I agree, it isn't perfect yet. But it's the biggest step I've seen a Japanese studio take in this direction. And it makes me hope that, if it does well, GDH and other companies will look farther into fast, sub-only digital distribution.
Sweet lord. Is the messiah on his way? Has the Mayan calendar finally run out? Did someone divide by zero?
I'm tempted to say that my article has been rendered somewhat moot a day after I've written it, but on the other hand... while this is a step in the right direction, it bears some scrutiny. The first thing I notice is that they've chosen a pair of shounen series - which seems like a smart move, given that those are the sort of shows that are most likely to survive in the DVD/TV market if this trick isn't effective. Beyond that the shows look like they're all going to appear in a streaming format, which says quite a bit. It says that they're not willing to grant the fans the same crazy-huge resolutions that come with most fansub releases, and it says that they don't want these things sticking around on people's hard drives where they can freely enter circulation. In other words: they don't want to offer us a quality that might compete with DVD sales, and they don't want the "pseudo-fansubs" still around when that happens.
All of this is fair enough and seems well thought out, but frankly I don't think it's going to work. I just don't think this kind of model is going to bring the fansub audience back into the fold. Fans just aren't going to be satisfied watching postage stamp-sized copies on Youtube and Crunchyroll or shelling out $2 for slightly better quality on BOST, and they're really not going to be happy about not being able to keep any of it (except through underhanded means, but even that doesn't solve the quality issue). Basically, it's an interesting move - risky but well-considered - that, I think, just isn't going far enough to make the difference. This is toeing the water when the future of the industry requires a cannonball.
I wonder when the domestic companies will finally abandon their -- as fansubs have exposed -- archaic business model. I'm not sure why we have to wait years, in some cases, for some company to finally license a property, only to have said anime DVDs terminated roughly 2/3s of the way-in because of low DVD sales. "Thanks for supporting the consumers, who are "morally" obliged to support you, by ending your production of the given series." But hey, that's the consumers fault, right?
Perhaps low DVD sales may have to do with the massive glut of anime put on the market, thus burying numerous titles on their release dates. Thought, it should be given that some of the domestically released anime DVDs seem to be released only for the sake of making an easy dollar (I can think of some companies which have made this the seeming foundation for their business'). So, not only are we to pay for low quality DVDs of second-rate anime, which are "cult classics" at best, we are supposed to like it -- because we are merely anime fans.
The domestic anime DVD is built on a now painfully redundant archetype. The market is flooded with simulacra; we want something else; we know were to find it. An adaption on part of the companies isn't enough: They need to build new models to compete in the new anime market. This isn't a Japanese phenomenon anymore.
All that "Berne Convention art. 2: "Translations, adaptations, arrangements of music and other alterations of a literary or artistic work shall be protected as original works without prejudice to the copyright in the original work." protects is that the actual subtitles could be copyrightable. So if they were releasing a script, without the images, then they might be able to make that argument. But the film they are releasing along with their subtitles, is still under the copyright held by the original creator.
I've spent the last hour collecting a bunch of links from various creators and officals, and I'm going to post that in just a moment. Please check them out. I think at the very least, the fate of fansubs will be changing soon, for better or worse, as both Japanese and American companies realize the impact that they have on commercial appeal and sales. A lot of the links I've collected do also have the creators and companies heads stating that something does need to be done to change the business model and that they are trying to get those changes made. And I do think that if business models change, than some of these issues will disapear. iTunes showed that legal downloads can compete, but ease of use and avaliability is certianly an issue.
Thank you for complimenting my essay. This is especially nice of you given that you seem to disagree with much of what I say.
On the legal question: first, thank you for the article, as it's quite a bit clearer than everything else I've read on this. If I understand correctly, however, fansub groups still have considerable leeway to work within. Berne Convention art. 2: "Translations, adaptations, arrangements of music and other alterations of a literary or artistic work shall be protected as original works without prejudice to the copyright in the original work." While this obviously isn't enough to extend to full-on bittorrent-distributed anime releases with embedded timecoded translations, it's enough for the translations themselves to be acceptable. There also seem to me enough loopholes in the fair use clause for fansubbing to slip through in some cases - fansubbers work for no profit and frequently refuse to subtitle works that have already been licensed (i.e. works that will enter or have already entered the US marketplace), leaving only the "substantiality" clause as a problem. I think the biggest argument against the legal objection is that while fansubbing may be unacceptable at a statutory level, on the level of legal precedent and common law it has really yet to become an issue. You may have a better memory than I, but I can't recall any previous time that copyright laws were seriously enforced for an unlicensed series to the point where prosecutions occurred. Anyways, my point is that legally this seems to be a greyer area than you make it out to be (although, in fairness, if you stray too far to the black then my essay is unjustifiably white).
