Slashdot Mirror
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.
Media Factory should have been less blunt since as mentioned the "dirty little secret" about digisubs is that companies actively use this as a marketing tool to know what is hot and what is not. They get a lot more feedback through watching fan activity than they ever did in those "reader response cards" and web site mechanisms. Even so, I can't blame Media Factory for wanting to protect their investments. They took the time and money to create shows to market in the Japan and the US and are irked to see their work handed out freely. Although they could have handled in a more friendly fashion the fact is that they asked these groups to stop and it is in their right to do so. They should have handled it with a gentle handle instead of the blunt instrument of psuedo-legal issuing of offical letters.
The fansubing groups need to get off their high horse and honor the request. In the past, "fansub ethics" have always said "honor the request of the creators" reguardless of reason. As much as these guys think they are "promoting the show by sharing" they continue to ignore the reason they are asked to stop which is that there is a seedy element in fandom that just wants cheap shows to watch.
Both sides should just acknowledg each other and walk away from this situation cleanly instead of fuming and dwelling on it. The system works best when it runs silent not when red flags and warning bells go off.
Not yet... Give it time. With the US government in the hands of big business, I fully expect to see copyright infringment criminalized within the next few years... They'll probably be using the death penalty in a decade...
Now onto the subject of this debate:
I was a fairly active fansubber in the late 90s, but had to give it up because of time constraints (and because I got tired of poor-quality translations). I never digisubbed (old school SVHS subbing), but I still download stuff today and watch it.
I don't think the fansubbing is all bad, as it does provide a decent method of previewing series without shelling out $15-20 to buy DVDs that you might not like. And there's still far more anime produced in Japan than will ever be released in North America. Some series are too short to be cost-effective, and some just aren't suitable for distributers here.
That said, the trend of distributing full-resolution subs with high quality video and audio encoding is pretty dangerous. If the video was 1/2 res or lower, and audio was MP3 at less than 128kbps, then it wouldn't be of sufficient quality for people to archive/keep when DVDs are released. Sure you could watch it, but you'd definately prefer having the real thing.
I was doing a fair bit of encoding/releasing of JPOP concert material, but I'd make sure the video and audio quality was highly-compressed enough to "encourage" people to buy the original DVDs. I'd never release direct copies of the VOBs, even to my friends online.
In the end, it will be better for the fansubbers to find a way to help work with industry (and most reputable subbers WILL terminate their subbing of series when studios either announce acquisition of a series, or when they actively start distributing it).
And don't kid yourself that this is just a north american thing. There's a booming anime fansubbing industry in other asian countries as well (Korea for instance).
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
The most telling thing to me is that fansubbers sub series because they enjoy them, not because they want to try to earn money off them. It seems like most commercial releases just do elaborate dubs and stick on a few trailers for other series. But as the article mentions, they don't put the effort into it that fansubbers do. There's no painstakingly yet beautifully done karaoke, no pretty and easy-to-read color-changing fonts, no translations for all the onscreen signs or Japanse jokes. And most commercial releases have a fair number of grammatical errors in their subtitles, which personally annoys me. I understand that things like these probably don't both most of their audience, which is why they don't do them, but it would be nice to see a US studio put as much effort into their releases as fansubbers do. If you really love a series, it shows.
I'm in the UK and a well known Gundam fanboy (my name is based on Gundam and FMA). Bandai have totally given upon Gundam in Europe and now you can get very little but import manga from Amazon and DVDs which wont play on all DVD players (region crap). So I have to fansub the series, but I do go out of my way to buy all the Gundam models and mangas I want, or even don't want in some cases. Bandai and Sunrise earn more money through Gunpla (Gundam models) then they do through DVD sales. So clearly I'm putting my money back into the series through "alternative" ways. Many people work the same way as I do.
I like muppets.
It appears that the controversy here is over copyright infringement when the "fansubbing group" releases an entire video with their translated subtitles attached to them. While I agree this is copyright infringement, I would also like to point out that, according to the Berne Convention Article 8, translating copyrighted works is the exclusive right of the copyright holder.
I would love to hear of any legal precedent that says that this doesn't apply in the case of translating Japanese audio to English text.
So is this 'fansubbing' thing only for Anime? Are there fansubbings of regular movies? Because if there aren't, it would be a great idea. Hmmm... there's a lot of great Russian movies that I would love my American friends to see. *lightbulb*