This issue is not a matter of economics, it’s a matter of self.

DRM NOTE: I haven’t had the luxury of doing a nice, well thought-out post in a long while. I really should do more of this, it’s much better for the mind.

I read the news regarding the Japanese government issuing pleas for help to America for help with their rampant bit-swapping problems. Initially, I waved it off, knowing how Japan has always been unable to enact such laws in the past. Still, with the recent spate of otaku crackdowns and destruction of their hangouts, I waited with bated breath for the inevitable discussion, flamefests and jiggery pokery at the ANN forums.

I did not like what I read. People throwing out the same pro-fansub propoganda drivel, Zac being a pompous ass and muttering about how fansubs have become too big for their own good, people slinging lies and whatnot about BOTH SIDES of the argument, in short, it’s the sort of idiocy that happens everywhere.

However, while both sides are slowing turning into what could be termed a slightly more mature form of “my view is better than your view” circular argument, I read the whole discussion. Zac hits back at how the system is broken. He quips:

Here’s a tip: say like within 6 months or so you watch 9-10 26 or 13-episode series fansubbed and, after dedicating hours and hours of your life to watching this stuff and discussing it on the internet, always downloading more and more, you decide to spend $30 on a thinpak boxset on the one series you decided you liked enough to pay for… the system is broken.

I realized he’s extremely disillusioned with the entire community and industry as a whole. And who wouldn’t be, seeing as the whole community is slowly becoming a circlejerk with no hope for redemption, salvation or even a cure. The pro-fansub pedants keep going about how it is THEIR RIGHT to download Japanese animation just because they can’t get it fast enough/too poor/bad quality/dubs suck/whatever is the excuse of the day, the pro-industry people going on about how fansubs WILL kill the industry eventually, corporations refusing to look beyond their myopic views…

I don’t blame Zac for being disillusioned. In fact, I actually feel the same way about the whole thing too. Yes 4chan, I am empathize with the enemy here. Y’see, fansubbing wasn’t about the amount of leechers one group got, or about the friggen’ drama, or the quality of releases, or the feel-good feeling. It was about promoting a alternative lifestyle that was not just interesting, but also created a close-knit community that was just as wholesome as any group-based activity.

How did such altruism turn into the black, sticky cesspool of elitism, circlejerking, self-serving dung it is today? To be honest, I don’t know. However, I think I can venture a guess, based off human behavior and history.

History has always been rife with traitors, bad people, assassins, dirty politicians and their ilk. In the play Julius Caesar, ol’ Caesar was stabbed in the back by his second-hand man. Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. Some of the Egyptian kings were murdered in power ploys they didn’t foresee. The Jews, failing to heed the words of Moses and the prophets, backslided into greed and power, wanting to free themselves from a rather generous Roman occupation of Israel.

In a sense, the fansubbing community was a lot like the Jews in the times of the New Testament. Originally created for a higher purpose, it slowly backslided into what we see today: Grabs for power, recognition, and heck, money. The similarities I can draw from these two events, spaced 2000+ years apart from each other, is frightening.

From all that, I realized one thing: the whole issue of fansubbing had, slowly, and unknowingly, became an issue about self. In fact, the whole filesharing debate can be summed up in one sentence: It is about self.

Let’s get our heads out of the past and into the present.

I’m quite sure the bitter memory of ODEX is still in the heads of many. I’ll use that to illustrate what I have to say.

Now, I live in Singapore, as you all know. Censorship of media is pretty rampant, it’s nearly impossible to get shows locally (and what is available, it’s of such low quality not even a loanshark would touch it, and the main company was founded on unethical standards) , and should you import, the poor sod might not even get what he ordered.

Given such circumstances, do you think I have a good reason to act like a dirty pirate and indiscriminately grab what I like? I know most of you will answer yes, I have every right to do so, but I’m sorry. The answer is, “NO.” Why? Simply because a reason is not an excuse.

Let’s see the reasons for downloading stuff off the Internet in my case, eh?

• Censorship
• ODEX is a shitty company
• Too pricey
• Not value-for-money
• Buying merchandise is supporting the industry
• Can’t get it here, must fly to Japan
• No money
• It is my right to do so
• The law does not explicitly say it’s illegal

I could use any of these reasons to justify my actions, and I’d still be not wholly to blame.

