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guardian_kysra. (Glad you're still alive and kicking, girl!): Fansubbing is destroying the anime industry!
...or so this guy, Arthur Smith, president of Gonzo Digimation Holdings (the company that's Gonzo animation + Digimation studios. Gonzo's the studio behind Romeo x Juliet, The Count of Monte Cristo, Chrno Crusade, Full Metal Panic, Kaleido Star, Last Exile, Kiddy Grade, and many other popular titles...) says.
You really have to read this whole interview and what this guy says (complete with CAPSLOCK OF RAGE and extra!! punctuation!?!) to understand what I'm going to say.
For one, the guy's got a point-- fansubbing certainly doesn't HELP the anime industry, especially with fansubbers out there that continue subbing even when a title has been licensed. I have this problem with scanlators, too. When something gets licensed, it should be dropped.
The problem with THAT is, just because something is licensed in English doesn't mean it's going to be distributed in every English-speaking country in the world. It's not fair to people who, say, live in Japan but can't read Japanese for them to pay an astronomical fee to import the translated manga from another country. They could easily buy the original and read scanlations online, which frankly, I did, and I felt was fine. NOT buying the original copies and reading the scanlations is what I take issue with, because frankly, it's not giving back to the original artist at all. Not only is that frowned upon in fandom as a whole, but it's just plain stupid. We live in a fairly capitalistic world, where you pay for goods and services. If you get something, you should "pay" for it in some form or fashion. Even the scanlators do this- they have to PAY for the raws. Or, if they have someone that gets it for them, it's the same. Somewhere along the line, someone is paying. The idea is that everyone who reads it should be paying a share, the same way that everyone who goes to a potluck party brings a dish.
I've heard this argument from countless countries, too, and frankly, I can't refute it. Even if people CAN import something (again, that's on the assumption that they have access to online stores, a form of acceptable payment, and said company ships to their country), there's no guarantee that they'll be paying a "fair" price. Let's face it, it's too damn expensive to pay the extra 1400 yen for EMS shipping from Amazon.co.jp every time a new manga comes out. It's freakin' ridiculous.
I find a way to do it, because frankly, I support the creators of the anime and manga I love. But I'm lucky, because a) I live in the United States, where a crapload of anime and manga gets distributed b) I have a high-speed Internet connection which does not firewall particular sites, c) I have several online payment methods to choose from, and d) I have money in the first place.
If someone dares to make the argument that if you can't pay, you shouldn't have anime and/or manga available to you in the first place, get over here so I can punch you in the face. Anime has never been, and never should be, a classist genre. It shouldn't be a matter of "Whoever has the most money has everything." I'm a broke college student. But I find a way to support my "habit" or "addiction" to anime by saving up when and where I can. Again, though, I'm lucky that what I have to save up isn't more than $12 for most manga, with tax, or $30 for an anime DVD. Other people aren't quite that lucky-- to have a part-time job while attending school (to be allowed to!), to have financial aid that covers schooling and gives extra money sometimes, or to make a decent "minimum wage" per hour. And I've BEEN in that position before, so I sympathize. I don't want to say, "well those people should do odd-jobs," or "those people should ask their parents to buy them anime/manga," because again, NOT EVERYONE CAN.
I'm torn on this issue. Smith is right that anime and manga have exploded in the United States, and are becoming increasingly popular and well-known. It used to be that if you wanted to watch anime, you HAD to rely on fan-subbing, because there were maybe two companies in the entire U.S. bringing out things, and doing it at a SNAIL'S PACE. Hello, Viz Media!? It took them more than 10 years to finish releasing Ranma on VHS/DVD! It wasn't even on the air that long in Japan!
Don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is to translate something, dub something, properly subtitle it, if necessary. Nowadays, there are expectations about what the "standard" is for anime and manga, and if fans don't feel the licensed version meets it, they'll turn to fan-versions.
Frankly, that's why I was a scanlator myself in the early days of "licensed manga" here in the States (though many places still call them "graphic novels," which, while not a wholly inaccurate term, just seems stupid. CALL IT WHAT IT IS. You don't call a kimono a "robe," do you?). Honestly, it's also why I'll still read scanlated manga or watch fansubbed anime from time to time. Sometimes THE OFFICIAL VERSION SUCKS.
