Fansubbers Under Fire

CNet is running a story about new developments in the fansubbing world. The article provides some background, and then discusses Media Factory's recent letters to fansubbers demanding removal of their shows. Historically the studios have turned a blind eye towards the work of the fansubbers, and the assumption has always been they they secretly approve since the fans work is amazing market research. I've bought countless DVDs based entirely on the work of fansubbers, so I hope that this isn't the beginning of the end.

Comments

What the hell is a fansubber?

[Anonymous Coward]

For everyone else asking that question, they apparently translate foreign movies and make English subtitles.

Re:What the hell is a fansubber?

[Kunnis]

Fansubbers go through and put subtitles on anime captured from Japanese TV. Usually the group captures it off of TV, then someone will translate it, pass it off to someone else for checking, then the subtitles are timed, then encoded, and finally distributed via newgroups or bittorrent. Most groups try to do a whole series, and most series are usually 26+ episodes long. IMHO the translations are better then the commercial ones, and sometimes the only way you can get the uncut series. Most of these groups do these translations weekly, and often they have half the series translated and their release dates are only a few weeks after their showing on TV in Japan. The commercial translations are only available at least a year or two after it's been out in Japan. Inu Yasha, which is very popular on Cartoon Network, was on its 3rd or 4th season in Japan before they started showing it here in the US.

The border between illegal and immoral.

[Demon-Xanth]

Most fansubbing groups operate on morality vs. legality.

They will sub, and release, a series until there is a company that picks it up and says "we are going to do this". And then they drop it. At which point, most drop all sources for all episodes both future and already released. This is why studios don't have a problem with most groups. It doesn't dilute the market enough to bother with.

I don't consider this practice immoral. However, given the current state of copyright laws, it is illegal. Doing fansubs, or DLing them is an at-risk practice for all parties involved.

Much like driving 5MPH over the speed limit, or doing a rolling stop at a stop sign. Illegal and immoral do not always coincide.

Re:A good example

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, actually, that was a "professional" translation, not a fansub.

The fansubbing process

[darkgray]

I used to be a fansubber, before I went back to the university in order to learn Japanese properly. At the time I wrote a guide for curious people, describing the process our group went through for subtitling an episode.

URL is http://www.lolikon.org/guide.html

I'd also like to point out that fansubs are likely to spread the Japanese culture a lot more than any dubbed-and-slashed US versions released. Granted, this may not be an amazing thing for American companies looking for quick profits on a new frontier, but I believe Japan as a nation will benefit in the end.

Sigh.. I wish slashdot had a -1, Wrong mod.

[Kjella]

Under the Berne convention, everything copyrightable is copyrighted by default. You don't have to include a (c) either. The copyright is equally valid in all signing countries, which is ~100 nations, and all of the important ones. This post is copyrighted in the US and Japan. So is yours. It's as simple as that.

Kjella