Hmmm...I won't go into the details. Visit Arxane's Blog to find out more about what's going on.
I will say, I was a bit sad, considering Gankutsuou is one of the shows that got axed from the site. I really enjoyed that series and I certainly hope it gets a US release in the future. It's worth the money.
As for the ethics and what will happen in the future. Well...not much can be done and technically, fansubs are copyright infringement, depsite them being foriegn material. Anyone who has done scans and subs knows this. If asked, they should take down the work immediatly. People who are itching to see a certain series or read a particular book, your options are to wait out the US release or learn Japanese and import the orginal. I've pondered for the longest time on spending the money to buy a region free DVD player, just for this purpose. Though I don't "hear" Japanese as well as I read it (which is shaky at best too), I've never minded watching "raw" (unsubbed) stuff. My son actually perfers it too, so he wouldn't care in the least.
I suppose it's just a waiting game for now, to see if other companies will follow suit. Though I agree that it is their right to demand fansubs stop, I do worry about what this will do to anime over here. Meaning, regardless of what people say, there are many, many fans who use fansubs as a gauge to what they are willing to spend their money on. I'm one of them. As expensive as DVD's are, I'm very reluctant to buy something I have little or no knowledge of. My only hope is that renting facilities can compensate for the loss of fansubs (if this happens).
Then again, now that I think about it, this most likely will just blow over. It isn't the first time something like this has happened. Last spring ADV was cracking down on certain sites and that incident has fallen to the way side. Only time will tell, but one thing I know, the anime community is going to gain some new perspective and suddenly realize that they mean very little to the producers of these various shows. (perhaps it will knock them down a few notches. Nothing wrong with getting served a bit of humble pie now and then).
Posted by Zoso at December 10, 2004 12:27 PMThough I agree with you that it is their right to lay down the law when it comes to fansubs, or any dispersement of their product that's not under their control, I almost think it was a godsend of free market research. Keeping tabs on which shows are most popular as fansubs has to give them a strong indication of which shows will or won't do well over here. Though it's probably detrimental to sales to some extent, I would assume that the number of people who put enough effort into finding the apps to play the downloads, and keep up with the applicable codecs (factoring out those who buy the finished product when released in their region anyway) wouldn't be enough to significantly devastate sales.
I have a feeling this could actually be bad for their sales because anime fans beyond Japan's borders won't be able to get a taste of particular shows. Thus, they won't become avid fans of shows not already released, or eagerly anticipate (pumping up launch sales of a show). This means that the company has lost a means of advertising in a sense, and now has to depend on their Anime's box to stand out on a wall at Suncoast in and hope that these consumers will spend the $30 (in the US at least) to buy a volume of some show they've never seen, and might not like, just like you mentioned in this blog.
Ahem... the Panasonic-pimped version of the Nintendo GameCube, as offered at Lik Sang... ( follow the link below to go directly to the info page for it)
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=77&products_id=1575&
... is a region free DVD player as well as region free GameCube and stereo component. Can we say "Zelda before it hits the states!" Not to mention it just looks freakin' high tech as all hell.
Posted by: Jay at December 10, 2004 01:45 PMSorry, it's a "multi-region" DVD player not a region-free DVD player... this is a different thing. I do know it will play both US/Canadian DVDs and Japanese DVDs. Here is what Lik-Sang says:
Plays DVD movies (Region 1-6 PAL & NTSC)
Posted by: Jay at December 10, 2004 01:49 PMWow! Thanks for the link!
It's interesting to see a perspective from someone who isn't exactly an "anime" fan. I know you like anime, but your not a downloader of fansubs and such, so it's interesting to get an outside perspective of the situation.
To tell you the truth, though I do agree they take down the material if asked, I am still getting the raws (Gankutsuou) via internet. It makes me a hypocrite I guess, but I'll live with that for now. I'm worried that such a show like this one, and others won't be released here in the US...so I can spend my money on it like these companies want...
Oh well...you just got to go with the flow.
Posted by: Zoso at December 10, 2004 02:05 PM