But enough on that. My barber shop analogy was not being used to make a legal point, but rather a point about how businesses interact with consumers. If that's kept in mind, I don't think it much changes the situation if somehow the shop was the only legally legitimate place in town to get a haircut. All the same, while we could debate legality all day to no end, I think the larger and far more relevant topic is just what's to be done with the anime industry. (Truth be told, I think if they changed their ways the legal issues would dissolve entirely)
The core of your point is this: "Its not that you owe the anime companies in America something necessarily, but you do owe the original creators. And like it or not, those American companies are the only licensed distributors." I don't think this works, though. If someone gave me the bank account numbers for every Japanese anime producer (and Watanabe-san) which I could use to wire a few hundred yen for every episode of a series that I watch, I would be perfectly willing to do so. Creators do indeed deserve to be compensated for their work. But it can't follow from this that I am somehow obligated to drive myself over to Circuit City to pay for DVDs released in America which often come long after I have ceased to care about the series they contain. Many of these are, quite simply, not products I am interested in, and that fact is totally independent of whatever I may owe to the producers to the east. And this is the entire point of my article: the American companies must change what they offer, because they will not be able to succeed in the modern market as they are now. Both sides on the fansub issue will justify their points however they want, but at this issue the question reaches bedrock. The final decision rests in the hands of the licensers and, as Dagger writes, the Japanese creators - debates over what is legal and over who owes who what will not change this, because the real difficulty is in another sphere entirely.
Oh, I just found this link as I'm rounding up links for my post, and it talks a lot about the future of dvds and direct downloads from companies - http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/11935.html I thought you might be interested in it, because it addresses some of the solution you were proposing.
Nice essay!
I think what you suggest towards the end, about having downloads of current shows running in Japan is something that is desperately needed. It is an idea that’s been being thrown around for a while, and as best I've heard, its matter of the Japanese companies not wanting to give away the rights.
Unfortunately your initial analogy, while nicely done, doesn't really apply to fansubs, because of the intellectual copyright laws involved. And one your base assumptions, that its not illegal to fansub unless the show is licensed in America, is incorrect. See this article on anime news network, or do a few google searches, but this sums it up nicely -
"American Copyright protects derivative works, which includes translations. However, US Copyright law inherently accounts for copyright protections of other countries, when "the work is first published in the United States or in a foreign nation that, on the date of first publication, is a treaty party"10.
The US and Japan have signed numerous treaties, the most important of which is the Berne Convention, although others exist. As such, US Copyright protects Japanese productions, including anime, as well as derivative works from it, such as translations."
My biggest problem with fansubs and not supporting the American licensed goods, is that you are in turn not supporting the writers/creators. As a writer, creator, and self-publisher, I would be appalled if someone took my works and reprinted them in another language or sold copies online. The money that a US company pays for the rights to publish an American translation does go to the creator of the original Japanese. And it is usually a substantial amount of money. One of the things I hopped to stress in my original article is that by buying the American product, you are supporting the original creator.
Its not that you owe the anime companies in America something necessarily, but you do owe the original creators. And like it or not, those American companies are the only licensed distributors.
And the American companies are listening, but slowly. And it might be an issue that some fan who has a better business model needs to step up and start their own company (look at all the various American manga publishers who have started up in the last five years). But look at the quality of dubs, look at Death Note being released online, etc. They are slowly listening, and the more vocal fans are about this subject, the more they will listen.
I will work on putting together a list of links on the fansub debate on my world, because I think its a very complicated subject that’s been discussed a lot lately. A lot of industry professionals on both sides of the ocean have started to come out and speak the truth about how fan subbing is affecting Japanese creators.
People will do what they want, people will break whatever laws they want and justify it as they please. I'm not saying I haven't tried out anime via fan subs, that I haven't read scanlations before the American issue was released (damn my Skip Beat addiction!), but... one shouldn't try to idealize or justify it by saying it doesn't hurt the industry. Because it does.
But for starters, I'd encourage people to check out these replies that Nabeshin Watanabe gave about Japanese creators views on fansubs. http://www.activeanime.com/html/content/view/1967/2/
Hey man, nice to see your writing on the new site finally (and eloquent as ever).