Case in point: Yu-Gi-Oh. Love the show. It's been my primary fandom since... oh, 2003? About 5 years running, almost. Pretty long, for me, anyway. I can't stand the dub. I refuse to give 4Kids/Funimation any more of my money than I already have (I paid for the Movie DVD and the 2 Capsule Monsters DVDs). They attempted to do a subbed, uncut version, and I paid for those too (what they released of it), but it was still a hack-job. The subtitled script wasn't accurate-- and I knew, because I --pathetic otaku that I am-- understand enough Japanese to know that Ryouta Kajiki =/= Mako Tsunami.
Yet that is just ONE example of the subtitles having mistakes. And it pissed me off. To me, that's the kind of screw-up bootleggers are responsible for. Everyone's got this image in their head that HK (Hong Kong) or Taiwanese subbers (the two places where bootlegged anime are common-- and it's not "racist" or anything like that, it's just FACT. I've been to Hong Kong, and I've received Taiwanese catalogs in the mail) are the ones that do rush jobs, sucky translations, etc. But at least someone's making the attempt, right? It's better than nothing. Considering 4Kids only got about 3 DVDs into the uncut/subtitled Yu-Gi-Oh, the shitty Hong Kong subs are better than THAT. Because unlike 4Kids, the whole series is subtitled -in its own crappy way- by bootleggers. If companies like GDH (and presumably Viz, Tokyopop, Funimation, etc.) want us to support them, maybe they should actually put out products we WANT, and not cram CRAP down our throats, saying "It's what you're going to get!"
That's what I hate about the modern anime and manga industry-- it seems like it's run solely by capitalists who "jumped on the bandwagon," rather than having any genuine interest in Japanese anime or manga (in general, let alone the titles the individual companies are actually putting out, like Viz execs loving Ranma). It shows in the work they produce, because if FANS were behind the business, saying this is how it would be done, there'd be a lot of differences. Namely:
* Manga would go for $5-8/book, not $8-11/book. That's about how much it goes for in Japan, and if it must be sold for more, I want to know where my money's going.
* Manga would not be super-enlarged, put in a weird new cover, numbered differently, or given a new title.
--> Some companies have already made headway in this, but not many. For some reason, there is an "American graphic novel size" which has become the industry standard, rather than the 2-3 Japanese standards, which are much more compact. Considering the art is originally drawn for the smaller size, I hate the enlarged editions. Aside from taking up a heck of a lot more space for no reason, they also stretch the images. The only positive thing most manga translating companies have done lately is stick to the proper right-to-left format, rather than flipping it like the ye old days.
* Anime would have 4-5 episodes on a DVD. All DVDs would be hybrid, containing the original Japanese audio track with PROPER! ENGLISH! SUBTITLES! and, if available, the dub (with appropriate closed captioning). The audio and visual would be the same as the DVD quality in Japan.
--> The Sailor Moon Season 1 and 2 boxed set failed to meet this standard. I paid for the licensed version, but could have gotten better without the excess plastic from a fansubber. The audio stank, the subtitles were off, and the opening and closing sequences were recycled, rather than changing with the episodes (YES, I NOTICED!). Considering all the time it took for the Japanese S1 and S2 to even make it to the States, you'd think we could have gotten the Laserdisc quality audio and video. But noooo, it looks like someone just took a VHS and burned the episodes to DVD.
* Anime DVDs and manga would come out on a regular basis, not once every three months. I can understand if the original creator takes a break --it happens-- but if we're getting something released/licensed AFTER the series ends, or AFTER it's already been released on DVD/manga in Japan, then there's really no excuse for that gastronomical delay.
* Anime DVDs would cost $20 or less. All the time. I know when DVDs were this brand-new shiny thing, $30+ seemed like a trifle. But nowadays, I better be getting a free figurine and a special collector's edition box if I pay that much for a single DVD. Or a Blu-Ray disc (not that I have a Blu-Ray player, but let's just pretend), or a boxed set (2 or more DVDs!)
