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NEWS: Kadokawa Tests BitTorrent File-Sharing for Anime




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kokuryu



Joined: 07 Apr 2007
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Does anyone know the website that kadokawa distributes the movies thru bittorent with? The main site only lists their projects - which now includes One Missed Call - an excellent JDrama that you should not miss!
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billyarnie



Joined: 03 Dec 2007
Posts: 190
Location: San Antonio, TX
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:27 pm Reply with quote
Hmm... looks like a case of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"! Mac users won't be happy for a while. I don't download fansubs, so I don't know if BitTorrent is compatible with Mac OS or Linux. I guess it is or could be; Kadokawa may be using the hated DRM (Digital Rights Management) to control things in the test.
It's interesting that ADV Films & FUNimation have experimented with BitTorrent... but it shouldn't be surprising. The question is: What will this do to or for broadcasters? Anime Network & FUNi Channel are on VOD, satellite or digital cable. Anime is expanding to other networks, but not much on standard cable.
[adult swim] is still the leading broadcaster of anime on standard cable & Sci Fi still only has 2 hours a week. Cartoon Network only has Naruto, One Piece, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, and Transformers: Cybertron (not to be confused with the new Transformers: Animated). 4Kids is only on Saturday mornings with Yu-Gi-Oh & Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Dinosaur King, and Sonic X as their only anime. IMO, if more standard cable networks don't show anime, it will become more of a niche market than it already is.
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Xanas



Joined: 27 Aug 2007
Posts: 2058
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:34 pm Reply with quote
billyarnie, Bittorrent is a multi-platform program. It's open source as well, so it can exist for any OS people feel like modifying it for. You are still mainly right because I think it probably does have DRM. The other things the article links to have massive DRM.
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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 4463
Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:51 pm Reply with quote
Are they planning to sell further episodes after this trial? Or are they planning on releasing further episodes for free?

The article doesn't really say what the overall goal is.
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Roy9076



Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 286
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:53 pm Reply with quote
Quite interesting there. Lets see how that turns out. Also torrenting in any OS works. I can still torrent over Mac OS X and any Linux distribution, but I hardly use it.
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billyarnie



Joined: 03 Dec 2007
Posts: 190
Location: San Antonio, TX
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:58 pm Reply with quote
Xanas wrote:
billyarnie, Bittorrent is a multi-platform program. It's open source as well, so it can exist for any OS people feel like modifying it for.

Thanks, Xanas. I'm a programmer, but mostly mainframes. I thought BitTorrent was multi-platform, but I wasn't sure. BTW, Dargonxtc, Kadokawa is testing the torrent waters, mainly to check online demand as well as if BitTorrent users are willing to download legal instead of illegal shows.
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teh*darkness



Joined: 16 Feb 2007
Posts: 901
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:55 pm Reply with quote
Very interesting. The Japanese companies really are moving forward with this, like JSevakis said they were working on. First they go after trying to make unauthorized downloading illegal, now they're offering legit downloads of shows for free in place of illegal downloads. Honestly, this is looking promising to me.
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james039



Joined: 27 May 2004
Posts: 103
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:39 pm Reply with quote
it definitely looks like their on the right track. Get some free legal content out there so we can see a series to decide if we like it. I feel much better about buying the DVD if I've seen some in advance and like what I see. However, they still need to break away from DRM restrictions and the windows media player, if they want to capture the largest audience.
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Sam Murai



Joined: 01 Dec 2006
Posts: 1051
PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:52 am Reply with quote
teh*darkness wrote:
Very interesting. The Japanese companies really are moving forward with this, like JSevakis said they were working on. First they go after trying to make unauthorized downloading illegal, now they're offering legit downloads of shows for free in place of illegal downloads. Honestly, this is looking promising to me.


That's been the overall trend for the last year or so across the anime industry. The Japanese companies have long had online video venues, though the majority of them are the streaming type (the North American side of the business is just really getting into it). Downloadable videos via methods such as BitTorrent has been gaining steady adoption, as the bandwidth pressure is less on the host.

DRM is used by a few companies, I believe, though if there one small annoyance to deal with, it may be the amount of clients one must download in order to actually download the videos themselves. I understand that it is a good way to provide a program for interested users who may not be familiar with BT and it can help them monitor the number of downloads and increase security, however, I'm not totally thrilled with the prospect of having so many clients to use for each download service. A majority of the sites with large downloadable libraries will require you to download one of their own, even if you already have one that is capable of handling that particular type of peer-to-peering (i.e. BitTorrent).

It's small gripe in scope, I suppose, and in this still-early stage of downloadable video services, it's a good start in the right direction. Too bad this featured service is pretty much only of use to the Japanese-saavy (residents or those who know the language).
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BleuVII



Joined: 19 Sep 2006
Posts: 672
Location: Tokorozawa, Japan
PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:49 am Reply with quote
teh*darkness wrote:
Very interesting. The Japanese companies really are moving forward with this, like JSevakis said they were working on. First they go after trying to make unauthorized downloading illegal, now they're offering legit downloads of shows for free in place of illegal downloads. Honestly, this is looking promising to me.


Agreed. If legal subs start coming out in this format, I WILL buy them. Unfortunately, the series with legal subs out there, like Death Note, have regional IP restrictions. That would need to be ousted in order for this to really work.

And anyone who gripes about WMV format has my full support. I know it's giving in to the enemy and all that, but why not MKV? The file sizes are relatively small, and it would allow these Japanese companies to include English, Spanish, French, and Korean subs all in one package. Since that effectively targets most of this world's fansub community, I think it could even catch on.
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Xanas



Joined: 27 Aug 2007
Posts: 2058
PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:50 am Reply with quote
Matroska rocks. Open source has done a great job in the last few years in terms of it's audio and video codecs and media containers. It's a shame that some are so tied into DRM that they won't use formats that are superior & free instead of proprietary and incompatible.
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Shaika-Dzari



Joined: 01 Dec 2007
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 11:21 am Reply with quote
Quote:
American companies such as ADV Films, Funimation, and Manga Entertainment have already been previewing anime clips or selling entire episodes in English via BitTorrent.


They only offer very old title like Ninja Scroll, perfect blue and Read or die. Confused
Sorry but they must do better than this Confused

I think this is a great news from Kadokawa. A beginning, I hope. Like I already told on this forum, I hope they will offer a open platform to download.

I checked vuze and they only support Windows / WMP 10 (+ drm). Mac can use the client but cannot see any commercial content. They forget linux... Rolling Eyes
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ichido reichan





PostPosted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:08 pm Reply with quote
EHRM....I think is working Alright...Look how much damage they created to the industry....
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