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Pirate Anime FAQ Updated
Joe Curzon writes "The Pirate Anime FAQ has finally been updated, after year of me being far to busy to do anything on the internet! The FAQ would have been released sooner, but my request on Slashdot.org produced some "interesting" feedback via e-mail. This update includes a new and improved Fansub section, which also covers Digisubs. Scanlations have been added as a point of interest. Additionally the Audio CD and DVD sections have been improved with more details on the Pirate Companies and how to spot their "products". I would also like to say that feedback from readers and the industry is critical for keeping the FAQ up to date, and without their previous and continuing support The Pirate Anime FAQ could not exist. Finally I would to remind people to be extremely cautious when buying from on-line auction sites such as eBay. The most common e-mail I get sent is from concerned fans who have just found out that they have bought some pirate goods off a seller who claimed what they were selling was legitimate."
"US Citizens should note it is also a federal offence to import, buy, sell or trade these goods."
Doesn't the law saying you have to KNOW the goods are pirate?
Everytime something a little underground get coverage on slashdot, I cringe. I really hope this doesn't cause copyright holders to crack down on Fansub distributions, because I really dig my fansubs.
On top of that, I'm pretty certain that anyone willing to buy dubbed versions of the same anime when they're ported to the US market (100 years after Japanese release) will still buy the DVDs anyways. That is to say, I hope this doesn't become another mp3 crackdown because some greedy bastards decide that fansubs are "ruining their profit".
I probably bought the same set, Cowboy Bebop: The Perfect Sessions? After i ordered it i read some of the reviews, most of them were like "shame on amazon for selling pirate dvds". I got it and sure enough the set is a bootleg, but the entire set in decent quality for only $30, i dont really mind.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Occasionally the legitimate item might not be available, so fans go for bootlegs in this case too.
And who's fault is this? I wouldn't even call this bootlegging.
Official goods normally have good quality packaging that is well designed.
That just isn't true. Ditto for pirated Anime but all of the Anime I own has average to crappy packaging.
If the price is too good to be true, then it is not the real thing.
That's a wonderfull way to spot a bootlegger! Unless they charge $30 for a 2 to 4 episode DVD they probably aren't legit. Does anyone know why they cost so much? Can't be the English subtitling, since they don't even have to know English to do their work
if it is set to Region 0 or All Regions and has Chinese as well as English subtitles there is a very strong chance that the title is a bootleg.
I am assuming that customers want both chinese and english subtitles, but legit DVDs do not provide those?
There are only a handful of examples of this I can think of, and most of them involve the company 4Kids, which brings out some kids shows.
Outside of that, the major anime companies like ADV, Bandai, Pioneer, Synch-Point, AnimEigo, Central Park Media, Media Blasters, etc. all generally release uncut anime, complete with Japanese audio and subtitles. The DVD's often have dubs too, but the Japanese audio is still almost always there, except in some rare cases when a company doesn't have the rights to the Japanese audio for some reason.
Pirated subbed anime isn't "truer" to the original than commercial subbed anime (I mean, it sounded like you still thought most anime that is brought to the US is released dub only and edited, which just isn't true), and in fact, in many times the translations on subbed pirated anime is worse (sometimes even when the pirates steal a fansub script to use, they still end up screwing up the timing or replacing names or some other weird stuff).
Saying that the only way to get anime that is "true" to the original is with pirated anime is just too far off the mark. The large large majority of most modern anime brought out commercially in the US is not butchered, etc. (we're not living in the 80's of Streamline and Carl Macek any more with stuff like Robotech and the butchered version of Nausicaa released as "Warriors of the Wind").
I agree that there are still a number of good series not brought out in the US, but a much larger number of series are being brought out now, and a much larger variety than even a few years ago, with many different genres represented.
Anyway, just wanted to respond to this, as it seems to reflect a version of commercial anime that doesn't exist in reality (most specifically the notion that only by buying pirated anime can you get a "truer" version of anime).
This notion that the people who pirate anime are people who really "love" the series strikes me as bizarre to.... most of the anime bootleggers and pirates don't have any particular love for most of what they bootleg.... they just care about doing anything that will sell.
The only thing I can think from some of the things you said were that you were using "pirated anime" to refer to fansubs, but for the purposes of this discussion, although fansubs are of course pirated, this also lumps them in with the anime DVD bootleggers, who many of the statements don't apply to.
But either way..... the point you made about dubbed anime doesn't have much to do with it, as commercial anime does almost always have Japanese audio and subtitles, and it's very rare that commercial anime DVD releases are butchered, cut or feature totally wrong translations (the cases where this does happen are the exception generally, and when they do happen, the company who releases it gets slammed by the anime community).
Lastly, I would say that there are more good series that have come out lately that people thought couldn't possibly translate because they were depenent on Japanese culture and language, but I think both fansubbers and commercial anime DVD companies have generally proven this wrong. A show like Excel Saga, which many thought could never be successfully translated, is a good example of this... and it was a pretty big success too. In most cases, they are able to explain the jokes with footnotes, translation notes, on-screen pop-ups and other ideas.
Anyway, sorry to go on so long....:)
-Tom
I'm not trying to incite a flamewar. I AM, however, interested in seeing what SlashDotters have to say about this concept: It seems to me that there is a "double standard" on "piracy" (I hate that word; see this page for some reasons why not to use this word) here. When people "pirate" the MPAA's latest, no one cares, but when people "pirate" anime, people here get upset. Why?
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Certainly, a big deal to Japanese companies, but I don't that answers my original concern. These companies wouldn't have a product to care about in US markets minus the piracy. Remember, anime started off as a tiny nitch in the market. Nobody cared 15 years ago when enterprising companies were selling products based on the copyrighted images at county fairs in 1989, because at that time, it was consider publicity. Now that there is a market (again, I don't get it, it's not my taste in popular culture), people whine about their copyright.
Sure, protecting copyright is important
You can take issue with the copyright aspect if you want but that's not the point of the FAQ.
The intent is to allow people who are looking for authentic goods to identify them.
When I first began to buy anime goods, I assumed everything I saw was legitimate. I was lucky to stumble onto this FAQ by accident before I wasted too much money on inferior products. But I did waste some -- and having replaced those bootleg items with originals, I can attest to the serious difference in quality.
Now, the FAQ does strike the correct tone in condemning piracy (resulting in all the usual Slashdot kneejerking) but that's incidental; it would be nonsensical for a bootleg FAQ to condone any other position.
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Dum de dum.
Freedom is not the license to do what we like, it is the power to do what we ought.