Tsurugi

I figure I might as well chime in on the controversy surrounding this topic.

First of all, I’m a media pirate. I download free copies of anime that I could go out and buy. I do this mostly because I have very little money to spend on anime. I also watch fansubs of anime I can’t buy. This is just as illegal, but less unethical in my view.

If I watch a fansub of a series that will never be released in America, the production company isn’t losing anything. If enough anime fans like me watch a show, it will be licensed by a company that sees a market already established and willing to buy the show. For an unlicensed anime, the copyright owner is the production company, and they have nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain by allowing fansubs.

All that changes once the show is licensed, however. Fansubbers become pirates when the show they’re working on is available in their home market. An ethical fansubber would stop making the fansubs available for download. An unethical fansubber would keep releasing it. I download anime that has been licensed because I can’t afford to buy it, and that makes me a pirate.

In addition, I feel that if I’m going to pay for anime, it should be the highest possible quality. DVDs just aren’t as good as modern video encoding and the recent advances in subtitles. A new standard is needed, probably using HD-DVDs or Blu-ray discs, but by the time it’s ready in consumer electronics, faster internet connections will have made it mostly obsolete.

In a few years, modes of distribution will change and the current debate over fansubbing will be a moot point. I think digital distribution is a trend that can’t be avoided. Eventually a major company will start selling anime in a service similar to iTunes, regardless of where the customer is. It won’t matter that a Japanese company is selling anime to a fan in the US because no physical product is changing hands. This mode of distribution is immensely cheaper for the company selling anime, so even if prices are lowered, profits will still be enormous. The cost of subtitling and dubbing the show in other languages would be significant, but the markets made available would be worth it. Fansubs are unnecessary when the production company releases anime everywhere simultaneously.

Piracy can’t be eliminated completely, but it would be reduced in such a system. As the price of anime drops, more people will be willing to pay for it instead of stealing it. I would certainly buy more anime if it were cheaper.

Fansubbing may be a big deal now, but soon it won’t matter.