The law cracks down on scanslators and fansubbers

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
In recent weeks nearly a dozen manga scanslators and anime fansubbers have been arrested in Japan and Poland; while these were unrelated incidents, both stories appear to indicate a progressively harsher treatment of internet copyright pirates.

<a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-05-18/three-arrested-in-japan-for-file-sharing-shonen-manga">The Japanese case </a>involved three men (one university student) who were scanning several manga anthologies days (and sometimes, even weeks) in advance of their official release dates. The scanned material included <em>Weekly Shonen Jump</em> - the million selling magazine that serializes the likes of Bleach and Naruto. No potential punishments for those arrested has been revealed, though obviously they have already had their hardware seized by the police.

In Poland the laws are harsher - <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-05-18/9-poles-held-by-police-over-fansubs">9 people were arrested</a> for illegally distributing copyrighted Polish subtitle scripts that were translated to be read along side popular Hollywood movies and anime. Despite the fact that no actual video was being published by the pirates, if found guilty they still could be facing up to two years in jail.
 
Ouch thats a long time in jail for what was essentially photo copying scripts which no one except film students and over active fans will ever read (manga not included)
 
Although they are clearly breaking the law, it seems extremely harsh to send these guys to prison for what are a bunch of text files. They'll look around and find themselves surrounded by rapists and murders, what did they do? Fansub an episode of Naruto. I can understand fines, but this is a bit too much.

Also, the Japanese chaps that scan in Weekly Shonen Jump days and sometimes weeks ahead of the release dates a.k.a. the most popular manga magazine in Japan, they are just asking for trouble.
 
It's more a matter of 'when', not 'if' when it comes to clamping down on fansubbers.

These guys can only push the companies so far, and I'm surprised they've let it go up till now tbh...
 
Of course it does. They might not be licenced for other countries but they are in Japan.
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I mean else where like uk and america.

Although they are clearly breaking the law, it seems extremely harsh to send these guys to prison for what are a bunch of text files. They'll look around and find themselves surrounded by rapists and murders, what did they do? Fansub an episode of Naruto. I can understand fines, but this is a bit too much.
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Well thats the law for you
 
shh227 said:
Of course it does. They might not be licenced for other countries but they are in Japan.
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I mean else where like uk and america.
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It does not matter where it is licenced, it is illegal regardless. The concept of "unlicenced" is really a misnomer and does not mean a legal licence does not exist since it is always licenced for one region or another.
 
Well, Why do you think the Fansubs did it... TAKE A HINT, COMPANY.

WE DO NOT LIKE WAITING FOR MANY YEARS AFTER JAPAN TO GET A ANIME SERIES WE WANT TO WATCH

And a Jail sentence of two years is Harsh, they could've just been punished with a fine. Its like saying Company rights is more important than Citizen rights ¬¬
 
Well, Why do you think the Fansubs did it... TAKE A HINT, COMPANY.

WE DO NOT LIKE WAITING FOR MANY YEARS AFTER JAPAN TO GET A ANIME SERIES WE WANT TO WATCH
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Exactly!

Dam I can't even get to watch TV Tokyo.
 
shh227 said:
Well, Why do you think the Fansubs did it... TAKE A HINT, COMPANY.

WE DO NOT LIKE WAITING FOR MANY YEARS AFTER JAPAN TO GET A ANIME SERIES WE WANT TO WATCH
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Exactly!

Dam I can't even get to watch TV Tokyo.
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Exactly, if we could get a hold of our fix we would but alas we have to rely on fansubbers for most of it
 
Paul said:
Although they are clearly breaking the law, it seems extremely harsh to send these guys to prison for what are a bunch of text files. They'll look around and find themselves surrounded by rapists and murders, what did they do? Fansub an episode of Naruto. I can understand fines, but this is a bit too much.

Also, the Japanese chaps that scan in Weekly Shonen Jump days and sometimes weeks ahead of the release dates a.k.a. the most popular manga magazine in Japan, they are just asking for trouble.
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LOL, sorry to be a pedantic arse but there's no way they'd be placed with rapists and murderers. People who commit such heinous crimes are sectioned in a VP wing, in a maximum security prison, while people with less serious offences such as copyright infringement would be placed in the lowest possible security prison. (Law student, hoo!)

I certainly don't think these people deserve 2 years in prison, but they HAVE broken the law, and they were definately aware of that. It may not be very reguarly that someone gets caught in this area, but it can happen.
 
Hmm, as someone who knows a few fan-subbers, this is something I find interesting! I do get f-subs off the net, I'll admit to that(maybe not such a good idea, but sack it), but it is only ever due to the long waits and poor English productions(Naruto, One Piece anyone)... and I do always buy the official releases in the end, even if they really, really suck(like the Dragonball Z releases).

I waited ages for the latest Yu Yu Hakusho DVD release, and smeg, was I disappointed!! 3 measly episodes and the same lousey 'special' features that were in the last few DVDs... the standard should be 4 episodes per, I mean, you can fit roughly 8 episodes per disc and still have space left for some special features.

When the official guys get their houses in order, provide quality, decent release at a reasonable speed e.g. one sequential release per month, two months at the most(anything past 3 months is just stretching the buyers patients and not good business practice), then maybe there won't be much fan-subbing going on(I don't get scanlations btw, I don't have the time to read much).

As for Copyright.... not really that useful and is very limited in what can be done with it. It only really protects if someone uses your work and claims it as their own or sells copies of your actual work without your permission, distro falls under it somewhat, but again, refer to the forementioned.(I'm sure there's other aspects, but I can't write it all).

Z
 
I follow the mantra that "If it aint out here, it aint licenced". Only a few shows have ever warneted my going out of my way to import them.

GaoGaiGar was one such show, but now that Media blasters will not be doing that the decenet release it deserves, they can shove the rest up thier backside.
 
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