The Internet Piracy D-Day is Nigh!
Japanese ISPs To Ban File Sharers
Albeit not much of a surprise, one must wonder what will become of the fan-subbers who depend on pirated tv-capped copies?
While this won't even dent the ones who go through actually purchasing the dvd, or have their own cappers in said regions, it may indeed hamper others. With such bold actions like this finally taking hold in Japan, how much longer for others to follow? As the article states, France and the UK have similiar proposals. Will America be far behind? What programs will they be cutting/monitoring?
In the end, this really won't phase the anime industry either way. Potentially it could give it a bolster, but unlikely as everyone finds their methods for free still.
To be quite frank the only true negation to piracy is to one up it. Hulu itself has proven how effective that can be with BSG. They have it updated roughly 11 hours after the airing for free stream. To many this is easier than waiting the 1-3 hours for the torrent to go up of the pirated copy, and then the potential 4-6 hour download time.
This won't really cause any problems for Doctor Who fans either, as Sci-fi is pretty much only about a week behind or so. Sarah Jane is airing on Sci-fi, AND Torchwood is on BBC america. With faithful uncut dvds being released of both anime and the Who series, there really isn't much for anyone to be worried over about their shows either. For once some shows are starting to get the protection they deserve(granted the dvd pricings are still a tad screwy), even though this may hit and attempt to protect them, it'll make it even harder to find such rare shows as Super Force that never made it to dvd. Let alone the Betty Boop episodes that never made it transferred to modern media either, or the numerous other series in regions unknown, lost to time. So while new things may finally be getting the protection they deserve, what of the rarities being lost? What of the cultural genres no one's ever seen before? Oh sure, anime is everywhere with it's own top tier titles always coming stateside and branching out all over the world with universal acceptance even uncensored, some standing extremely bright even as dubs in all languages, many with more than adequate subs (some still not so much, but no one said official subbers were artists), but what of the tokusatsu shows? What of the brethren of Ultraman and Godzilla that have yet to come stateside due to extreme views of who would like those kinds of things. What of the amazing shows like Garo, Cutie Honey the Live, Keitai Sosakan 7, or Akihabara@Deep(Only the movie has come stateside, which is nothing at all like the series). Or what of the movies like Dororo, Battle Royale, or even Paradise Lost? What of such characters as Kintaros, Ryuutaros, Urataros, and Momotaros? What of the epic struggle of Casshern uncut? (The official R1 has much footage missing compared to the original Theatrical Release.)
It seems we could potentially lose as much as we've gained in rights and protection, but obviously you'll see the fanboys running around and whining over the wrong ones...
In other news, 3 uploaders arrested for copyright violation via Share network in Japan, and Korea has a law in place that will put copyright infringing uploaders in Jail for a year. Even China is cracking down on bootleggers.
Sadly what all of these fail at realizing is, it isn't the bootlegging and fansubs that are the issue. It's the lack of a legit world digital distrobution method. Or some form of a quicker, better digital distro model for licensing or showing off content in it's original form. Toei seems to be dabbling in such forays with Hulu as well, with Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot. So here's hoping they set the standard with their huge library of titles that have amazed many.
Albeit not much of a surprise, one must wonder what will become of the fan-subbers who depend on pirated tv-capped copies?
While this won't even dent the ones who go through actually purchasing the dvd, or have their own cappers in said regions, it may indeed hamper others. With such bold actions like this finally taking hold in Japan, how much longer for others to follow? As the article states, France and the UK have similiar proposals. Will America be far behind? What programs will they be cutting/monitoring?
In the end, this really won't phase the anime industry either way. Potentially it could give it a bolster, but unlikely as everyone finds their methods for free still.
To be quite frank the only true negation to piracy is to one up it. Hulu itself has proven how effective that can be with BSG. They have it updated roughly 11 hours after the airing for free stream. To many this is easier than waiting the 1-3 hours for the torrent to go up of the pirated copy, and then the potential 4-6 hour download time.
This won't really cause any problems for Doctor Who fans either, as Sci-fi is pretty much only about a week behind or so. Sarah Jane is airing on Sci-fi, AND Torchwood is on BBC america. With faithful uncut dvds being released of both anime and the Who series, there really isn't much for anyone to be worried over about their shows either. For once some shows are starting to get the protection they deserve(granted the dvd pricings are still a tad screwy), even though this may hit and attempt to protect them, it'll make it even harder to find such rare shows as Super Force that never made it to dvd. Let alone the Betty Boop episodes that never made it transferred to modern media either, or the numerous other series in regions unknown, lost to time. So while new things may finally be getting the protection they deserve, what of the rarities being lost? What of the cultural genres no one's ever seen before? Oh sure, anime is everywhere with it's own top tier titles always coming stateside and branching out all over the world with universal acceptance even uncensored, some standing extremely bright even as dubs in all languages, many with more than adequate subs (some still not so much, but no one said official subbers were artists), but what of the tokusatsu shows? What of the brethren of Ultraman and Godzilla that have yet to come stateside due to extreme views of who would like those kinds of things. What of the amazing shows like Garo, Cutie Honey the Live, Keitai Sosakan 7, or Akihabara@Deep(Only the movie has come stateside, which is nothing at all like the series). Or what of the movies like Dororo, Battle Royale, or even Paradise Lost? What of such characters as Kintaros, Ryuutaros, Urataros, and Momotaros? What of the epic struggle of Casshern uncut? (The official R1 has much footage missing compared to the original Theatrical Release.)
It seems we could potentially lose as much as we've gained in rights and protection, but obviously you'll see the fanboys running around and whining over the wrong ones...
In other news, 3 uploaders arrested for copyright violation via Share network in Japan, and Korea has a law in place that will put copyright infringing uploaders in Jail for a year. Even China is cracking down on bootleggers.
Sadly what all of these fail at realizing is, it isn't the bootlegging and fansubs that are the issue. It's the lack of a legit world digital distrobution method. Or some form of a quicker, better digital distro model for licensing or showing off content in it's original form. Toei seems to be dabbling in such forays with Hulu as well, with Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot. So here's hoping they set the standard with their huge library of titles that have amazed many.