* Anime DVDs would not JUST have the episodes and some lousy "trailers" from the same company. If the Japanese DVDs have extras, I expect to get those same extras, if not similar ones. Companies can create their own extras-- everything from interviews with the dub voice actors to director commentary. Heck, even a cute interactive game would be cool! I just want something "more" if I'm going to pay for a DVD when I could have recorded the episode off TV when it aired (if it aired. And it did in Japan, so even if it does in the U.S., there's got to be more reason than "Oh! Licensed version of (anime title) in English in my country!" There's got to be an INCENTIVE to buy the DVD rather than turn to those fansubbing sources. Fansubbers REALIZE this, which I think is why many of them keep fansubbing titles even AFTER they get licensed. If there's no incentive, it's as if the license doesn't exist at all. No wonder why companies say their DVD sales have dropped, even though the number of titles being licensed has increased, or interest in anime (as if you could really quantify that somehow, or survey people accurately enough to assess the market) has increased so much.
* There would be none of this "limited edition" or "short print" stuff. What pisses me off the most about anime is that when I finally save up enough to get it, the title is no longer available-- not from retailers, not from resellers, not from the American distributor. It sucks! So what do I do? I try and find fansubs. I hate bootlegs --the quality usually shows-- but when there's nothing else available WHAT ELSE *CAN* I do? It's like "I want to give you money, but you're not here!"
The anime and manga industry need to "take a page" and learn from what the fans are doing. Fansubbing and scanlating have been thriving for years BECAUSE distribution works the way it does. I personally LOVED the idea of being able to download anime episodes from the Viz store-- I haven't actually DONE it yet because I don't like the pricing structure, and for the quality (and features) I want, I frankly don't think I have the disk space (or that what is being offered IS worth the disk space I have).
I want to know why we only have 2 manga magazines (Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat) in the U.S., rather than 10 or more, like there is in Japan. I want to know why ours cost more and yet are maybe 1/3 of the thickness of the magazines in Japan. I want to know why the best "extra" I'll get in one of those magazines is a calendar or a card, when in Japan I might get a whole stationery set, a purse, or a keychain! I want to know why they only come out once a month and most issues are full of several chapters of THE SAME MANGA, rather than a huge variety of different manga (usually of a similar genre, though), allowing fans to get introduced to multiple titles at once. I want to know why subscriptions to said magazines are $30/year, when I'd be paying a fraction of that amount for a BETTER, THICKER manga anthology magazine in Japan!
I refuse to believe that "words aren't cheap" and that what we're paying extra for is simply the translation. Why is it, then, that Chinese and Korean translations of Japanese manga come out in almost the same format, at nearly the same speed? What is it about English that takes MONTHS longer to do ANYTHING?
That's not to say I want a hack-job of a manga. Very reluctantly I'll pay for such a thing (as I did with Yu-Gi-Oh. I stand firm in my belief that if I'd been an editor at Viz, I could have done a much better job with it. And I won't even address Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, whose manga is a FREAKIN' JOKE, even next to the same joke anime). If Yu-Gi-Oh weren't what I was so passionate about, I wouldn't have bought all 38 volumes of the English edition in the first place. I really detest their translation, even if they did manage to do several things right, like the proper cover art, the transliteration of MOST names, and the right-to-left format. But they got a lot more wrong that made me wince whenever I read it, doubt Viz' integrity (which is bad for their future releases), and on several occasions, email them angrily. (I never got a reply.)
I don't like Smith's comparison of fansubbing to breaking and entering an Apple Store to steal the iPhone or some other "hot product" the day before its release. No, fansubbing is NOT like that. It would only be like that if I were breaking and entering into Suncoast or Blockbuster and stealing a DVD.
Fansubbing involves effort. Fansubbing involves hard work. Fansubbing involves PEOPLE-- LOTS OF THEM. Fansubbing is almost exactly what the licensed companies do, except they do it faster and FOR FREE. They do it knowing they won't be paid for their hard work. Many fansubbers do it BETTER than the "official" companies.
