cheating in high school sports, and it came across as equally ridiculous.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

To be fair, when I illegally stream I do momentarily have the image flash across my mind of Rui (well, what I imagine Rui to look like, which is kind of like an elegant lion with an eyepatch) looking at me disapprovingly.

Really though, I don't think illegal streaming is that bad. I've watched, liked, and gone on to support quite a few anime that I never would have if it wasn't for streaming. I never illegally stream because I can't wait for an official release, just either because I have no money or it's a show I'm not sure about spending on, or one I would never have spent on anyway. So I don't spend less money on anime at all, but I do watch more anime. You can't knock that really.

And man, if these guys were really serious about this stuff, you'd at least think they'd get their movies off Youtube. Just now I randomly typed Red Hawk anime into Youtube and it's on there lol. Not going to lie, I'm going to watch it.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

WHen I do it, I think of that better, alterntive reality where what Wakanim does is the norm and Wakanim is slightly better designed and I'm slightly worse off because I'm legit buying all of my animes in 1080p/720p drm free.

I just want to give Andrew all of my moneys without using up all of my limited space on nicknacks.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

The trouble with piracy, especially with anime, is that by definition, you're likely dealing with a) a very tech savvy audience and b) a young audience without much money - so piracy is often a logical option for them. (don't even get me started on the lack of availability of stuff in all territories).

As soon as I started working in the media industry, I stopped pirating, because I felt guilty about it. I understood the logistics of what went on behind the scenes to get a alternative to piracy out there and to market. All that infrastructure, all those people, all those jobs required to try and convince people to make the right choice.

These days, the line is very blurred. We live in a culture obsessed with the notion of 'free'. The kids of today will have grown up in a world where the vast majority of entertainment content is free at the point of consumption, so they will expect it - demand it.
 
Re: Summer '14 Stream - Toradora! [English Dub Ver.] (CR)

Lutga said:
obsessed with the notion of 'free'. The kids of today will have grown up in a world where the vast majority of entertainment content is free at the point of consumption, so they will expect it - demand it.
Click to expand...

But don't forget how seductive the notion of free is to people who grow up in the old times, when the only way to watch anime was to put down a not insignificant financial investment. When I first started streaming for free a couple years back I felt totally liberated and free haha. Like it was anime version of the swinging sixties, free love and all that. It still blows my mind. It's pretty irresistible.

I think things like free streaming with ads on legit sites is a good idea to bridge the gap between free and still getting revenue. I'm not going to lie though, I still use ad-block when I can get away with it, but my word, has anyone sat through those ads on CR and maintained their sanity? Just one ad-break in the middle would be enough. I also think free-trials are a great way of suckering in people. I'm on one on CR, but then I'm not even sure, they may have already siphoned a fiver out of my account. Everyone knows damn well they'll forget, no matter how much they tell themselves they'll remember to unsubscribe.
 
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