Licensing Anime

[Belldandy]

I suddenly had the urge to want to know more about licensing anime   What I know (correct me if I'm wrong): When an anime is not licensed, fansubbers can sub it and put it on the internet for download. As soon as it is, there are problems. Most sites won't put up licensed anime and tell people to buy the dvds when they come out.
Well if an American company licenses an anime, is it ok for fansubbers in another country to distribute it? Do and if so how do sites/subbers get punished for subbing licensed anime?

[Blox]

Most of that is correct as far as I know. However most subbers just move to IRC now and keep subbing a series if it's popular enough or been running long enough. In general though it's very, very rare a series will get licenced before it finishes it's run in Japan. As far as I know there's only been two Ninja Scroll TV and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. Obviously it was due to the franchise names that some company wanted to snap the up since they figured it would be a sure hit.

There was one sub group that came close to being sued and that was the group doing Ninja Scroll TV years back, but nothing came out of it.

Since almost all other series have finished airing long before being licensed getting in trouble isn't something I've heard of. I see distribution of old fansubs all the time too on torrents and irc. It's kind of hard to stop them really. But I suspect the American companys don't care, they make too much money already more then the orginal Japanese creator most of the time :/ Also fansubs are kinda like free advertising since also of people buy the DVDs any for collection sake if they like the series. But I think that's a waste of cash ^^;

[Belldandy]

I see. I'm not sure if it's a trend of not, but there seems to be a few series (don't know if this number is growing) that's being licensed before it's finished. A friend of mine who downloads anime told me this - ie some of the latest anime gets licensed only after a few episodes. I'm thinking long series (eg. 100+ eps) should get licensed before it's finished since they can see if it's a hit or not already. One is Naruto and I think One Piece too. The Ah! My Goddess TV series got licensed after episode 6... (the sole of my investigation )
True, I also see alot of licensed anime for download.
I guess some fans buy the dvd to the see the special features/higher quality, dubbing (maybe) and to support their anime - not sure if I'd do that though  

[Blox]

Well in the case of AMG it's kinda like Ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell, it's somewhat of a sure win for US distribution.
Yeah longs one necessarily get licened after a season or too if they're a winner.
However I rarely see any totally new shows get licenced even if they're hot property in Japan, even FMA was only licenesed after it finished I think. Also for some reason US companies seem to refuse to publish shoujo title apart from magical girl shows :/ even ungodly popular show like Marimite are likey never to get liccenced. Wonder why...I know many a people who would pay their limbs to get DVDs of those :/

[Chibi Jen]

Funny thing when u think about the anime US distributers license ^^

Like for one.. it is highly unlikely Sailormoon Sailor Stars (Final season) will EVER get licensed...lol... Its a very good season, but the US doesnt seem to like the factor of "guys changing into girls" (referring to the Sailor Starlights), or the homosexual relationship between Haruka and Michiru (even... but though they dubbed Super season)

There's so many other anime out there that they license.. yet find this one... 'unsuitable' to dub.. XD

teehee.. I went off topic.

[jdeyke]

Even when it is not yet licensed, distributing content (ie. anime) you do not own the copyright to is illegal, fansubbed or not. However, in the past at least, companies have turned a blind eye to the scene.

[Belldandy]

does putting anime on sites for people to download count as distributing? Then that means all fansubbers are ... wonder if fansubbing is legal?

[jdeyke]

Yes it most definitely does count, and no it is not legal. However, companies have been knowingly ignoring that it is happening in the past. This may change in the future as the video/audio quality of fansubs increases (in some cases already surpassing that of official DVDs).

[Belldandy]

hm... it's just that it takes too long to come out on dvd, that's why Japan is the luckiest, it's all on the tv and the most recent.

[Sakura]

Belldandy said:

hm... it's just that it takes too long to come out on dvd, that's why Japan is the luckiest, it's all on the tv and the most recent.

well, the only reason for that is because that most of the manga-kas are in Japan. So, it's easier to transfer the work and stuff like that. But, they are quite lucky. If only I understood Japanese fully...then I'd move to Japan. XD

[Belldandy]

lol, I dono about moving to Japan (a holiday would be nice) I would also want to understand japanese but it's very hard. Fansubbing is kind of like taping TV shows - the difference is of course allowing anyone in the world access to it.