I don't disagree with either of you, and you both make very fair points to the fact. I still feel that putting money into the North American "middle-men" can still help support the industry in a steady, tried and true way, but the amount it does support is definitely getting lower and lower.
I like your barbershop analogy to a degree, but once you get to the part about intellectual property and all that jazz it gets a little more complicated - at that point, I don't think the analogy works quite as well. Still, a fair point in all.
I definitely agree with Dagger's comments that there is a lot of stalling on the Japanese side of the business model, where things just generally cost more as well as all the other licensing requirements like single-DVD releases and all that. There needs to be a lot of rethinking on all sides of the topic.
Here's hoping we can get a little more insight once the North American companies start hanging out at theO, build Worlds and such - it'll be a nice avenue to ask some questions, I think.
In other words, we don't seem to be much influencing what gets made, only how much gets produced in the first place.
I think that hits the nail on the head.
As someone who's bought a kind of ridiculous number of DVDs, it's hard not to feel a little fed up with the current system. I think it's likely that both the future alternatives you suggested will happen, but that different companies will go different ways.
Now, in fairness, they could be making excuses, but industry people often say that they'd bring shows online in a timely manner if they could (if the JP side didn't stall things, in other words). Even setting aside online releases, American companies have been pushing toward all-in-one box sets (more like American TV series) to replace singles, but apparently some JP licensors require that single releases come first.
I get the sense that they care about licensing revenue... but not if it's going require them to go to the trouble of changing how they deal with licensing properties out overseas. Would've been easy to get spoiled by having American companies fling money at them freely in 02 and 03.
I suspect American anime sales have had a bigger effect on Japanese production than you think. Now, I think it's true that it hasn't dictated in any large degree which shows get made, except for series (Samurai Champloo is the best example that comes to mind) that are expected mainly to succeed the overseas market. Those tend to be few and far between, though. On the other hand, the influx of American money has done a lot to fuel the massive glut of new shows of recent years. In other words, we don't seem to be much influencing what gets made, only how much gets produced in the first place.
Also, I don't necessarily think the American anime industry's going to "collapse" (in the sense that they all go out of business). There may be a crash if things don't change soon, but a bunch of them will still be around. I think what we're going to see in the next few years is either a turn to an iTunes-like distribution system or a switch by all of the survivors to be more like Funimation - that is, to find the shows that are going to sell DVDs and air on Cartoon Network no matter what and hang onto those shows for dear life. I think this would actually be fairly disastrous for anime in America (not so much for those of us who are serious otaku - although sometimes even I really want those DVD boxes - but more for the casual fans just getting into things who don't necessary know how to adjust their port settings in Azureus), but I don't see any alternative unless the industry wakes up and moves towards online distribution.
Pickle of the Year (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
Great essay. I particularly like how you opened this because I think your analogy does well in illustrating the situation at hand: essentially, the town could do without the barber shop and the American anime community could do without licensing companies. I don't why there is this assumption that we would benefit so much from supporting these companies, when from the way things seem to be, the community will continue to thrive even without a legitimate means of getting the product.
I don't claim to know much about this issue, but the way I see it: if the anime DVD industry collapses on itself, I honestly don't think the community has all that much to lose; the dub watchers obviously would not be pleased, but manga and other anime-related merchandise that do sell well (wallscrolls, cosplay stuff, toys, etc.) will still be around. (And I don't think North American DVD sales really have that big of an effect on what gets produced in Japan even if it did produce revenue, or at least never as much as the effect the Japanese audience has.) And the spread of anime's popularity has mostly been word-of-mouth (friends giving burned DVDs/lending manga/etc. to others friends) rather than a reliance on televised or licensed series. It just... wouldn't make that huge of a difference, I don't think.
Dr. Mama Cat. (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
This sounds reasonable, until we recognize the suppressed premise - which is that the domestic anime companies have no need to change their methods of business.
So true in so many ways. Blaming the consumer instead of realizing that the method of distribution is behind the times. There are so many of us who download those fan subs who would buy it legally online if we could.
I get tired of the spiel that we owe them somehow. That has never made sense to me, ever. Anyway, good read.
Desbreko
Abundant Love (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 03/21/08 | Reply
@Fasteriskhead:
I agree, it isn't perfect yet. But it's the biggest step I've seen a Japanese studio take in this direction. And it makes me hope that, if it does well, GDH and other companies will look farther into fast, sub-only digital distribution.
Fasteriskhead
Otakuite++ | Posted 03/21/08 | Reply
@Desbreko:
Sweet lord. Is the messiah on his way? Has the Mayan calendar finally run out? Did someone divide by zero?