Any thug with a fire extinguisher could break the display glass in a store window and steal something. There's no brains involved in that, no effort. It's not the same at all. And guess what? If you steal one iPhone from a window, you can't sell it to a mass market. You can't break it apart and give it to millions of people. Sure, if you steal a case, you can sell them on the black market and make a profit, but fansubbers don't do that either (usually). They fansub what is NOT AVAILABLE AT ALL, what is NOT LICENSED at all (or marked for eventual licensing). And if they do fansub something that's available in the U.S. they do it because the licensing company either does it too slowly, badly, or both. And again, they don't get DIDDLY SQUAT from it. So how does that compare to stealing iPhones and probably selling them to the masses?
Answer: It doesn't. And I'm pissed that Smith tried to make it seem like it does.
Overall, bifocalism (the idea that there are only two possible choices for something) is a problem for the anime industry. There needs to be a realization that other possibilities besides "accepting the licensing for what it is/respecting the intellectual property" and "not accepting the licensing for what it is/disrespecting someone's intellectual property." There is a middle-ground. Not everything has to be set on two ends of a spectrum, where you're only considering the extremes.
guardian_kysra. (Glad you're still alive and kicking, girl!): Fansubbing is destroying the anime industry!...or so this guy, Arthur Smith, president of Gonzo Digimation Holdings (the company that's Gonzo animation + Digimation studios. Gonzo's the studio behind Romeo x Juliet, The Count of Monte Cristo, Chrno Crusade, Full Metal Panic, Kaleido Star, Last Exile, Kiddy Grade, and many other popular titles...) says.
You really have to read this whole interview and what this guy says (complete with CAPSLOCK OF RAGE and extra!! punctuation!?!) to understand what I'm going to say.
For one, the guy's got a point-- fansubbing certainly doesn't HELP the anime industry, especially with fansubbers out there that continue subbing even when a title has been licensed. I have this problem with scanlators, too. When something gets licensed, it should be dropped.
The problem with THAT is, just because something is licensed in English doesn't mean it's going to be distributed in every English-speaking country in the world. It's not fair to people who, say, live in Japan but can't read Japanese for them to pay an astronomical fee to import the translated manga from another country. They could easily buy the original and read scanlations online, which frankly, I did, and I felt was fine. NOT buying the original copies and reading the scanlations is what I take issue with, because frankly, it's not giving back to the original artist at all. Not only is that frowned upon in fandom as a whole, but it's just plain stupid. We live in a fairly capitalistic world, where you pay for goods and services. If you get something, you should "pay" for it in some form or fashion. Even the scanlators do this- they have to PAY for the raws. Or, if they have someone that gets it for them, it's the same. Somewhere along the line, someone is paying. The idea is that everyone who reads it should be paying a share, the same way that everyone who goes to a potluck party brings a dish.
I've heard this argument from countless countries, too, and frankly, I can't refute it. Even if people CAN import something (again, that's on the assumption that they have access to online stores, a form of acceptable payment, and said company ships to their country), there's no guarantee that they'll be paying a "fair" price. Let's face it, it's too damn expensive to pay the extra 1400 yen for EMS shipping from Amazon.co.jp every time a new manga comes out. It's freakin' ridiculous.
I find a way to do it, because frankly, I support the creators of the anime and manga I love. But I'm lucky, because a) I live in the United States, where a crapload of anime and manga gets distributed b) I have a high-speed Internet connection which does not firewall particular sites, c) I have several online payment methods to choose from, and d) I have money in the first place.
If someone dares to make the argument that if you can't pay, you shouldn't have anime and/or manga available to you in the first place, get over here so I can punch you in the face. Anime has never been, and never should be, a classist genre. It shouldn't be a matter of "Whoever has the most money has everything." I'm a broke college student. But I find a way to support my "habit" or "addiction" to anime by saving up when and where I can. Again, though, I'm lucky that what I have to save up isn't more than $12 for most manga, with tax, or $30 for an anime DVD. Other people aren't quite that lucky-- to have a part-time job while attending school (to be allowed to!), to have financial aid that covers schooling and gives extra money sometimes, or to make a decent "minimum wage" per hour. And I've BEEN in that position before, so I sympathize. I don't want to say, "well those people should do odd-jobs," or "those people should ask their parents to buy them anime/manga," because again, NOT EVERYONE CAN.
