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

Re:No Story

[Nogami_Saeko]

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.

What about the UK

[Turn-X Alphonse]

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.