What kind of a fucked-up society would allow such lousy reasons and flimsy defenses to exonerate such crimes? I’ll tell you what kind of society it is. It is a society where no one will be held accountable for what they do, as long as they have a made-up excuse to back it up. It’s the same society that allows flimsy evidence like IP addresses to be used in a court of law as HARD EVIDENCE to defend CORPORATE GREED. It’s also the same society when a bigot is praised for destroying the community and the one protecting it gets called a hypocrite. Sickening isn’t it?

In order to fufill selfish desires, we have turned society into the cesspool of dung it is today, where organizations and companies like the RIAA and ODEX to fuck with the innocent while the real perpatrators get away scot-free and do the same crime until someone kills them.

This is the problem we have today: people care more about themselves than others. This is the truth. You see it everyday on the streets, in the news, on the Internet. Why is there war? It’s because someone wants to fulfill their selfish ideal. The whole filesharing/internet piracy fiasco? IT’S BECAUSE WE ARE SELFISH PRICKS. Unlike DarkMirage and his supposed “attempts” to “help the community”, this is the real truth, and I’ll stick to it no matter what.

The truth is, no one cares about anybody anymore. Companies exploit the proles for short-term profit shared between a few people. Information gets shared because people don’t want to pay a single cent for it. People want all the benefits, without all the responsibilities. I think Gregory Koukl said it right when he said this:

If I would identify a single trend with regard to the issue of justice and moral health in our society, the one that I would put my finger on is a form of moral relativism: people are no longer responsible for their actions. Someone else is always responsible. Your parents are responsible. Society is responsible. Your upbringing is responsible. Your genes are responsible. Your chemistry is responsible. It’s the chocolate you ate this morning or the pizza you had last night or the difficult circumstances that you grew up with. All of these things, these inanimate things that can’t be punished themselves are all to blame. And people, moral creatures who make moral choices, are not the ones to blame. Therefore, it’s inappropriate to punish them.

It’s about time someone realizes that we must give to Caesar what belongs to him. Zac, the system is indeed broken, but it’s not about the system, it’s about the people. They are the broken ones. They broke the system. The system is broken because people are broken and the community would like it to stay broken so that it hides their misdeeds.

Gah, I can’t write anymore. I think I rambled on for quite a bit somewhere in the middle.

Related reading material:

ANN report, and the discussion

An interesting writeup on the early days of fansubbing.

Now I understand why ANN is sometime called elitist.

An interesting writeup on the state of society today.

Red Alert. OTAKUCON 1. The faggots are back.

You know, anout AnimeJunkies, the really bad fansub group wo pissed off a bunch of business-type people in the anime scene and got lawsuited to near-death?

They’re back.

And just when things were looking up… … …

The world is a cruel place.

Desu part 2

Today is a glorious day in the war against fansubbers.

Some nutjob desu’d #Your-Mom @ irc.rizon.net.

Pictorial evidence:

Oh, and Your-Mom, stop trying to be attention whores, will you? It’ll get you nowhere, trying to attract attention by being the fastest (and by proxy, the shittiest) fansub group ever. And your attitudes don’t help you at all. Not one bit. Don’t claim to be the fastest just because youcare less about the finished product. That goes to ALL of you fansubbers out there. Because someone DOES care about the little man. The idiot who does not understand a lick of Japanese and relies on English subs. And well, without your fans, there will be no fansubs. A regrettable turn of events, should this happen.

EDITorz: Pictoral evidence  is now 1280x bigger :V

Desu power.

I did something stupid today.

I just desu’d Your-Mom Fansubs. And it felt stupid and good. I guess I still have a bit of the /b/tard in me. (Click on More to see the stupidity.)
Well, back to wondering what happened after the events of Planetarian.

al|together 2006: Hooray doujin visual novels! Hooray for angry Koreans! Hooray for pretentious Brits! Hooray hypocrisy!

Most of the title is not meant to be taken seriously.

Actually, I almost forgot about this, until someone reminded me about it. Well, I am a placeholder name! Yay!

Anyways, back to the topic.

From the site:

al|together is back for 2006, with a very simple mission:

Love translation. Love stories. Spend a month sharing them together.

