TVTokyo, Crunchyroll sue youtube uploaders

Joshawott

Joshawott

Monsieur Monster
AUKN Staff
Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/news/ ... -uploading

The cut and shut of it: 13 people in U.S.A, Japan, Canada, Denmark and Hungray are being sued by Crunchyroll and Youtube for illegally uploading episodes of Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and Bleach.

During the lawsuit, TVTokyo is giving Crunchyroll legal permission to act on its behalf. As well as the removal of the videos (which has since happened), the two companies are seeking court costs and damages caused by the worldwide unauthorised youtube streaming.

On 18th August, the Northern District Court of California granted a motion to allow all involved parties to pursue out of court settlements if they desire. The first date for the representatives of the two companies to meet with defendants and a judge is 18th November. According to documents, summons were served to three defendants on 11th July, 21st July and 20th September.

One thing which makes this incredibly stupid, is how all three of those are not only available to subscribers, but free to everyone else in the following week :S
 
It still boggles my mind why they are targeting a few individual YouTubers rather than targeting these dodgy sites which have at least five/six figure hits a day, surely it send out more of a message, YouTube are at least finally sticking to their ToS and taking down these videos linking to these unsafe sites at the moment anyway
 
I'm constantly amazed that there's any profit to be made out of subscription streaming services anyway, let alone enough to be filing lawsuits about it (which is surely the only reason companies sue people, protection of revenue). YouChube is **** quality anyway, and it's not as though people can't obtain much higher quality video with a single click elsewhere.

You'd think they might as well leave streaming to people who'll provide the service for free and instead encourage those who like it to buy the DVDs through actually engaging with the fans via official websites / social networking / forums. The only people who watch stuff on YouChube and don't buy DVDs / download illegally are penniless kids who would never have earned you any profits anyway.

So in summary, they've got the wrong target and it won't make the blindest bit of difference to the things actually affecting their bottom line. Yeah, good move guys...
 
I dunno, Manga's overly offensive moments "engaging with the fans" lately haven't done them many favours when it comes to me choosing their products... I'd rather the companies attacked the people who don't buy and gave the people who do nice tidbits, than yelled at the people who support them already due to being impotent when it comes to the people who don't.

I think people who buy DVDs are still buying DVDs, but the people who are coming up as newer fans aren't being channelled into that lifestyle at all. A lot don't actually know or care that the stuff they consume is illegally distributed, because if you type a series name into Google and 15 pages of torrents appear before the legitimate stuff then they probably don't think twice. Thinking seems a rare activity sometimes.

I agree that YT streams are just a drop in the ocean when there are so many other sources for illegal free anime. But they have to start somewhere, and there's not a great deal of point in having crimes if nobody is ever punished for them. If there's a free stream on Site A which generates ad (or subscription) revenue, and an illegal clone of it on YT which generates nothing for anyone, it's no wonder they're a bit upset. Penniless students can still generate small amounts of revenue if they watch on the authorised websites, especially given how many crazy Naruto fans make up that demographic. And I know a lot of crazy Naruto fans well into their late 20s who can easily afford the DVDs, but download it anyway because they are jerks.

And oi, did you post your character guessing picture yet, Ayase? :p

R
 
Well it's simple, really, Manga don't obey the DBAD licence and thus they're free game to whatever unfortunate (though Karmeticaly deserved) abuse they end up with.
 
ilmaestro said:
Err... no? I understand your point, of course, but surely you see why it's a ridiculous thing to say.
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You may be more forgiving of them now that the poachers have become the games keepers, but I'm not so, and you can bet your last quid on them reverting back to it if all that "venture capital" should ever dry up. :wink:
 
So you essentially agree with me but will carry on anyway, cool.

ayase: No, there is not the same product there in higher quality at the click of a button, if streaming is done correctly. With a very small number of exceptions, regular, reliable streaming is currently the most consistent and fastest way to see weekly shows.

Not to mention the fact that not everyone would select the alternative option "just because it is there".
 
ayase: No, there is not the same product there in higher quality at the click of a button, if streaming is done correctly. With a very small number of exceptions, regular, reliable streaming is currently the most consistent and fastest way to see weekly shows.
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Huh, I'm confused. Isn't that what Ayase was saying? That Youtube is **** quality so by going on a good streaming site with the click of a button you can see it in better quality?

