YOUTUBE - KEEPANIMEALIVE - A YouTube user has given us a great opportunity to talk about fansubbing.
They posted on a video from one of our convention visits with a list of often-heard 'facts' about fansubbing. There's no need to criticize the man, because we hear the same arguements again and again. Instead, lets take a moment to look at these, and other often heard, fansubbing falsehoods.
1. Fansubs are not illegal
We get this a lot - fansubs aren't illegal because (pick any or all): the content isn't licensed in the United States, the companies don't care, copyright law is unconstitutional, the voices tell me it isn't, etc.
The truth is that fansubs are illegal (17 USC 106), content licensed in most countries is copyright here (Berne Convention Implementation Act 1988), companies do care (Japanese government address to the United States, 2007), copyright law is constitutional (Article I, Section 8, Clause 8), and paracusia is not a valid defense in most courts.
Where does it come from? Partly from Crunchyroll, which started out with fansubs, then made a lot of money when it switched sides. But much of it comes from the constitutional arguement: prior to 1988, the United States wasn't a party to the Berne Convention, which means that foreign copyrights had little effect in the U.S.
2. Fansubs built the American anime industry
I think Adult Swim, Disney, Cartoon Network, Hasbro, Fox, 4Kids, and NBC would disagree. Pokemon built the American anime industry (Fox), helped by Yu-Gi-Oh (4Kids), Dragon Ball Z (Cartoon Network), and Sailor Moon (NBC). It grew with Naruto (Disney), and Bleach (Adult Swim) - mostly because of the groundwork laid by 80's cartoons like Transformers (Hasbro).
Sure, a lot of people got into anime from fansubs - but not into the anime industry. People who started on fansubs didn't switch over to suddenly buying DVDs.
Where does it come from? A lot of fans were offended in the mid to late 2000s when companies called them part of the problem. They were fans, after all, and fansubs had brought them in. But they weren't buying DVDs or official merchandise, and so they weren't really supporting the industry - its like building a house and having a guy come by every few hours and take a couple of nails and maybe a board, and then declaring that he helped build your house.
3. Fansubbers have permission from the studios
No.
FUNimation, Sentai, Viz, Cartoon Network, ANN, Crunchyroll - these guys pay for their rights. No studio is handing out free licenses to unprofessional fans. This doesn't really hold up if you take two seconds to think about it.
Where does it come from? A combination between a misconception about the legality of fansubbing and false hope.
4. Fansubs are advertising - that cost studios nothing
Fansubs are advertising that, along with other pirated media, cost an estimated $12 billion annually. If you watch an entire series fansubbed, what is your motive to buy it?
Where does it come from? When a study showed a correlation between piracy and rentals, a lot of people pointed out that piracy is a form of advertising. Sales of the book Go The F**k to Sleep, which rocketed to #1 over piracy, have boosted that arguement. But industry analysts maintain that fansubs provide a service that costs a company money for free without any revenue - and there's no way to argue that it "costs nothing." In fact, heavily fansubbed series aren't worth dealing with, because the revenue in the U.S. will often fall below expenses, which in turn means Japanese companies lose the licensing revenue that many of them, in part, depend on.
5. Fansubs are more accurate than official subs/dubs
This is hardly ever true.
Where does it come from? If you watch fansubs and then watch official subs, a lot of time you might notice differences in the dialogue. If you watch the fansub first, then it looks like the official sub is the one that made the changes. In actuality, the official sub often contains translation notes at the behest of the director of the series.
6. I don't like the English voices
...uh, subtitles. They exist.
Where does it come from? Honestly, the Japanese voices are whiny, too. In the early days of dubbing, voice actors were told to emulate the Japanese voices. As we've moved away from that, the quality of dubs has significantly improved. But the arguement that fansubs are better because you don't want to hear the English voices loses a lot of substance when you remember that most series are available subtitled in English with Japanese dialogue intact.
Have you heard things about fansubs that we didn't address here, or do you have another arguement or counter-arguement? Email newsroom@keepanimealive.com and we'll include it in Part II. If we do a Part II.
