Quote by finiteyodaEh, this
is sort of a moot topic. It's like gunmakers. Guns can have positive effects: they're used by law enforcement
officials to reduce crime. However, they can also have many bad effects. Who do you blame? The person who goes crazy and
uses a gun to kill someone? Or the gun companies? Which is a better solution? Closing down all the gun factories? Or
making tighter laws to control distribution of these weapons? There's no single right answer.
Fansubs originally came into being, so that anime series which would never get released in the states would see the
light of day. This was a great thing. Japanese studios could have been making money selling these series in the states,
except that there were too many obstacles: the costs of making a domestic release would be larger than their profits.
So, fansubs can be beneficial.
The reason anime studios left fansubbers alone in the old days, was because they posed no harm. What worries Japanese
studios is the newer generation of on-line fansubbers/downloaders. You think you deserve free previews of every
unlicensed anime series in existence? Give me a break. Used to, you had to pay for fansubs. Fansubbers lost money on all
the equipment they had to buy to make fansubs. Fansub watchers lost money on the tape stock that fansubbers had to buy.
Nowadays, tho, fansubbers only need a computer, and fansub downloaders balk at the idea of paying for anything. Plus,
thanks to bittorrent, a fansub group can distribute hundrds of thousands of copies of a fansub, that doesn't
degrade. If I were the Japanese studios, I'd be scared. The digital revolution has made fansubbing a thousand times
more dangerous than it used to be. No matter how responsible the fansubbers try to be, at least a few fansub watchers
are going to abuse the privilege they've been given... this is why we're going to continue to see fansub sites
being threatened with legal action.
Also, I disagree with those people who say they'll stop buying anime if there are no fansubs. The fact is,
you're outweighed by those who don't buy just because there are fansubs. I mean, if you subscribe to Newtype
magazine, you'll know that the distributors do give out preview discs of their more popular series. But,
downloading a fansub of an entire series is NOT a preview... that's just free-riding.
And if you're in a country where there's no licensed anime, my guess is that the anime studios are going to
leave you alone. I doubt they're attacking spanish-subtitled fansubs, if they're not distributing
there.
No I disagree, it's not like guns, that's on a different aspect. Guns is for law enforcement and defence,
that's on a mankind security and offensive level. Fansubs are just damaging the economy.
I still see if you remove the fansubbing groups, that will stop (or for now, reduce the level of illegal distribution).
If the fansubbing groups are ceased, then there would be no more new anime for them to download.
You say that fansubs are the source to bring unlicensed into the light of day. You only say this because you're
comparing fansubs with the legitimate DVDs which are released later on. Yes you see gap in time because fansubs are
released several weeks after the original airing in Japan. But if there were no fansubbing then there would be no
discrimintation of time and wait.
This is apparent in other stuff like PCs. You don't see illegal distribution of PCs much. PC specifications in
Japan and America way exceed those in Europe. The costs of the high-spec PCs in Japan and the US are lower than those in
the UK and Europe etc.
You don't see peple whining about the delay in technology here. That's because there is no other source for
the people to compare to, e.g. no US/Japanese high-spec PC for them to take away for free without wait.
Some may say that the fansubs are the source for the US companies to see which anime are worth licensing. That's
rubbish. US and Japanese companies work jointly together. The US companies don't need to know from the fansubs of
what is out there to license or not.
I'm sure finiteyoda you're actually supporting the fansubs even though you say there are some drawbacks in
fansubs. You're defending it because you're too downloading them, and you don't want them to just stop
fansubbing your favorite anime or future anime you want to see straight away.
I truly believe that if fansubbing groups were suddenly attacked with full-force making them stop immediately,
you'll be really sad. And then you'll make the most of what there is available in the torrent networks, i.e.
the old fansubs and DVD rips.
Surely, the people who fansub anime are enjoying it a lot. They're learning Japanese at the same time and also
watching anime, as well as "helping" other anime fans in a illegal fashion.
Indeed, fansubs is just like someone in Japan recording an anime series on VHS from Japanese TV and bringing it to
Europe for someone to watch. Yes that's fine. But since the foundation of the BitTorrent technology, this is made
worldwide accessible. I.e. billions of people upload and download, exchange these anime series worldwide, so this is
more than just someone bringing a VHS recording of an anime to their family/friend in another country. This is huge
distribution! Thus is damaging the anime industry.
Do you know that old fansubs since 1998 or earlier are still being distributed via P2P and torrent network? I mean anime
like Love Hina, Ranma 1/2 and Onegai Teacher etc. are all still being distributed worldwide for "free"
(I'm sure you know this).
These anime series have all been licensed, and thus should be removed because the anime has been licensed, yes?
But.. no....!!! No no way... the licensed anime years ago are still being distributed everywhere. What do you call this?
Is this feasible? Oh you may yes it is, because they act as a "preview". Yeah right, more like
"free-riding" like you said.
So, the only way to stop the distribution of illegal anime and also licensed anime is to stop the fansubbing groups.
They're the source. What else? Well we could stop the BitTorrent and P2P technology overall, that's fine by
me. Otherwise, use a payment service for the download concept.
Yeah, of course, those people are still ripping illegal copies from the DVDs themselves. So might as well stop P2P
program and BT itself. That way it'll stop the illegal distribution of all digital data, i.e. software, movies,
games, music etc.
Statistics from AnimeNewsNetwork shows that from 3038 people, 82.5% of them download fansubs. Poll statistics.
Do you think more anime is bought than downloaded? I certainly think not. Right now, the only thing that is holding
anime production in balance are true faithful anime fans who buy anime DVDs like
me and my other friends like MadMover, TenchiFan, Kastelic4444 and cas2384.
Quote by finiteyodaFinally,
please don't support HK bootlegs :( that's just wrong. Most HK bootlegs are of series that are available
domestically, anyway But give your money to bootleggers, and all you're doing is helping mafia members buy guns,
drugs, and run prostitution rings. In some cases, the results are even worse. There was an incident a while ago, where
Chinese triads manufactured and sold bootleg baby food, and ended up killing thousands of babies. Is this the sort of
people you want to support with your money?
No I don't support the bootleg industry.
Bootlegs from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia and also Japan are a real damage yes. Yes by all
means, take down the bootlegs for sure. But at the same time take down the fansub groups as well as the vile bootleg
firms.
Quote by charaznableamurorei"You don't buy anime, anime
producers stop making anime," Kei-kun has pointed out. Quite true, I agree. But may I add this? "You
don't buy anime, anime producers stop making anime, someone else will make anime, you buy/trade from
them."
True, but those who take over after the real anime producers will still be known as anime makers. These new anime makers
may be people like us in Minitokyo, some skilled anime/manga artists, but perhaps a lot lot worse compared to the
current talented anime producers.
I'd say stop them all before anymore gets distributed. Media Factory Inc. are right. Other Japanese anime studios
should follow.