As for this whole situation though, this is how I feel: I personally don't illgally stream (because I don't know what sites are good and am worried about viruses) but I would feel absolutely zero giult over doing if I did(although I would always support a show I really liked), therefore I'm really not bothered about these "poachers" or "penniless students " who do what they do. These companies that make the anime are getting more then enough revenue as it is, some newer shows are even shoving in stupid amounts of product placement, and popular shows such as Naruto sell shitloads of poorly produced merchandise for a premium price(even Ghibli does it). And lets not forget the quality of animation in many shows is actually wose then ever thanks to the amount of out sourcing that currently goes on, So why should I pay the same high price for a DVD when the studio who made it is cutting costs by under paying people in China to do the work for them? Was made the case due to the streaming? I don't know maybe, but hey we're already in a vicious cycle now.

The way I see it illegal streaming can serve a purpose, with so many crap shows out there, it allows certain poeple to try out the crap ones, and suitably decide not to provide the shows any revenue as they don't deserve it anyway, and then watch the good ones realize how good they are and then go and support them....well thats what I would do anyway.

So I basically agree with Ayase, prosecuting these Youtubers is an stupid move, especially considering they really wouldn't gain any more revenue from who must presumably be these simpletons(like me ;) who choose to do their streaming on YouTube. I know, beacuse if I were to do illegal streaming (especially a year or so ago) it would be a show I'm not too bothered about and I would just check if youtube had anything, but I know wouldn't bother subscribing and then frequenting a website so cluttered with ads such as Churuchyroll to watch it.

The only way I think the anime industry can beat these streamers is to significantly increase the quality of its output. How it manages to achieve that though, I don't know.
 
All increasing the quality of anime would do (and it's pretty high quality already IMO - the stuff which gets rushed is often fixed for the home video release) is mean more people illegally downloaded/streamed it. I strongly doubt it would spontaneously cause anyone to have a crisis of morals and run to AoD/CR/Nico/wherever. Most key series each season seem to get picked up for legal streaming already, with a few glaring exceptions!

If something is available for free in acceptable quality (illegally, but with no punishment), it's going to take more than improving the quality to train people to be actual fans rather than leeches.

R
 
Rui said:
I strongly doubt it would spontaneously cause anyone to have a crisis of morals and run to AoD/CR/Nico/wherever. Most key series each season seem to get picked up for legal streaming already, with a few glaring exceptions!

If something is available for free in acceptable quality (illegally, but with no punishment), it's going to take more than improving the quality to train people to be actual fans rather than leeches.
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Ohyou.jpg
 
Well, I think the most important thing is; Crunchyroll have a youtube channel.

For example, The Pokémon Company didn't give a flying fish that there loads of unauthorised Pokédex applications on the Apple Market Place and the Android Market. However, earlier this year, they suddenly got all of them pulled. Why? Because they were launching Pokédex 3D for the Nintendo 3DS as well as an official Pokémon iOS game (before anyone asks, it was a rhythm touch game in Japan) around the same time. So not only would the Pokédex apps be seen as direct competition for Pokédex 3D, but them filling the marketplaces would hide the only official iOS game there.

Official companies have channels on youtube, so if more people are watching illegal uploads, it means the official streams are pushed down in the rankings. Whereas with 'other websites', the anime distributors don't have any involvement with them so there's little chance of their legitimate product being shoved out of the way for illegal stuff (After all, the majority of people who choose to go to those sites know it's illegal; it's not like they'll miss an official stream by accident).

So, rather than them tackling it because it's illegal, they're tackling it because it's competition.
 
Maybe you have a point Rui, but theres really not much else they can do, prosecuting a few kids or even closing down a few sites won't do anything. Look at the music industry, downloading music for free hasn't gone anywhere and so many people do it, they keep claiming they will crack down and they might have closed down Limewire or whatever, but the fact remains you can go online and download all the music you want for free with no consequence. Luckily th hardest music to find are the underground acts who actually deserve (and need) the support.