I'm torn on this issue. Smith is right that anime and manga have exploded in the United States, and are becoming increasingly popular and well-known. It used to be that if you wanted to watch anime, you HAD to rely on fan-subbing, because there were maybe two companies in the entire U.S. bringing out things, and doing it at a SNAIL'S PACE. Hello, Viz Media!? It took them more than 10 years to finish releasing Ranma on VHS/DVD! It wasn't even on the air that long in Japan!
Don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is to translate something, dub something, properly subtitle it, if necessary. Nowadays, there are expectations about what the "standard" is for anime and manga, and if fans don't feel the licensed version meets it, they'll turn to fan-versions.
Frankly, that's why I was a scanlator myself in the early days of "licensed manga" here in the States (though many places still call them "graphic novels," which, while not a wholly inaccurate term, just seems stupid. CALL IT WHAT IT IS. You don't call a kimono a "robe," do you?). Honestly, it's also why I'll still read scanlated manga or watch fansubbed anime from time to time. Sometimes THE OFFICIAL VERSION SUCKS.
Case in point: Yu-Gi-Oh. Love the show. It's been my primary fandom since... oh, 2003? About 5 years running, almost. Pretty long, for me, anyway. I can't stand the dub. I refuse to give 4Kids/Funimation any more of my money than I already have (I paid for the Movie DVD and the 2 Capsule Monsters DVDs). They attempted to do a subbed, uncut version, and I paid for those too (what they released of it), but it was still a hack-job. The subtitled script wasn't accurate-- and I knew, because I --pathetic otaku that I am-- understand enough Japanese to know that Ryouta Kajiki =/= Mako Tsunami.
Yet that is just ONE example of the subtitles having mistakes. And it pissed me off. To me, that's the kind of screw-up bootleggers are responsible for. Everyone's got this image in their head that HK (Hong Kong) or Taiwanese subbers (the two places where bootlegged anime are common-- and it's not "racist" or anything like that, it's just FACT. I've been to Hong Kong, and I've received Taiwanese catalogs in the mail) are the ones that do rush jobs, sucky translations, etc. But at least someone's making the attempt, right? It's better than nothing. Considering 4Kids only got about 3 DVDs into the uncut/subtitled Yu-Gi-Oh, the shitty Hong Kong subs are better than THAT. Because unlike 4Kids, the whole series is subtitled -in its own crappy way- by bootleggers. If companies like GDH (and presumably Viz, Tokyopop, Funimation, etc.) want us to support them, maybe they should actually put out products we WANT, and not cram CRAP down our throats, saying "It's what you're going to get!"
That's what I hate about the modern anime and manga industry-- it seems like it's run solely by capitalists who "jumped on the bandwagon," rather than having any genuine interest in Japanese anime or manga (in general, let alone the titles the individual companies are actually putting out, like Viz execs loving Ranma). It shows in the work they produce, because if FANS were behind the business, saying this is how it would be done, there'd be a lot of differences. Namely:
* Manga would go for $5-8/book, not $8-11/book. That's about how much it goes for in Japan, and if it must be sold for more, I want to know where my money's going.
* Manga would not be super-enlarged, put in a weird new cover, numbered differently, or given a new title.
--> Some companies have already made headway in this, but not many. For some reason, there is an "American graphic novel size" which has become the industry standard, rather than the 2-3 Japanese standards, which are much more compact. Considering the art is originally drawn for the smaller size, I hate the enlarged editions. Aside from taking up a heck of a lot more space for no reason, they also stretch the images. The only positive thing most manga translating companies have done lately is stick to the proper right-to-left format, rather than flipping it like the ye old days.
* Anime would have 4-5 episodes on a DVD. All DVDs would be hybrid, containing the original Japanese audio track with PROPER! ENGLISH! SUBTITLES! and, if available, the dub (with appropriate closed captioning). The audio and visual would be the same as the DVD quality in Japan.
