Addressing hypocrisy in regards to the fansub issue

(Animé, SRS BSNSS LOL)

It’s a funny thing, really.

Debates on fansubbing have never fully convinced me of siding with anyone. Everyone goes on reusing tired plot points everyone and their mothers (and pet hamsters, I might add) have heard over a million times before in the past, and the same thing happens. Poop flies, massive e-drama occur, and the pro-industry side calls the pro-fansub sides names and vice-versa.

I got sick of the arguments, and decided to dig deeper. What I found out, I didn’t like. And I got a free economics lesson out of it. Apart from the economics lesson, I didn’t like what I discovered.

What did I find out? That the ‘debate’ is nothing but pure hypocrisy.

The pro-indusrty force is made up of primarily 3 groups: The greedy businessman, The disillusioned ex-fansubber, and The exploitable fan.

Their stand is admirable, and is not just morally correct, but also economically correct. Why is that?

For one thing, supporting the creators has always been the right thing to do. Like how Christians/Jews/Muslims give thanks to God for everything in any way they can (prayer, tithes, just to name two), we should honor the creators of our animated TV shows by buying the DVDs, etc. I know everyone has issued with religion and all, but if there’s one thing we should learn from them, it would be giving thanks to the creator.

The Chinese knew this concept well, and had an idiom for it, 饮水思源. It means simply, remembering where something came from. Taken in this context, it pretty much means we should honor the creators of a given work and give him his or her due honor, and payment, if need be.

Economically, well, guess what. It does seem that buying the DVD does help the industry back in Japan. I don’t really approve of such a method since all we would be doing is propping up what seems to be a dying industry in Japan, but it is the right thing to do, economically speaking.

As we all know, money has to be spent before a show is made. Most of the money spent is recouped primarily by DVD sales. Well, in the Japanese domestic market, anyway. However, in recent years, starting in 2002, there has been a worrying trend. Less and less people were buying DVDs. Primarily because of things like P2P applications and the massive increase in bandwidth and hi-speed internet connections (and silly things like fan expectations), people began to buy less DVDs and decided to get most of their stuff online. Comiket helped fostered much of this apathy to DVDs. (Yes, Comiket seems massive and making much cash, but get this: NOT ONE SINGLE YEN OF THE MONEY GENERATED AT COMIKET GOES TO THE COMPANIES WHO PROVIDED THEM THE SHOWS, AND AT A STRETCH, THE CREATORS AS WELL. IT’S NOT CALLED A FAN EVENT FOR NOTHING.)

Seeing falling profits, Japanese animé media cartels (Or it could be just Namco Bandai Holdings, I dunno), distraught with fear and greed, turned to the West (after turning to Korea and Taiwan, LOL), where they knew it would sell, mostly due to the exposure (read: fansubs created interest and doomed the industry right from the start). It was a purely economical move.

However, with the explosion of hi-speed internet connections in the West (You can thank or curse Al Gore for this, he signed the legislations to allow the wiring up of America), and the massive popularity of BitTorrent, the hypocrisy of the Japanese fan travelled to America. Demanding seemingly impossible standards, they turned to the Internet, grabbing fansubs and the like. (I apologize for going off on a tangent like this, but one has to understand how the pro-industry faction was formed.)

Which leads to the creation of two of the three groups. The same two groups whom I am accusing of being hypocrites. (One can excuse the exploitable fan, for he has his heart in the right place, even though his eyes are blind to the truth.)

Why is the disillusioned ex-fansubber a hypocrite? It’s a simple answer: Because they turned their backs to the people they once were. I can understand why they would turn their backs, but it does not give them the right to insult people who do not listen to them, nor does it give them the right to act all high and mighty and dehumanize other people who just want to watch their animé. Acting like a prude does not absolve you from all wrong. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say these people are doing this out of pure revenge.

Hidden agendas and prudish behavior, they are no better than the Pharisees. In fact, they are nothing but whitewashed tombs. On the outside, you may seem all right, but deep inside, they are nothing but depraved, vengeful beings.

Moving on, the greedy businessman. They are hypocrites for precisely the same reasons stated above, with one added thing: They are biting the hand that feeds them. It is not just good business sense, but also morally right to keep your customers happy. But they’re not doing it out of revenge. They are doing it for the money. Well, at least that’s what companies like Bandai Visual is interested in. (Odex is on a completely different level. I will refrain from delving into this topic.)

The pro-fansub, on the other hand, is made up of only one group: the selfish, nascent communist who has issues with authority and responsibility, does not care about the value of the created product, and thinks he is entitled to anything on the Internet just because it is there. It doesn’t matter how you justify fansubs, and I’m not going to beat anyone down with the Berne Convention, the thing is, most of us want fansubs because it is free. I’d bet my lunch that if the DVD is much better than the fansub, most of us would take the fansub because it is free.  To me, making justification for your own selfish needs is like a Catholic Priest justifying his need to touch little boys, or Bush justifying torture. It reeks of hypocrisy.

And besides, I’ll bet my dinner that most people who grab and watch fansubs would never take responsibility for the crime. If it is revealed tomorrow that if anyone who violates a copyright, the violator would die, would you own up and die doing what is right? Or would you run away? My guess is that everyone would choose the latter.

Hypocrites, the lot of you. You all disgust me. And I disgust myself too.