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Answerman - No Crying Over Spilled Ink

These rips are barely fansubs in that no fans have actually worked on translations,

Any business relationship is one of trust, and there is simply no reason for them to trust an individual or group that has taken one of their shows, slapped their own name on it, subtitled and distributed it without permission.

It should be said that, while the legalities of this are murky, there was actually never anything stopping an anime company of any kind from simply taking fansub scripts and using them without the permission of the fansubbers. But that might have resulted in some bad PR, so nobody ever did that to my knowledge.

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These rips are barely fansubs in that no fans have actually worked on translations,

So where do these rips magically get subtitles for the opening/ending songs that often go untranslated in simulcasts?

It should be said that, while the legalities of this are murky, there was actually never anything stopping an anime company of any kind from simply taking fansub scripts and using them without the permission of the fansubbers.

... that isn't the slightest bit murky in the US. The translator has copyright rights over a derivative work, but distribution of a derivative work requires approval of both the copyright holder of the original work and the copyright holder of the derivative work.

agila61 wrote:

... that isn't the slightest bit murky in the US. The translator has copyright rights over a derivative work, but distribution of a derivative work requires approval of both the copyright holder of the original work and the copyright holder of the derivative work.

Where it gets murky is, according to what I've read, the translation has to be created with permission of the original copyright owner to be considered a derivative work, and therefore be entitled to copyright protection. The translation itself, without permission, is an infringement under the law, and subject to legal remedy, even if it was never distributed.

Translations are a derivative work, and only the copyright owner can authorize a translation that will be distributed.

A more common situation faced by libraries, especially those in the for-profit sector, is when the library engages the services of a translator or translation service to translate a scientific or technical article for use within that company. This activity normally does not usually generate copyright concerns, but it certainly could. An article is translated and a single copy is delivered to the translator’s customer (a company). Traditionally that copy is passed around to the researchers who need to see it. The translator is paid for his services, but in no way claims copyright in the translations he produces; the copyright is in the underlying article. What happens when a company decides that it wants to digitize these works and make them available over the Internet? Over the corporate intranet?

The answer is clear for distribution over the Internet: the company has caused an unauthorized derivative work to be created and has infringed the copyright in the original article by distributing the translation.

Now, given that, you can see why, if a fansubber tried to make a legal claim, most judges would just toss the case. By filing a suit, they are asking the court to defend an infringing work from the owner of the very thing it's infringing on.

As far as the Odex thing goes, that was in Singapore only, and I'm not familiar with Singapore copyright law, so I don't know how legal it was. But while it certainly caused griping, it's hard to say how much, because the firestorm that followed the fansub-downloader lawsuits later were so much worse.

SM Crystal could use a few touch ups, to be sure, but I wouldn't expect a cheap outfit like Toei to care enough to touch it up that much. I don't really get the complaints about the CG transformations. They're fine.

I think the economy with which the camera moves in anime tends to inherently give those shots more importance.

With everything being made digitally has the margin for error become smaller or at the very least easier to go back and fix before being put on a disc?

Well "Tommy" is full of shit. I live in Canada and know first hand we get the exact same titles as the US does in retailers, it's all a matter of where you look. I'm guessing "Tommy" only goes to Walmart, and doesn't even check other good retailers like HMV or Future Shop. And there's also a thing called online shopping.

It just makes me so mad he's trying to make Canada out to be a place where anime DVDs aren't common in retailers, when they really are.

So if you're out there "Tommy", stop making excuses to illegally download anime. Canada isn't the problem, it's people like you.

The issue I had was that most of the recent series aren't available in Canada. Aldnoah Zero is amazing, do you have a location where I can purchase it? Or Rail Wars? Or Akame Ga Kill? How about Black Bullet and Brynhildr from last season?

In Japan or America I can watch it on television. Here? It's like I have to pretend it doesn't exist until/unless it gets licensed and released for Canadian markets. I have the money in my pocket now and will hand it over with a smile to any legal channel to watch them. None exists.

The issue I had was that most of the recent series aren't available in Canada. Aldnoah Zero is amazing, do you have a location where I can purchase it? Or Rail Wars? Or Akame Ga Kill? How about Black Bullet and Brynhildr from last season?

In Japan or America I can watch it on television. Here? It's like I have to pretend it doesn't exist until/unless it gets licensed and released for Canadian markets. I have the money in my pocket now and will hand it over with a smile to any legal channel to watch them. None exists.