Japan to Start Anti-Anime/Manga Piracy Operation

[MelloLily 5]

Source for this topic: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1235745

 

"In cooperation with 15 major anime production companies and manga publishers, the Japanese government will next month start a huge extermination operation against 580 foreign sites which have illegally uploaded anime and manga contents on the web without the copyright holders' permission, NHK reported on July 28th. While the government has started supporting the genre as one of their important cultural exports, there appears to be no end of illegal uploading of anime and manga via pirate sites, mainly operated by Chinese. The Cultural Affairs Agency estimates the loss caused by the Chinese pirate sites last year was amounted to at least 560 billion yen (about US$ 5.5 billion).

 

On August 1st, the government will start simultaneously sending requests to delete illegal anime and manga contents to the operators of the 580 foreign pirate sites which they have found. In addition, the operation will launch a new site to guide the fans to a legitimate site offering some 250 titles including the latest ones at a cost of several hundred yen."

 

---

 

So what does this mean for us in America? Well here are the thoughts that came together after I spoke to two subbing groups about this, so I'll copy and paste what we said:

 

"It will be hard for Japan to reach this into America, which is why they're mainly going for Chinese. Plus, if servers are coming from Sweden, as many anime sites do, then it won't effect those sites.  The problem is that China will leak shows even earlier than Japan, which is where the big money loss is coming from."

 

"A lot of anime sites won't even see an issue even if america is targeted because there's this main stream idea of just embeding the video on the website, the DMCA can't touch them because there's nothing on the server being hosted. Sites like AU, Anilinkz, ACTV etc... as long as they arent hosting things themselves... there's no stopping it legally.  Just in case you are curious - a lot of people wonder if subtitling anime is illegal in terms of dmca, NO it is not. Subtitling anime and letting people download it is a grey area that is ignored. It is at the point you profit from it by streaming it on a video player and hosting it on your own server that becomes a dmca issue."

 

 

 

So what are your thoughts?

[Forever Lost 55]

Hm... I don't know. Clearly, they're very discontented with China's actions.. but it would be arrogant in my opinion to think that they 'can't touch' America. America is just now seeing how much of a market there is for this stuff. Companies that have contracts with the original rights-holders in Japan would benefit from this, too. I say this because it would possibly eliminate the go-arounds many of the people in the anime community use.

 

And I get it - as long as it's embedded from some other place, that particular site isn't held responsible. So all they have to do is take the host site down. A lot of the places that aren't touched -so far- with copyright takedown notices are because they are not based in America. So Japan going after foreign groups is actually something I think subbers should be relatively alarmed about.

 

Quite honestly, companies don't give a dang if us poor illiterate Americans can understand their content. It's in their interest if there's people who can't understand who want to - that means they have a huge opportunity to make money with any group over here interested in making it openly available for us here. Now, usually foreign content isn't targeted that hasn't been licensed in the U.S. But now Japan is coming after that very 'out' that has given so many of us an opportunity to experience the shows and whatnot that we have. Upon a brief overview of the DMCA, I don't see where it clearly states that it's 'okay' to subtitle and allow for download. They allow for testing and research.. and perhaps if for you, personally, that subtitling and translating was a kind of research then, maaaybe it'd be legally protected. But allowing people to download it starts crossing the line because that means that their copyrighted content (whether or not you add text to the top of it) is actively being disbursed without their permission.

 

Yes, I get it 1000%. In my personal opinion, if it's not licensed in a country, we should be able to subtitle it. On the flip side, if it's not licensed and is available online through illegal means in the first place (like from China), then it's not really fair for the original owners, either. It's a strange thing we've come across now. It would seem that prohibiting shows and content from being available in other countries would do no good (there's the age-old fanbase argument), but people see money flying out the door on things they've worked hard on.

 

I personally have enjoyed the ability to have a greater knowledge of Japan and its customs and language through the people who have subtitled shows and anime. But the truth remains that it's a business for a lot of people, and we're considered a threat. I just think we shouldn't be so arrogant just because we have the internet and we can just regroup and go elsewhere (like with the DC manga translations). If these people start getting more serious (which it appears they have..), then people who continue to ignore the warnings can get into serious trouble. This group of internet-savvy people seem to think that they can do whatever they want on the internet and escape the consequences. The thing I worry about for this new group of manga translators is that they clearly know that they are not supposed to be doing what they are doing. The government is very tech-savvy as well, and probably would love to take multiple offenders to court to prove a point to the rest of us. Just saying.

[MelloLily 5]

You make many good points, and it's good to see such an in-depth response.  In any case, I think it does go back to the fact that what I am worried about is not being able to enjoy anime/manga again in America.  If Japan really wanted to, it could be possible that all this sharing of videos and chapters could come to an end, and American anime/manga fans won't be able to have access to their favorite series.  Unless, they waited a very long time for it to be released on DVD/books in Japan, and a licensed company subs them, then sells it in America.  But not only would that take too long, but there are a lot of animes/mangas coming out constantly in Japan, so licensed companies would most likely not take them all on to sub.   

[Nara-chan 38]

...why are there two topics for this? owo

[Balthazar Manfredie 226]

all too familiar 

no big deal

[Kenzi 146]

Though they claim that it probably won't affect most subbers, it's still alarming that they're suddenly taking such drastic measures.

 

 

 

Sites like AU, Anilinkz, ACTV etc... as long as they arent hosting things themselves... there's no stopping it legally 

Seeing that the government is ticked off at this "illegal uploading" stuff, what worries me most is that they will find a way to shut down those sites eventually.

 

I hope they also realize that the reason some anime are so popular is because we have access to these sites. If it weren't for them, none of us would be willing to buy merchandise or even attempting to support the official releases. So in a way, they're also gaining money from allowing this. 

 

 

--

But overall, I don't think much is going to change.

[MelloLily 5]

...why are there two topics for this? owo

 

Did not know someone posted about this already.  Did mine come first or second?

[Forever Lost 55]

Did not know someone posted about this already.  Did mine come first or second?

Yours was first. It's listed as posted a day before the other thread. (I just looked at the little bar that shows the latest new threads... in fact that's how I came across your thread to begin with ^^

[MelloLily 5]

Yours was first. It's listed as posted a day before the other thread. (I just looked at the little bar that shows the latest new threads... in fact that's how I came across your thread to begin with ^^

 

I cannot find the other one, I must be blind.

 

Edit: Found it.

[chongjasmine 4]

I hope that this move won't succeed.

[Kjeldahl 47]

Nothing left for me in this world now ._.