Recently, around 10 people between the ages of 23 and 57 were arrested in Japan for illegally uploading anime episodes, games, and music via the file-sharing program Share…
A lot of people have been freaking out that this may be the beginning of the end for obtaining free yet illegal episodes of anime online. Most of the raws that fansubs use come from Japanese people like those arrested who publicly upload them on sharing sites. But although it’s kind of shocking that the Japanese government is starting to take this issue seriously, I think it will be a long time before it will critically affect the anime fansub community outside Japan, if at all.
An arrest of 10 people out of the probably thousands who upload anime episodes is not impacting. The speed, anonymity, and inconspicuousness of putting things on the Internet will make it extremely difficult to find and prosecute people on a large scale. If web sites and file sharing programs are shut down, unless the people behind such sites are stopped, new ones will just keep cropping up.
Additionally, we’ve only been talking about the uploaders. If it’s this difficult to prosecute the uploaders, it will be even harder to pinpoint the much more numerous and anonymous downloaders. Starting this coming January, a new law making it illegal to knowingly download copyrighted content without permission will go into effect in Japan. I’m curious to see how much of an impact this new law will have.
While uploaders and downloaders in Japan are getting a little threatened, American anime companies lack the funds and man power to execute these kinds of large scale assaults on the fansub community. There have been some cases, but they’ve had virtually no overall effect. Even if illegal uploaders keep getting caught on file-sharing programs, I’m sure they’d figure out some other way to upload anime.
In conclusion, I don’t think the anime fansub community has to worry about anime raws disappearing anytime soon. Unless some massive innovation springs up on the Internet that makes it possible for authorities to easily find the thousands of illegal uploaders and downloaders who use all manner of web sites and programs, things like this shouldn’t have a huge effect.
Just some food for thought, imagine if Japanese authorities really could find illegal uploaders easily. I can imagine Japanese fans recording anime episodes off of TV, but instead of uploading them onto file-sharing sites, they instead send them in a private e-mail or something to someone in America. The American person is then the one who uploads and shares the raw (and if Americans start getting caught too, the raw is sent to an uploader in another country). I don’t think things will get this desperate anytime soon, but you never know.
Sources and further details about the arrest: ANN, MAL News, zone otaku, Cartoon Leap
I think We will have to buy a satellite dish that can receive all japanese anime channels…but not in a near future…a little bit further perhaps…:P
I left a comment earlier today on Bokutachi no Blog in support of Crunchyroll.
I know Crunchyroll isn’t perfect, but to me it’s a good middle ground between watching illegal subs and buying expensive anime DVDs. The licenseholders’ rights are preserved, and they and the distributor make some profit off of the product. And fans can legally see the anime they want to see, for a small cost. I’m glad to be a Crunchyroll paid subscriber, but even the fans who watch anime for free on Crunchyroll are reinforcing the POV that legal and licensed streaming subs are a viable alternative.
It amazes me that Japanese creators/producers and American distributors haven’t yet established more middle-ground solutions for this problem. For example, I’m watching Miracle Train on Crunchyroll right now. My $6.95/month supports the Miracle Train creators/distributors. It is, frankly, not a great series and there’s no way I would buy the DVDs. I just want to watch it – not own it. The series I really, really like, I either buy or put on my to-buy list. For everything else, a streaming subscription service like Crunchyroll – either paid subscription or supported by ads – makes the most sense.
This isn’t the first time that the Japanese Authorities have arrested raw uploaders. About mid 2008, they arrested three of the most prolific ones, who uploaded their content through Share. I often used Share to get my files back then, and while the arrests obviously didn’t prevent raws from being uploaded, they did cause some effects. After those arrests, the speed with which raws were uploaded decreased by a couple of hours, and never really recovered on Share, for as far as I know.
@ Jan
I agree, we really should see more sites like Crunchyroll (although the poor quality of some, but not all, of their subs will turn away some fans). I really like what Viz is doing with streaming Inuyasha: The Final Act on Hulu for free within a few hours after the new episode airs in Japan. More than paying a monthly fee, I would definitely put up with a few commercials if I could watch anime legally on the same day the new episode airs in Japan. Then I would be previewing anime the same way fans in Japan watch it on TV with commercials before they decide to buy the DVDs.
@ psgels
That’s interesting. But Share is just one of many ways people can upload raws. Until we see the same kind of action against a variety of other online means, I don’t think much will change.
You know what the funny thing is? The crackdown on Share only hurt the Japanese copyright holders. Why? Because since raws indeed got more scarce on Share, fansubbers moved to greener pastures:
1) The use of Perfect Dark got much more widepsread (an anonymized P2P network where you can’t see what you’re downloading from who)
2) The dedicated fansub groups started organizing the use of self-captured digital broadcasts in MPEG-2 transport streams (or short “TS” sources in subber lingo).
However, since fansubbers were forced to get 2) organized, it also came along with a dramatic visual quality increase. In other words, since nowadays normal 1280×720 fansub releases based on TS look much better than commercial DVDs, there are even fewer reason to buy DVDs anymore.
I’d call the Share crackdown “Operation Foot Bullet”
Anime uploader from Japan will not be stop that easily because they are still other alternative available such as Mentar have mention using “Perfect Dark” and my personal suggestion “Freenet” which is another great P2P that is very secure for transferring secret documents.
No worries..
[quote] I can imagine Japanese fans recording anime episodes off of TV, but instead of uploading them onto file-sharing sites, they instead send them in a private e-mail or something to someone in America. [/quote]
Remember to encrypt the anime file too, preferbly with AES256 (a very secure encryption algorithm that even quantum computers will have trouble cracking).