I'm tempted to say that my article has been rendered somewhat moot a day after I've written it, but on the other hand... while this is a step in the right direction, it bears some scrutiny. The first thing I notice is that they've chosen a pair of shounen series - which seems like a smart move, given that those are the sort of shows that are most likely to survive in the DVD/TV market if this trick isn't effective. Beyond that the shows look like they're all going to appear in a streaming format, which says quite a bit. It says that they're not willing to grant the fans the same crazy-huge resolutions that come with most fansub releases, and it says that they don't want these things sticking around on people's hard drives where they can freely enter circulation. In other words: they don't want to offer us a quality that might compete with DVD sales, and they don't want the "pseudo-fansubs" still around when that happens.
All of this is fair enough and seems well thought out, but frankly I don't think it's going to work. I just don't think this kind of model is going to bring the fansub audience back into the fold. Fans just aren't going to be satisfied watching postage stamp-sized copies on Youtube and Crunchyroll or shelling out $2 for slightly better quality on BOST, and they're really not going to be happy about not being able to keep any of it (except through underhanded means, but even that doesn't solve the quality issue). Basically, it's an interesting move - risky but well-considered - that, I think, just isn't going far enough to make the difference. This is toeing the water when the future of the industry requires a cannonball.
Pleiades Rising
Otaku Idol (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 03/21/08 | Reply
I wonder when the domestic companies will finally abandon their -- as fansubs have exposed -- archaic business model. I'm not sure why we have to wait years, in some cases, for some company to finally license a property, only to have said anime DVDs terminated roughly 2/3s of the way-in because of low DVD sales. "Thanks for supporting the consumers, who are "morally" obliged to support you, by ending your production of the given series." But hey, that's the consumers fault, right?
Perhaps low DVD sales may have to do with the massive glut of anime put on the market, thus burying numerous titles on their release dates. Thought, it should be given that some of the domestically released anime DVDs seem to be released only for the sake of making an easy dollar (I can think of some companies which have made this the seeming foundation for their business'). So, not only are we to pay for low quality DVDs of second-rate anime, which are "cult classics" at best, we are supposed to like it -- because we are merely anime fans.
The domestic anime DVD is built on a now painfully redundant archetype. The market is flooded with simulacra; we want something else; we know were to find it. An adaption on part of the companies isn't enough: They need to build new models to compete in the new anime market. This isn't a Japanese phenomenon anymore.
Desbreko
Abundant Love (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 03/21/08 | Reply
G.D.H. has taken the hint. Maybe there's hope after all.
CassieR
Otakuite+ | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
All that "Berne Convention art. 2: "Translations, adaptations, arrangements of music and other alterations of a literary or artistic work shall be protected as original works without prejudice to the copyright in the original work." protects is that the actual subtitles could be copyrightable. So if they were releasing a script, without the images, then they might be able to make that argument. But the film they are releasing along with their subtitles, is still under the copyright held by the original creator.
I've spent the last hour collecting a bunch of links from various creators and officals, and I'm going to post that in just a moment. Please check them out. I think at the very least, the fate of fansubs will be changing soon, for better or worse, as both Japanese and American companies realize the impact that they have on commercial appeal and sales. A lot of the links I've collected do also have the creators and companies heads stating that something does need to be done to change the business model and that they are trying to get those changes made. And I do think that if business models change, than some of these issues will disapear. iTunes showed that legal downloads can compete, but ease of use and avaliability is certianly an issue.
Fasteriskhead
Otakuite++ | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
@CassieR:
Thank you for complimenting my essay. This is especially nice of you given that you seem to disagree with much of what I say.
On the legal question: first, thank you for the article, as it's quite a bit clearer than everything else I've read on this. If I understand correctly, however, fansub groups still have considerable leeway to work within. Berne Convention art. 2: "Translations, adaptations, arrangements of music and other alterations of a literary or artistic work shall be protected as original works without prejudice to the copyright in the original work." While this obviously isn't enough to extend to full-on bittorrent-distributed anime releases with embedded timecoded translations, it's enough for the translations themselves to be acceptable. There also seem to me enough loopholes in the fair use clause for fansubbing to slip through in some cases - fansubbers work for no profit and frequently refuse to subtitle works that have already been licensed (i.e. works that will enter or have already entered the US marketplace), leaving only the "substantiality" clause as a problem. I think the biggest argument against the legal objection is that while fansubbing may be unacceptable at a statutory level, on the level of legal precedent and common law it has really yet to become an issue. You may have a better memory than I, but I can't recall any previous time that copyright laws were seriously enforced for an unlicensed series to the point where prosecutions occurred. Anyways, my point is that legally this seems to be a greyer area than you make it out to be (although, in fairness, if you stray too far to the black then my essay is unjustifiably white).
