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ANN and the industry's stance on fansubs (ANN official on P5

That's my rant. Please, discuss. And please, absolutely no discussion concerning the legality of fansubs.

This is going to be my first, last and only post on the subject.

ANN will continue to allow people to discuss unlicensed anime in these forums. The only thing that is not allowed is pointing people in the direction to download fansubs, bootlegs or any other material of questionable ethicality.

Whether you chose to download fansubs or not is your personal decision. For the record, ANN's official policy is that it will not promote fansubs or allow them to be promoted in the forum. That's all, we don't officially think they are bad, nor do we officially think they are good (Individually, ANN's staff have differing opinions on fansubs, but we all agree on many aspects of the whole debate, it's just where the line should be drawn that varies from person to person).

Talking about shows that have not yet been released in North America does not directly promote fansubs, obviously there is a link, but there's a huge difference between saying "X show is good" and saying "X show is good, go here to download it."

So to re-iterate, discussions about anime that have not yet been released in North America is perfectly permissible in these forums. Provided of course the existing rules are respected.

Christopher Macdonald
Editor in Chief
Anime News Network

Now, what makes this discussion sort of different is that watching the Haruhi viral vid episodes, they basically chastise all their current and potential fans that they specifically market to and say that fansubs are bad and that the average fan should be ashamed that they have already downloaded their product before they have released it legitimately.

Special Thanks To: Fansub lovers who buy official DVDs and support more creative works. No Special Thanks To: Downloaders and Bootleggers who never buy official DVDs.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'd like to discuss ANN's and the industry's stance on fansubs (and not their legality). Reading some of the previous Answermans, I just can't help but notice that Zac's attitude toward fansubs range from violent to lynch mob (obviously exaggerating and embellishing) even though it's rather obvious that he, along with much of ANN's staff do indeed watch fansubs, possibly all the way back to the days of the tape fansub.

I was reading through the post in Anime News Network's forums and found that the majority of posters there were strongly convinced of one thing: fansubs are irrelevant*.

The main argument for this is that there are lots of anime licensing companies in America now, thus meaning that most shows are going to be licensed anyway. Therefore, why bother? Fansubbing's goal of promoting awareness of anime has been acheived so all fansubbers should pack up and retire.

Another view often bandied about in those forums is that the current crop of fansubbers are egomaniacal fame bandits bent on making a name for themselves by subbing the most popular show in the least possible time. Every feature of fansubs nowadays, from karaoke effects to the presence of logos and even group names/credits in the AVIs, are proof-positive of this, according to this viewpoint.

In short, there is a question of whether there should or should not be any more fansubs floating about not just in ANN, but sometimes here as well, as seen in threads like the Hacking and Su-Yu threads.

Footnotes:
* Actually, the ANN forumers are more of the opinion that digital fansubs specifically are evil and irrelevant, but this is because they're mostly old-time VHS fansubbers who are, in my opinion, largely bitter that the whole "To get a fansub you must find a well-connected otaku and bow to him" system of their time has been replaced and that digital fansubbing has made many of them irrelevant. Nevertheless, they try to be consistent and therefore declared fansubs to be similarly irrelevant for the reasons mention in the main text.

ANN's stance is not so much anti-fansub as a) anti-promoting fansubs and b) anti-people-who-only-watch-fansubs. I freely admit that I watch the occasional fansub, but nearly every episode of fansubbed anime that I've seen that later had an American release I've also bought.

Reading some of the previous Answermans, I just can't help but notice that Zac's attitude toward fansubs range from violent to lynch mob (obviously exaggerating and embellishing) even though it's rather obvious that he, along with much of ANN's staff do indeed watch fansubs, possibly all the way back to the days of the tape fansub.

You "just can't help but notice" an opinion that was never actually stated, eh?

Every single time I talk about fansubs in Answerman my position is VERY CLEAR: I don't have any problem with fansubs so long as the fans who watch them do SOMETHING to support the shows they love financially. Period. If you're a big Haruhi Suzumiya fan and you watched all the fansubs, buy the R1 DVDs when they come out so you can show your support.

That's it. That's my position on fansubs, in a nutshell. People seem to really enjoy totally exaggerating my opinion or straight-up taking it out of context so they can rant and rave about how I'm so "militantly" anti-fansub. No, we don't allow people to toss around fansub links. Yes, I do think that fans who download everything, feel entitled to watch anime for free and refuse to ever pay for anime are selfish people who are hurting the industry. Do I think fansubs are bad? No, not really.