So basically, some people take a free doujin visual novel from Japan/Korea/Taiwan (with the full blessings of the creator), translate, localize, debug, and release it to the public in one month in English, if they can. Well, they’ve done a pretty bang-up job so far, though.

For those of you in the fanlocalization visual novel scene, this is a very big event, assuming you hang out at Haeleth’s forums and are ‘friendly’ with the people there. I know about this because I was privy to the birth of the first one. Although you all know of the DORAMA preceeding the event… … …

There’s the whole Wind debacle, and preceeding even the first al|together, the whole insani vs the bloody pirates due to Planetarian. Which pretty much means: What is this new and relatively unknown breed of people trying to prove? That they want to positively contribute to the visual novel scene to the English-speaking community, or are they no better than fansubbers, because of their haughty attitudes?

Seriously, I don’t know. I’ve had more than my fair share of bad brushes with the bad side of insani, and by bloody hell, it isn’t very nice. It’s not that they can’t produce high-quality goods, but… … …from what I’ve heard and experiebced, maybe Haeleth and his band of brothers aren’t all that nice after all.

I really have nothing against Haeleth, gp32, insani, and the crew of al|together and its participants, but… … … as a former member of this community, for their sake, I hope they do improve their attitudes. I’ve had some really nice times with them, but the bad memories left a sour taste in my mouth. I won’t go into details, for I don’t want to open up a whole new can of worms.

If anyone from the Haeleth forums are reading this, well, I really like you guys. Problem is, you act just like fansubebrs do, if not worse. Sure, doing this is a lot longer than your average fansub, and while you may want people to respect youfor what you’ve done, thing is, no one likes being flamed for revealing spoilers (known or otherwise), or acting like you own the place if you are taking part in a community project. In the end, if you do keep up your current attitudes, you’re gonna end up in a worse situation than fansubbers. I wish I really were flaming you, but I’m not. I’m just asking for a little common sense to be applied here. And probably a positive change in attitudes. As a creator myself (not in the game sense, though), I do know the pain of your own work not being recognized and plagarized. It hurts like fucking hell, but that’s the nature of human beings. You can’t change them, so just live with it.

Simply put, if you stop acting like fucking assholes, maybe we’d take notice of you for reasons other than the fucking dorama. Seriously, if you want to generate positive news, you gotta act like you deserve it.

I apologize for being blunt back there. But these people have to learn that not everyone will put up with their elitist attitudes, even if the people are willing to help them. Or maybe gp32 should just read DDD.

Elza is <3

Guess what? I had to download a Chinese sub for my Demonbane fix (notwithstanding people like Omni), and why? Because some- Wait, my bad. A whole lotta whiny bastards ‘told’ yesy to drop Demonbane. Goddamn drama.

But more on that later. First up, the Chinese subs were very clean. No Keh Ree Oh Kee shit, rather extensive notes (sadly, in the show), but it was in RMVB. It’s nice to know that it won’t eat up a lot of HDD space, but well, Real Media sucks, even if rmvb isn’t all that bad.

But enough file griping. TO THE SHOW SUMMARY! IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER!

• West builds Elza.
• Elza kicks Kurou’s ass.
• Kurou saves Elza from Spinny blade of Doom.
• Elza wants Kurou’s cock.
• Kurou defeats said spinny blade of Doom
• ZOMGWTFBBQIT GIANT MECHA BATTEL
• Elza still wants Kurou’s cock.
• 24 frames of the rocking police officers.
• Have I mentoined Elza wants Kurou’s cock?
• Approximately 3 minutes of Master Therion and his lolibook!
• Elza really wants Ku- Ah forget it.
• Chibi Al gets more screentime! YAYZ

Production values took a hit this episode. Al looked horrid in quite a few frames. The ED was plenty rockin’, and contains quite a bit of spoilers. Just of note, Al ain’t getting raped by a dickgirl.

Oh, and I have something to say to the whiners who told yesy to drop Demonbane.

FUCK

YOU

AND

THE

HORSE

YOU

RODE

ON.

That is all. Drm out.