But enough on that. My barber shop analogy was not being used to make a legal point, but rather a point about how businesses interact with consumers. If that's kept in mind, I don't think it much changes the situation if somehow the shop was the only legally legitimate place in town to get a haircut. All the same, while we could debate legality all day to no end, I think the larger and far more relevant topic is just what's to be done with the anime industry. (Truth be told, I think if they changed their ways the legal issues would dissolve entirely)
The core of your point is this: "Its not that you owe the anime companies in America something necessarily, but you do owe the original creators. And like it or not, those American companies are the only licensed distributors." I don't think this works, though. If someone gave me the bank account numbers for every Japanese anime producer (and Watanabe-san) which I could use to wire a few hundred yen for every episode of a series that I watch, I would be perfectly willing to do so. Creators do indeed deserve to be compensated for their work. But it can't follow from this that I am somehow obligated to drive myself over to Circuit City to pay for DVDs released in America which often come long after I have ceased to care about the series they contain. Many of these are, quite simply, not products I am interested in, and that fact is totally independent of whatever I may owe to the producers to the east. And this is the entire point of my article: the American companies must change what they offer, because they will not be able to succeed in the modern market as they are now. Both sides on the fansub issue will justify their points however they want, but at this issue the question reaches bedrock. The final decision rests in the hands of the licensers and, as Dagger writes, the Japanese creators - debates over what is legal and over who owes who what will not change this, because the real difficulty is in another sphere entirely.
CassieR
Otakuite+ | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
Oh, I just found this link as I'm rounding up links for my post, and it talks a lot about the future of dvds and direct downloads from companies - http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/11935.html I thought you might be interested in it, because it addresses some of the solution you were proposing.
CassieR
Otakuite+ | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
Nice essay!
I think what you suggest towards the end, about having downloads of current shows running in Japan is something that is desperately needed. It is an idea that’s been being thrown around for a while, and as best I've heard, its matter of the Japanese companies not wanting to give away the rights.
Unfortunately your initial analogy, while nicely done, doesn't really apply to fansubs, because of the intellectual copyright laws involved. And one your base assumptions, that its not illegal to fansub unless the show is licensed in America, is incorrect. See this article on anime news network, or do a few google searches, but this sums it up nicely -
"American Copyright protects derivative works, which includes translations. However, US Copyright law inherently accounts for copyright protections of other countries, when "the work is first published in the United States or in a foreign nation that, on the date of first publication, is a treaty party"10.
The US and Japan have signed numerous treaties, the most important of which is the Berne Convention, although others exist. As such, US Copyright protects Japanese productions, including anime, as well as derivative works from it, such as translations."
My biggest problem with fansubs and not supporting the American licensed goods, is that you are in turn not supporting the writers/creators. As a writer, creator, and self-publisher, I would be appalled if someone took my works and reprinted them in another language or sold copies online. The money that a US company pays for the rights to publish an American translation does go to the creator of the original Japanese. And it is usually a substantial amount of money. One of the things I hopped to stress in my original article is that by buying the American product, you are supporting the original creator.
Its not that you owe the anime companies in America something necessarily, but you do owe the original creators. And like it or not, those American companies are the only licensed distributors.
And the American companies are listening, but slowly. And it might be an issue that some fan who has a better business model needs to step up and start their own company (look at all the various American manga publishers who have started up in the last five years). But look at the quality of dubs, look at Death Note being released online, etc. They are slowly listening, and the more vocal fans are about this subject, the more they will listen.
I will work on putting together a list of links on the fansub debate on my world, because I think its a very complicated subject that’s been discussed a lot lately. A lot of industry professionals on both sides of the ocean have started to come out and speak the truth about how fan subbing is affecting Japanese creators.
People will do what they want, people will break whatever laws they want and justify it as they please. I'm not saying I haven't tried out anime via fan subs, that I haven't read scanlations before the American issue was released (damn my Skip Beat addiction!), but... one shouldn't try to idealize or justify it by saying it doesn't hurt the industry. Because it does.
