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NEWS: 5 Anime Studios Sue 4 'Heavy Downloaders' in Singapore

One of the problems with Singapore is probably the lack of anime available on DVD. Sure, there's a lot of stuff on VCD, but it's a really poor video format. Also importing is a pain with the Singapore government rating everything which comes into the country and charging those who have imported DVDs the fees from the censorship board. I know this no real defence for what they did, but I'm just glad I don't live in that country. They are pretty stupid to continue doing what they did, and for not settling out of court. It's also odd that a lot of the copyright enforcement of anime seems to centring on Singapore. Anyone know why? I mean surely most fansubs aren't downloaded from there. I would have thought the majority of downloaders would be from the US.

I really think this a token effort on the Japanese companies part. It doesn't stop the fansubbers creating the fansubs and uploading them and it doesn't stop those in Japan from uploading episodes from TV minutes after airing, which 99% of the time are the basis for fansubs. They need to go after Japanese uploaders in the first place, secondly those who host fansubs, otherwise there is not much point to what they're doing.

I completely understand that Japanese companies are caught between a rock and a hard place, but they're going to have to find some other way of making money, and shock horror, having a cheap download service with English subtitles may be the only way to do it (and will kill a lot of the fansubbing). I know it's a hard task and perhaps fans are asking almost the impossible, but the market has spoken. There is no real point trying to fight this. They should have squashed fansubs when they first started to appeared on the internet years ago, but they just sat back and did nothing. I just can't feel any sympathy for them.

It really doesn't matter if it's "available" or not. Even if the rating are lousy, advertising still pays the bills and the companies involved CHOOSE to make the show available to the viewing public in exchange for that within certain boundaries. In this case, as with most fansubbing, the companies did not choose to allow free access because they were seeing none of that advertising money. So yes, advertising does matter. And I must be strange by your logic because I watch the shows that I like on TV, not just because it happens to be on.

That's actually a really dumb comeback, and rather pointless too. See, that's like saying that every single possible TV show you ever watched, especially right through, you should be paying for. Should I be sending you a bill for reimbursing that childhood of yours? Or any of the series you watch now on TV? How about everyone else? Should they be paying for what's on TV just because they happened to watch it right through? No. We watch it because it's available. That's why. If it wasn't there, then the temptation wouldn't be there. Why do we watch what's on TV? Do we like it? Maybe, but not necessarily. We watch it because it's on. Sometimes it's because it's the best of the worst that's on during that time slot. And in before all the "well it's licensed, and the commercials help pay for it" blah blah blah. So? It's still just a matter of it being there. Just because it's licensed doesn't mean that the commercials are going to pay for the terrible ratings it's geting if no one's watching it.

I admit that I download anime. Why? Because of other people's recommendations. Do I still buy anime? Sure I do, but only the ones that are really good in my books. Others may not agree with my opinion on what's good, and what's not, but it's my nonetheless. So if I want to side with the person that said "How about producing a product people want to pay for", I will. Why? Because I've probably dropped close to 200 anime after watching just the first 3-7 episodes because it SO wasn't for me. And that's the thing. A lot of series out there are not for all of us. Just because one person like Girls Bravo and Eiken, doesn't mean everyone will. I know I sure didn't, but I know people who'd crucify me if they knew I didn't enjoy it on the same plain as them.

And no, nothing good comes from suing people. Just look at Napster and Metallica, and how many fans dropped them. Then look at mp3 downloads and Limp Bizkit, and how many fans they gained.

Greed1914 wrote:

It really doesn't matter if it's "available" or not. Even if the rating are lousy, advertising still pays the bills and the companies involved CHOOSE to make the show available to the viewing public in exchange for that within certain boundaries. In this case, as with most fansubbing, the companies did not choose to allow free access because they were seeing none of that advertising money. So yes, advertising does matter. And I must be strange by your logic because I watch the shows that I like on TV, not just because it happens to be on.

True, but advertising does so much. There's a reason why shows don't last out the season, or don't even make it past the pilot.
And yeah, it's a little weird to have someone admit that they actually watch TV, and it's not for the sake of watching it. Mostly because there's nothing ever good on TV anymore.

melonbread wrote:

This is not the way to solve the problem.

How about an alternative solution instead of a simple statement? And while it may not "solve" the problem, it's always a good idea for companies to let people know that they will protect their products.

Greed1914 wrote:

melonbread wrote: This is not the way to solve the problem. How about an alternative solution instead of a simple statement? And while it may not "solve" the problem, it's always a good idea for companies to let people know that they will protect their products.

Howabout the Japanese release material on the same day? Or for that matter, release material PERIOD?

Still waiting for a ton of Anime that has never been released stateside. Now I have to add alot of Police Dramas to the list (Damn you Namie Amuro and Yonige Yamotoho!)

Animations that are released on DVD in Japan are generally released in the UK around 2-4 years afterwards. That is a long time to wait. Let's also not forget that there are region locks on DVDs so there is no point in people buying DVDs from Japan when 1. they cannot play it,

2. there is the possibility that subtitles are not in their own language and

3. There are import duties that are slapped on to these DVDs. The DVD maybe worth the price but import duty is not.

Well, quite a few people seem to have the sentiment that downloading is illegal and therefore downloaders deserve what they get. I really cannot agree with this. Fansubbers and their supporters are not an evil cartel of criminals intent on destroying the industry for the sake of avoiding payment. They are merely fans who are frustrated with the complete MARKET FAILURE of the current anime distribution model. Anime shows may be very costly to produce, but the subbing of those shows and the distribution of those subs is simple and costs next to nothing. The fansub model has shown this. Making money from the model is a little harder (remember how Google was supposed to make money off YouTube?), but it can be done. As anime shows are meant for Japanese tv, they are premade with spaces for adbreaks (eyecatches anyone?). Distribution websites can have banner ads. Subscription fees can be charged (if sensible). You cannot argue that the companies have no alternative other than to sue the fans of their products. The alternatives are easy, and the existence of fansubs and their popularity shows that people are hungry to accept them. The only problem now lies with the companies. We should be good citizens and buy DVDs you say? DVDs are fail. They take up space, are incompatible with modern products (e.g. iPhones), and are actually at a lower resolution when the shows are locally broadcast in HD. Most of all they are impossibly slow to produce. Companies continue to insist on adding costly, unwanted, and usually terrible dubs too.

Steps are being made in the right direction. Some shows are being offered on the web legally. Problems: many are old shows only offered as dubs, and currently it is mostly highly mainstream shows only. Not everyone hates dubs of course, but a large chunk of fans do. The announcements by Viz and TV Tokyo today about simultaneous streams of Naruto are an especially good step, and I sincerely hope it works. It may seem pretty gutless of them to only do a popular show like Naruto instead of a new show from this season, but they are entitled to their test case. There is the question of whether your average narutard is actually enough of anime fan to care enough about supporting the industry though... Anyway, the point is, companies should wait to see whether these tests succeed before they start suing people.

The music industry went through the exact same cycle. Piracy became a problem, they tried lawsuits, it didn't work and really only turned into a big old mess. Eventually they realized that they needed to adapt to new customer demands and began moving towards digital distribution. I had been hopeful that the anime industry could simply learn from this and avoid the messy middle step. They seemed to be doing that with the recent developments, most notably the news about Naruto. It's a shame to see them suddenly resorting to such ass-backwards methods now.

I guess I just don't understand how people can complain when a company exercises its legal right to protect its material.