LOL MOAR FANSUBBER DORAMA

[08:06] <|7hs|> i should go into #static-subs and ask when they’re holding the funeral for their poor late translator
[08:07] <Eirin> |7hs|: did something happen to their translator?
[08:07] <Aya-Shameimaru> lol 7hs what?
[08:07] <Aya-Shameimaru> is that a joke XD
[08:07] <|7hs|> Eirin: well, they haven’t released anything since april
[08:07] <Eirin> hhm
[08:07] <Aya-Shameimaru> hence the name static-subs?
[08:07] <Eirin> they have
[08:07] <|7hs|> lol
[08:07] <Eirin> uta :X
[08:07] <|7hs|> http://releases.static-subs.com/
[08:08] <|7hs|>  New Releases
[08:08] <|7hs|>  2006-05-24 Utawarerumono
[08:08] <Aya-Shameimaru> http://www.static-subs.com/
[08:08] <Aya-Shameimaru> may 31
[08:08] <Aya-Shameimaru> uta 7
[08:08] <Aya-Shameimaru> i call shenanigans on suki
[08:09] <|7hs|> oh
[08:09] <Aya-Shameimaru> google is your friend
[08:09] <Eirin> 19. Utawarerumono 09 – Static-Subs
[08:09] <Eirin> Released: 2006-06-24
[08:09] <Eirin> Size: 177205248   CRC: C686B5AE
[08:09] <|7hs|> Eirin: whar
[08:09] <Eirin> their last release was only 1 week ago
[08:09] <Aya-Shameimaru> http://www.animesuki.com/group.php/121.html
[08:09] <|7hs|> in that case i will ask when they are holding the funeral for their poor late webmaster
[08:10] <|7hs|> ty
[08:10] <Eirin> |7hs|: didn’t you know they got a new site?
[08:10] <PenguinBox> lol kick + ban?
[08:10] <PenguinBox> >_>
[08:10] <|7hs|> Error 404: File not found
[08:10] <|7hs|> The document you requested is not found.
[08:10] <|7hs|> lol wut
[08:10] <Eirin> one of the old staff got kicked out
[08:10] <|7hs|> Eirin: nope
[08:11] <|7hs|> so he stole the webhost? :V
[08:11] <PenguinBox> lol drama
[08:11] <Eirin> and took the domain with it
[08:12] <|7hs|> needs more goatsex

LOL FANSUBBER DORAMA

LOL MOAR INTERNETS DORAMA PART TWO

I've skimmed through what Hongfire and a few other anime bloggers have to say. The verdict:

• HF: YOU BLOODY ELITIST HYPOCRITES. Say all you want, but banning someone who says 4chan does not give you good standing with the community.
• Lolicontrol: LOL
• DarkMirage: I agree with what you have said.

I'm not even gonna say anything about 4chan. Their opinions mean nothing here. Mostly because I know the usual responses. *former 4channer and /b/tard.

and now, jpmeyer's and jal's take from the IRC channel.

[08:14] <jpmeyer> this INTERNET DRAMA regarding wind looks insane
[08:18] <jpmeyer> i can't really understand what nnl hopes to acheive
[08:19] <jpmeyer> "we put in 1000 hours" makes it sound like they want to flaunt their e-penis
[08:19] <jpmeyer> but if nobody gets to see the patch than nobody can care
[08:22] <jal0021> I've always known the NNL guys to be pretty decent folks
[08:23] <jal0021> it's pretty easy to get fed up with the "pirate everything" crowd
[08:23] <DrmChsr0> LOL insani
[08:23] <DrmChsr0> LOL gp32
[08:23] <DrmChsr0> LOL everybody
[08:23] <DrmChsr0> That's my comment on the whole DORAMA.
[08:23] <jal0021> agreed
[08:23] <jal0021> just one big pissing match
[08:23] <jal0021> over WIND, of all things
[08:24] <jpmeyer> when i talked to the reps from hirameki at new york comicon, they told me that the market for visual novel games among american anime fans (NOT gamers in general!) is extremely small and is really just the hardest of hardcore fans
[08:24] <jpmeyer> so it makes me wonder who NNL thinks is going to buy this game
[08:25] <jal0021> hardcore fans like them, I suppose
[08:25] <jpmeyer> however
[08:25] <jpmeyer> when i also talked to them
[08:25] <jpmeyer> they said that the hardest core fans already generally know a fair amount of japanese anyway
[08:25] <jpmeyer> (them being hirameki)

jpmeyer and jal on visual novels.