But for starters, I'd encourage people to check out these replies that Nabeshin Watanabe gave about Japanese creators views on fansubs. http://www.activeanime.com/html/content/view/1967/2/
SomeGuy
Canadian Liaison (Team) | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
Hey man, nice to see your writing on the new site finally (and eloquent as ever).
I don't disagree with either of you, and you both make very fair points to the fact. I still feel that putting money into the North American "middle-men" can still help support the industry in a steady, tried and true way, but the amount it does support is definitely getting lower and lower.
I like your barbershop analogy to a degree, but once you get to the part about intellectual property and all that jazz it gets a little more complicated - at that point, I don't think the analogy works quite as well. Still, a fair point in all.
I definitely agree with Dagger's comments that there is a lot of stalling on the Japanese side of the business model, where things just generally cost more as well as all the other licensing requirements like single-DVD releases and all that. There needs to be a lot of rethinking on all sides of the topic.
Here's hoping we can get a little more insight once the North American companies start hanging out at theO, build Worlds and such - it'll be a nice avenue to ask some questions, I think.
Dagger IX1
Team | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
@Fasteriskhead:
In other words, we don't seem to be much influencing what gets made, only how much gets produced in the first place.
I think that hits the nail on the head.
As someone who's bought a kind of ridiculous number of DVDs, it's hard not to feel a little fed up with the current system. I think it's likely that both the future alternatives you suggested will happen, but that different companies will go different ways.
Now, in fairness, they could be making excuses, but industry people often say that they'd bring shows online in a timely manner if they could (if the JP side didn't stall things, in other words). Even setting aside online releases, American companies have been pushing toward all-in-one box sets (more like American TV series) to replace singles, but apparently some JP licensors require that single releases come first.
I get the sense that they care about licensing revenue... but not if it's going require them to go to the trouble of changing how they deal with licensing properties out overseas. Would've been easy to get spoiled by having American companies fling money at them freely in 02 and 03.
Fasteriskhead
Otakuite++ | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
@bellpickle:
I suspect American anime sales have had a bigger effect on Japanese production than you think. Now, I think it's true that it hasn't dictated in any large degree which shows get made, except for series (Samurai Champloo is the best example that comes to mind) that are expected mainly to succeed the overseas market. Those tend to be few and far between, though. On the other hand, the influx of American money has done a lot to fuel the massive glut of new shows of recent years. In other words, we don't seem to be much influencing what gets made, only how much gets produced in the first place.
Also, I don't necessarily think the American anime industry's going to "collapse" (in the sense that they all go out of business). There may be a crash if things don't change soon, but a bunch of them will still be around. I think what we're going to see in the next few years is either a turn to an iTunes-like distribution system or a switch by all of the survivors to be more like Funimation - that is, to find the shows that are going to sell DVDs and air on Cartoon Network no matter what and hang onto those shows for dear life. I think this would actually be fairly disastrous for anime in America (not so much for those of us who are serious otaku - although sometimes even I really want those DVD boxes - but more for the casual fans just getting into things who don't necessary know how to adjust their port settings in Azureus), but I don't see any alternative unless the industry wakes up and moves towards online distribution.
bellpickle
Pickle of the Year (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
Great essay. I particularly like how you opened this because I think your analogy does well in illustrating the situation at hand: essentially, the town could do without the barber shop and the American anime community could do without licensing companies. I don't why there is this assumption that we would benefit so much from supporting these companies, when from the way things seem to be, the community will continue to thrive even without a legitimate means of getting the product.
I don't claim to know much about this issue, but the way I see it: if the anime DVD industry collapses on itself, I honestly don't think the community has all that much to lose; the dub watchers obviously would not be pleased, but manga and other anime-related merchandise that do sell well (wallscrolls, cosplay stuff, toys, etc.) will still be around. (And I don't think North American DVD sales really have that big of an effect on what gets produced in Japan even if it did produce revenue, or at least never as much as the effect the Japanese audience has.) And the spread of anime's popularity has mostly been word-of-mouth (friends giving burned DVDs/lending manga/etc. to others friends) rather than a reliance on televised or licensed series. It just... wouldn't make that huge of a difference, I don't think.
Indi
Dr. Mama Cat. (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 03/20/08 | Reply
This sounds reasonable, until we recognize the suppressed premise - which is that the domestic anime companies have no need to change their methods of business.
So true in so many ways. Blaming the consumer instead of realizing that the method of distribution is behind the times. There are so many of us who download those fan subs who would buy it legally online if we could.
I get tired of the spiel that we owe them somehow. That has never made sense to me, ever. Anyway, good read.
~Crystia