Fansubbers and the Industry

[Koopaking]

Ok I figured it was high time we actually had a good discussion topic in the Anime Chat forum here.

Fansubbers and the Industry
What do you think of the fansubbers in relation to the anime industry?

Can the Fansubbers and the Industry ever work together?

What are your habits regarding fansubbed animes?

Fansubs are available for free. Knowing this, would you still buy the anime on DVD?

Do you think the internet in general, i.e. Fansubbing, torrents, sites such as Anime Fuel, is hurting or helping the Anime Industry as a whole?

Let's have some good discussions!

[Mugen]

Ok I figured it was high time we actually had a good discussion topic in the Anime Chat forum here.

Fansubbers and the Industry
What do you think of the fansubbers in relation to the anime industry?

Can the Fansubbers and the Industry ever work together?

What are your habits regarding fansubbed animes?

Fansubs are available for free. Knowing this, would you still buy the anime on DVD?

Do you think the internet in general, i.e. Fansubbing, torrents, sites such as Anime Fuel, is hurting or helping the Anime Industry as a whole?

Let's have some good discussions!

Some would argue it is because they are losing money. But I think it is helping the anime industry get a wider audience.

For those who don't know what a Fan-Sub is -

A fansub (short for fan-subtitled) is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program which has been translated by fans and subtitled into a language other than that of the original.

Because distribution of fan-subtitled content is a violation of copyright laws in most countries, the ethical implications of producing, distributing, or watching fansubs are topics of much controversy.

[leerock89]

I like the fact that there are fansubbers. Without them we would have to wait for ages to watch anything foreign. It's either that or learn the original language of a film or tv show. Of course it does hurt the industry but I don't see them stopping. And no the fansubbers and the industry will NEVER get along. The whole entire point of the industry is to make money, and fansubbers take that money away from them.

[monsoon 10]

No it is not possible for them to ever get along. Industry wants money, subbers want to give stuff away for free.

[leerock89]

No it is not possible for them to ever get along. Industry wants money, subbers want to give stuff away for free.

Totally. I already spent enough on the industry at any rate. THANK GOD FOR AF!!! If it comes down to it I wouldn't mind donating some money to AF.

[Koopaking]

I agree in thinking that fansubs give animes yet to be licensed a wider audience and larger fanbase. While it's true that if I have an anime downloaded, I really won't want to go spend extra money on buying it on DVD, but that won't stop me from getting merchandise at cons, etc. If a series is good enough, I will buy it though.

[leerock89]

I don't agree with that. Money is tight at all times for me so if I can get it for free I'm going to mooch like a leach.

[Azure]

another thing to give you a wider perspective of the issue is the fact that not all foreign shows (anime in particular) are " dubbed " into english so I agree with the whole wider audience thing..

[X Zero X]

fansubs are nice, its not always the best to be honest though, there are some that are miss translated but there far and few inbetween. i know a good deal of Japaneses(b/c im half Japaneses half Russian) (dont ask) and there are times that i catch a few words missed but its mostly added words that bug me. but the fan subs are mostly correct with little to no mistakes in them at all. and the fansubers and the Industry will never get along, do to the fact that they have to pay people to translate the show or dub it(which suck really bad).

[animex09]

i just enjoy having free anime on my screen. i think the sells are too expensive.

[Corwin]

Personally, I love having hard copies of all my anime, if I find something that I really like, I will go out and buy the series, but if I have already seen the whole thing I will probably wait until it comes out as a boxset rather than buying each individual dvd just b/c it is cheaper that way, unless of course they are giving away some sort of special extra's w/ the individual dvd's that I'm trying to get. I do think though that the industry and the fansubbers could work together, the problem is getting them to sit down and acknowledge this w/o the industry trying to sue or jail the fansubbers for violating copyright, I mean the industry could just as easily get help from the fansubbers taking their initial translations of the series and then paying a few ppl to go over them, make official corrections and grammar checks, so that they can spend a week on an episode translation, typesetting, encoding and release rather than a month(since it takes 3 months generally for a 3 episode dvd to be released). But as I stated, the problem is getting them to all sit down and not try to kill each other, plus as someone already stated, the fansubbers bring many animes to other viewers who would normally not see them w/o learning Japanese, and this increases the base of users who know about it, who can tell others, meaning that more ppl will want to watch, thus providing the industry a marketable reason to bring the anime over in the first place. Of course the other alternative is that we all learn to speak and read japanese, then we can just watch the RAW's on the internet and the american anime industry will be completely out of business since we'd all be able to buy the japanese versions of the dvd's w/ all the cool little extra's they give away that the american counterparts never do.

[Rincewind]

Personally, I live having hard copies of all my anime, if I find something that I really like, I will go out and buy the series, but if I have already seen the whole thing I will probably wait until it comes out as a boxset rather than buying each individual dvd just b/c it is cheaper that way, unless of course they are giving away some sort of special extra's w/ the individual dvd's that I'm trying to get. I do think though that the industry and the fansubbers could work together, the problem is getting them to sit down and acknowledge this w/o the industry trying to sue or jail the fansubbers for violating copyright, I mean the industry could just as easily get help from the fansubbers taking their initial translations of the series and then paying a few ppl to go over them, make official corrections and grammar checks, so that they can spend a week on an episode translation, typesetting, encoding and release rather than a month(since it takes 3 months generally for a 3 episode dvd to be released). But as I stated, the problem is getting them to all sit down and not try to kill each other, plus as someone already stated, the fansubbers bring many animes to other viewers who would normally not see them w/o learning Japanese, and this increases the base of users who know about it, who can tell others, meaning that more ppl will want to watch, thus providing the industry a marketable reason to bring the anime over in the first place. Of course the other alternative is that we all learn to speak and read japanese, then we can just watch the RAW's on the internet and the american anime industry will be completely out of business since we'd all be able to buy the japanese versions of the dvd's w/ all the cool little extra's they give away that the american counterparts never do.

OMG Corwin you stole my words, I buy the anime I like the most, like hellsing etc etc, but in my country its VERY difficult to get a hold on animes ;( so fansubs are almost the only option