[08:27] <jal0021> even if my Japanese reading skills were better, I probably wouldn't play many visual novels… requires too much time
[08:27] <jal0021> might as well just wait for the inevitable anime adaptation
[08:28] <jpmeyer> i get pretty bored if i can't beat the game in a few days. there's only so much reading that i want to do. i can read like a textbook per day, so i can't mentally forgive what is basically a trumped-up porno for requiring like 40-100 hours to read through
[08:29] <jal0021> exactly… too many words for a whole lot of nothing
[08:33] <jpmeyer> look, we don't need you to spend 20 hours telling us that she is the main character's little sister or something. just have her say "onii-chama" once in order make it clear what fetish she is, and then have them bonk a few times. there. i just made fun of your favorite game. whatever it is
[08:33] <jpmeyer> visual novels are the most pretentious pornos ever conceived
[08:35] <jpmeyer> (says someone who has written thousands of words on these though, so i'm probably making fun of myself here)

Apologies on the IRCness.

I declare HF and NNL bloody hypocrites, the anime bloggers sane, and the Internet full of swiss fuckers.

LOL MOAR INTERNETS DORAMA

Yes, people, we have idiots descending to the /b/tards' level.

No seriously, what good does it do fighting with /b/tards? No noticeable achievement is noted, except maybe the swelling of your e-p0n0s and your e-go.

You wanna do something to stem the tide of arrogant e-pirates and /b/tards, don't stoop to their level. In doing so, youwould have lost, and they would have won.

You fellers agree with me, no?

And another one rides the short bus.

So some anime site interviews the PR bitch at VIZ…

And she completely lambasts anime piracy, Bram Cohen, Adobe Photoshop, Tim-Berners Lee, and Japan. Wow. She's got some nerve dissing CERN. SOME FUCKING NERVE. Oi Switzerland! You heard that! Some American bitch is dissing your work!

Anyway, CERN aside, I am very troubled by the thinking of American businessmen. In order to reap huge profits, they resrot to doing some of the most vile things you can do to anyone: Sullying reputations, throwing lawsuits like nobody's business, monopolizing the industry, bribery, sweatshops, churning out shit for the stupid masses to buy, etc, etc, etc. Well, Japan's guilty of it too, but they have one hell of a doujin industry, which absolves them of part of the blame(the entire doujin industry is, after all, violating the Berne Convention at the speed of fap.)

American business standards and ethics have never evolved to meet the demands of smarter and therefore, more wary consumers. In the past, where computer programs and other stuff were only available in the stores, people bought them, for the other methods of obtaining the good stuff was either extremely dangerous or took too long. The Internet was something to look at, and no one thought you could do piracy there(I mean, when most of the cheapass population has 56K connections, you'd never want to nab 100+ MBs of stuff, it'll take too long.) Then hi-speed connections, P2P applications and Bram Cohen's Bittorrent protocol came along. Now people everywhere can get their stuff fast, and for free. Did American businesses take notice? NOT ONE FUCKING IOTA. They stubbornly stuck to their outmoded business practices, and suffered. Instead of attacking the root of the problem(money-hungry CEOs), they attacked the consumers, sullied otherwise-spotless reputations with baseless charges, basically destroying their source of income. Is this the correct, let alone ethical, way to run any form of business?

HELL FUCKING NO.

You do not attack your source of income. This is basic common sense. And basic business sense. Deviating from the rule of Ma'at will lead to misfortune. Unfortunately, American businesses, blinded by the lure of huge profits, have failed to see that, and will eventually run their asses into the fucking earth.Bitching about American businesses aside, I don't think America can actually get their asses involved into Japan's business. For in fact, even though much of the developed world can be charged in an UN Court of Law for violating the BErne Convention, Japanese Animation comes mostly FROM JAPAN. That's right, you purplepissing American cuntwaffles, WE'D HAVE TO FACE THE WRATH OF JAPAN FIRST. For should Japan wise up, they'd have sufficient evidence to CUT OFF THE FLOW. YES, YOU HEARD ME RIGHT. JAPAN CAN AND WILL CUT OFF THE FLOW OF ANIME. We're lucky Japan will take a very long time to realize this, and they'd have to reveal to the world that they themselves have violated the Berne Convention. Lucky us.

