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NEWS: Nine Poles Held by Police over "Fansubs"

Wow, you people need a lesson in IP protection.

Copyright: Protects a work such as graphics, prose, etc... automatically granted to the creator (or their employer), do not need to be registered or applied for. Copyrights expire after a term (ie: 75 years) but can not be lost unless the copyright is void in the first place, or it is willingly given away by the owner.

Trademark: Protects "marks" such as names and logos. Must be applied for, null and void if "prior use" can be demonstrated. Trademarks do not expire, but must be defended, otherwise they are lost. Knowing failure to protect a trademark. Relatively easy to apply for and obtain.

Patent: Protects an invention, be it a product or a process. Must be applied for. Patents expire after a term, but can not be lost unless they are void in the first place or willingly given away. Hard to apply for and obtain (but perhaps not hard enough in some cases).

Somethings can share a copyright and a patent or trademark, it's highly unlikely that something could share a patent and a trademark.

For example, the schematics for a new invention can be protected under copyright, while the invention itself is patented. The code for software is protected by copyright, and the process used, if unique, can be copyrighted (ie: Amazon 1-click, although that is a contested patent). Likewise, a logo would be protected by copyright the instant it is created, and could also be trademarked.

A name or a phrase could only be trademarked.
A show is protected by copyright, but the show's name can be trademarked.
A toy can be patented, the toy's design copyrighted, and the toy's name trademarked (the toy itself is not trademarked).

Copyrights are why fansubbing is illegal. Trademarks are why Funimation can't use Zoro or Conan. Patents are why people in Africa can't get medication for various diseases...

Get it? Got it? Good.

-t

There's also TRIPS.

Glad to hear the Japanese company is taking a stand to protect its interests. I really think that many people have come to believe that fansubs or scanlations are their right as fans of a product, which they are not. I as have many others enjoyed being able to watch shows and manga as close to their Japanese release as possible, but I think the attitude now as that you should watch it for free and then not support the show after you've already taken it is really too much. Having recently worked in a store that sells Anime and Manga, I have been very disappointed with the people who would come in all day bragging about how they don't have to buy anime or manga anymore because they just downloaded it online.

It really has caused a drop in sales industry-wide and this is what I feel is really only the first of many attempts of the production and/or licensing companies trying to reclaim their lost sales. Germany, Poland and Japan... When will the US follow suit?

It's really not anti-fan if your customers steal the product instead of buying it and then spread it over the internet.

You may now proceed to trash my point of view. Smile

Using the internet, pretty much, is illegal >_>;

I think they went too far. Perhaps if they were distributing the actual video file, I think legal action may have been appropriate. A translation only, however, is going too far.

jeez. im not saying im against it or anything, but come on now. i don't know how bad the polish got it, but they need to go bust some drug dealers or child molesters instead. how is anime even involved in this article anyway?

A stupid, or antiquated law is not respected - it's normal.
If I, 4 instance, translate "My name is Bond, James Bond" to Polish, it's okay.

But, if I point at the exact location of the translated sentence, like fansubbers do, then I automatically become a criminal.

A law that makes so many people criminals, is obviously not taken seriously. If you have a good lawyer, you can have anyone locked up in jail.

Some big corporations are making attempts to change the law, just to earn more money - it's also normal. But it's against the demand of many people to have an unconstrained access to the so-called culture.

As a matter of fact, copyright laws were created a long, long time ago to prevent artists from starving to death. When I look at e.g. RIAA I ponder how hard is for their members to make ends meet... Oh, we must help the poor lobbyists, the poor politicians, and the poor Hollywood producers...

I'd like to quote one great philosophy professor:
"Citizen - a free man, sharing freedom with other people, caring for these other people, caring for the whole social entity, caring for the rationality in the social order."

EDIT:
Pratchett created a wonderful city of Ankh-Morpork, where there is a major rule: "if you can't beat them, make them join you, and tax them" (or something like that xD)

If breaking the Polish law means making free, cost free translations of movies mostly inaccessible in Poland or in Europe, then this law is a worse crime than breaking the law.

Hello guys! I have something for you.

Here is the ruling of Supreme Court in Poland (01-23 2003).
in polish

But I always thought that the nature of BitTorrent and other P2P programs selects the population of pirates. It's not Joe Blow who frequents soup kitchens and has no home but middleclass Joe Blow who has an internet setup and external hard drive to download the stuff. Middleclass Joe Blow's setup is on the expensive side imo so he should be able to afford to buy the movies.

Do they rent movies in Poland?

@luffypirate85: The Polish law would also cover anime and manga. The authorities can technically go after the Polish anime fansub and scantalation groups.

Last edited by Past on Sat May 19, 2007 11:10 am; edited 3 times in total

I have a feeling that this is just going to turn into another fansub debate -_-

In this case Hikaru, your analogy is a bit too oversimplified. The intent of fansubs (which are accessed through torrent sites and P2P) is not to make the digital media cheaper, the intent is to make normally inaccessible shows and movies available in your native language. The right or wrong of it can be argued but really the financial impact is has on the person viewing these programs is not really the issue. Actually what the Napisy people are doing could potentially be a lot better for the anime community and anime industry as a whole because they are only providing translations of the script. If someone wants to watch show X but it is not commercially available in their country they could BUY the DVD from the country it is available in and add in the subtitle file and enjoy it. No harm done to the industry. But then again we have this whole region encoding thing that circumvents that for the most part (and possibly even encourages people to download Rolling Eyes

).

Most people may already realize this, but some seem to have misunderstood, so just for clarification: The site was hosting subtitle scripts only (i.e. 30-kilobyte text files), not video files with polish subs. These could be used with legally imported DVDs as easily as illegally downloaded video files. Though I don't know anything about the situation in Poland, I'd bet that many more-obscure films and TV programs never get an official Polish localization.

Edit: Looks like Past beat me to the point... must type faster next time.

I may look stupid for still not understanding this, but I'm asking anyway... where is the copyright violation involved in this napisy.org buisness?

They're neither distributing the original material nor making money off of it. They are creating their own work, admittedly it is based off of other writer's work. Claiming that is copyright violation however is like saying translating the tag on the Mona Lisa into another language so that other people can read it is a copyright violation.

It sounds more like this is a distribution area rights violation, not copyright violation. The distributors are getting their panties into bunches because they're not making money off of a market they haven't bothered to pay any attention to. Maybe if they had brought their work there earlier in the language in question, this wouldn't be happening.

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Forum - View topicNEWS: Nine Poles Held by Police over "Fansubs"

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NEWS: Nine Poles Held by Police over "Fansubs"