Unfortunately prosecuting a few small frys(or even big frys) doesn't stop or deter anyone from carrying on with it, this has been proven. The only way to find a solution is to think outside the box. Thats why I suggested improving the (currently relatively dire in my opinion) quality of the anime being released. If anime stopped throwing two dimentional "moe" girls, blatantly rampant sexism/misogyny and unrelatable characters in our faces at the rate of knots, and instead tried to incorperate more personal depth and thought provoking stories into the medium, surely the entire demographic of what a "typical anime fan" is would change, and maybe this new audience who is no longer put off by the more worrying aspects of the medium is more willing to spend money for what they watch? Maybe even the existing anime elite will be inspired to start spending too. At Current we have more anime fanatics that are obssesed with shallow lifeless pretty school children characters and materialism then anything else.

You put out shallow product, you get shallow fans back. The same can be said about the music industry that was (and currently still is) becoming more and more obsessed with materialistic wealth then anything else, the consequence was that the "fans" then turned to the net to get it all for free. People don't consider downloading off the internet a crime (and depending on what we're talking about, neither do I) it doesn't matter how many people you prosecute. So the only other things I can think off are somehow blocking people being able to create streams and upload (which I don't know is possible) or change the way our entire society works.
 
Mohawk52 said:
They've got some bloody cheek, seeing where they themselves started from. :roll:
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That was my first thought and I laughed at the sheer hypocrisy of it. I understand the legal argument, but are they seriously doing it with a straight face?

And yes, what about the plethora of websites that have about a trillion shows? Why a bunch of individuals on youtube?
 
Anime's not really for a dwindling number of foreign people who actually buy it though; it's made for the Japanese market who are happy with the current offerings and willing to open up their wallets and buy tens of thousands of home video releases for hit shows. I'm mostly happy with it too, even avoiding fluffy stuff about cute schoolgirls falling over there's plenty more I can enjoy ^^;

Being dissatisfied with anime for not being something that it never has been seems unproductive. Anime isn't failing to sell because it's dropping in quality, it's failing to sell because people are less willing to spend money on it. People say the reason they aren't buying is because of single volume releases, so the companies switch to season sets even though they make less money that way and it holds releases up. People say the reason they aren't buying is because of speed, so companies release simulcasts. People say the quality of shows isn't good enough - but it's not so bad they stop watching anime, they just stop paying for it. Ultimately, what people say is not worth a thing, it's what they do.

R
 
Anime's not really for a dwindling number of foreign people who actually buy it though; it's made for the Japanese market who are happy with the current offerings and willing to open up their wallets and buy tens of thousands of home video releases for hit shows
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So then what problem do they have with westerners streaming it for free then?

I'm mostly happy with it too, even avoiding fluffy stuff about cute schoolgirls falling over there's plenty more I can enjoy ^^;
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There's plenty I can enjoy too. But I would be lying if I said I was happy with the state of most anime.

Being dissatisfied with anime for not being something that it never has been seems unproductive
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So is it unproductive to desire that anime gets rid of the sexism/misogyny/materialism that at current has become an almost inherent trait of the medium. this is the most important point, forget changing it to something that it isn't but can we at least improve it by decreasing these aspects of it? That's like saying it's unproductive to desire that Hip Hop drops its on going obsession with homophobia(which it is actually doing...slowly).

it's failing to sell because people are less willing to spend money on it
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And why is that?

People say the reason they aren't buying is because of single volume releases, so the companies switch to season sets even though they make less money that way and it holds releases up. People say the reason they aren't buying is because of speed, so companies release simulcasts
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Exactly these are not the real reasons people are doing it, but everything does indeed have a root cause, it doesn't happen for no reason. Like I previously said, maybe the anime fans are illegally streaming because popular anime is attracting and maybe even propagating this kind of person. The industry as whole with its emphasis on over priced tatty merchandise and "moe" is playing a part in breeding these kinds of people.
 
vashdaman said:
ayase: No, there is not the same product there in higher quality at the click of a button, if streaming is done correctly. With a very small number of exceptions, regular, reliable streaming is currently the most consistent and fastest way to see weekly shows.
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Huh, I'm confused. Isn't that what Ayase was saying? That Youtube is **** quality so by going on a good streaming site with the click of a button you can see it in better quality?
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That is not what he was saying, no.
 
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