Enough with the jibba-jabba, let's see what she has to say, eh?

ACTIVE ANIME:
How do you think "Bittorrent" and other forms of downloading are affecting the anime and manga industry in the United States?

EVELYN DUBOCQ: If anime piracy continues to grow in North America, at the expense of legitimate product, then studios will be forced to increase prices and/or slow down the number of anime releases, to compensate for lost sales. For some of the less popular, but critically acclaimed anime series, this could mean that new seasons would never be officially released here. Similar, new anime properties may never even make the leap from Japan to North America.

Wait, wait, so anime piracy blocks stuf like Haruhi, Fate and Nanoha from coming to the States, and not fan popularity? HOLY SHIT REVELATION OF THE CENTURY.

Ultimately, if piracy continues to extend to a greater scale and sales of legitimate anime DVDs in the US fall as a result, there could be less anime produced in Japan. Part of what makes the anime genre so unique and attractive to fans is the diversity. Unfortunately, piracy could undermine this, leading to fewer anime series being created and even fewer being released in North America.

What? Anime piracy contributes to the downfall of anime in Japan? Is she even fucking serious? I mean, comapanies like ADV are paying potentially MILLIONS to the JAPANESE to 'mangle' the stuff, but the animation houses are moving FULL STEAM AHEAD to churn out new series. Now, while I do realize some of the money does go back to Japan(I know a little about economics, buddy, and companies have to pay royalties to the copyright holders, see.), and some of the money goes to running the company and all, where does most of that moolah go to? THE FUCKING CEO. YES, THE FUCKING CEO. And of course, it's in Japan that the real money is being made. HAH!

ACTIVE ANIME:
The Naruto and Bleach anime and manga have been licensed for release in America. What action, if any, has VIZ taken in regards to discouraging or stopping the downloading of this material?

EVELYN DUBOCQ: While as a general rule we appreciate fan enthusiasm, we cannot condone the use of screenings of illegally downloaded episodes. The creators have spent much time and effort to have their creations shown with the best quality and through legitimate channels. On their behalf, we request cooperation from fans not to promote piracy but to join us in supporting the creators' efforts.
This is the only correct statement in the entire interview. Unfortunately, someone has not informed her about THE ANIME  SITUATION IN JAPAN. 

ACTIVE ANIME:
The Naruto and Bleach anime and manga have been licensed for release in America. What action, if any, has VIZ taken in regards to discouraging or stopping the downloading of this material?

EVELYN DUBOCQ: While as a general rule we appreciate fan enthusiasm, we cannot condone the use of screenings of illegally downloaded episodes. The creators have spent much time and effort to have their creations shown with the best quality and through legitimate channels. On their behalf, we request cooperation from fans not to promote piracy but to join us in supporting the creators' efforts.

No facts, no figures, assume it's baseless speculation. Plus, since the company has stupidly paid the Japanese companies involved the crazy cash, I think they'll churn out more in Japan. And since Japan itself has one hell of a booming otaku population, the companies make mad cash from official stuff, advertising, and royalties. Trust me. Japan can infinitely produce anime and we'd never see more than a miniscule fraction of it because we leave our choices to a bunch of money-hungry businessmen. 

ACTIVE ANIME:
Translators who do translate mangas, how are they affected by scantillations?

EVELYN DUBOCQ: Most of our translators are outsourced, but I am sure it affects the amount of work they get.

That would explain why most American manga is so spotty in quality.

ACTIVE ANIME:
Do you feel downloads will affect its sales?

EVELYN DUBOCQ: Piracy is never good for anyone – again, it it continues and grows – it will affect the properties coming in from Japan, as well as ultimately affect the consumer at the retailers.

I'm tired of repeating myself. Scroll up if you want to know my thoughts. Or tl;dr: JAPAN MAKES ENOUGH MONEY FROM IT'S CONSUMER BASE, PLUS THE MOOLAH FROM THE AMERICAN COMPANIES, IT IS EXTREMELY PROFITABLE. HAHAHA USA COMPANIES, YOU GOT SERVED.
 

Once again, American business has shown us it's utter stupidity. Geez, lady, take a lesson from Steve Ballmer, and roll with the punches. (For those not in the know, Steve Ballmer is the PR dude from Microsoft, and he's really good at his job.)