--> The Sailor Moon Season 1 and 2 boxed set failed to meet this standard. I paid for the licensed version, but could have gotten better without the excess plastic from a fansubber. The audio stank, the subtitles were off, and the opening and closing sequences were recycled, rather than changing with the episodes (YES, I NOTICED!). Considering all the time it took for the Japanese S1 and S2 to even make it to the States, you'd think we could have gotten the Laserdisc quality audio and video. But noooo, it looks like someone just took a VHS and burned the episodes to DVD.
* Anime DVDs and manga would come out on a regular basis, not once every three months. I can understand if the original creator takes a break --it happens-- but if we're getting something released/licensed AFTER the series ends, or AFTER it's already been released on DVD/manga in Japan, then there's really no excuse for that gastronomical delay.
* Anime DVDs would cost $20 or less. All the time. I know when DVDs were this brand-new shiny thing, $30+ seemed like a trifle. But nowadays, I better be getting a free figurine and a special collector's edition box if I pay that much for a single DVD. Or a Blu-Ray disc (not that I have a Blu-Ray player, but let's just pretend), or a boxed set (2 or more DVDs!)
* Anime DVDs would not JUST have the episodes and some lousy "trailers" from the same company. If the Japanese DVDs have extras, I expect to get those same extras, if not similar ones. Companies can create their own extras-- everything from interviews with the dub voice actors to director commentary. Heck, even a cute interactive game would be cool! I just want something "more" if I'm going to pay for a DVD when I could have recorded the episode off TV when it aired (if it aired. And it did in Japan, so even if it does in the U.S., there's got to be more reason than "Oh! Licensed version of (anime title) in English in my country!" There's got to be an INCENTIVE to buy the DVD rather than turn to those fansubbing sources. Fansubbers REALIZE this, which I think is why many of them keep fansubbing titles even AFTER they get licensed. If there's no incentive, it's as if the license doesn't exist at all. No wonder why companies say their DVD sales have dropped, even though the number of titles being licensed has increased, or interest in anime (as if you could really quantify that somehow, or survey people accurately enough to assess the market) has increased so much.
* There would be none of this "limited edition" or "short print" stuff. What pisses me off the most about anime is that when I finally save up enough to get it, the title is no longer available-- not from retailers, not from resellers, not from the American distributor. It sucks! So what do I do? I try and find fansubs. I hate bootlegs --the quality usually shows-- but when there's nothing else available WHAT ELSE *CAN* I do? It's like "I want to give you money, but you're not here!"
The anime and manga industry need to "take a page" and learn from what the fans are doing. Fansubbing and scanlating have been thriving for years BECAUSE distribution works the way it does. I personally LOVED the idea of being able to download anime episodes from the Viz store-- I haven't actually DONE it yet because I don't like the pricing structure, and for the quality (and features) I want, I frankly don't think I have the disk space (or that what is being offered IS worth the disk space I have).
I want to know why we only have 2 manga magazines (Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat) in the U.S., rather than 10 or more, like there is in Japan. I want to know why ours cost more and yet are maybe 1/3 of the thickness of the magazines in Japan. I want to know why the best "extra" I'll get in one of those magazines is a calendar or a card, when in Japan I might get a whole stationery set, a purse, or a keychain! I want to know why they only come out once a month and most issues are full of several chapters of THE SAME MANGA, rather than a huge variety of different manga (usually of a similar genre, though), allowing fans to get introduced to multiple titles at once. I want to know why subscriptions to said magazines are $30/year, when I'd be paying a fraction of that amount for a BETTER, THICKER manga anthology magazine in Japan!
I refuse to believe that "words aren't cheap" and that what we're paying extra for is simply the translation. Why is it, then, that Chinese and Korean translations of Japanese manga come out in almost the same format, at nearly the same speed? What is it about English that takes MONTHS longer to do ANYTHING?
That's not to say I want a hack-job of a manga. Very reluctantly I'll pay for such a thing (as I did with Yu-Gi-Oh. I stand firm in my belief that if I'd been an editor at Viz, I could have done a much better job with it. And I won't even address Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, whose manga is a FREAKIN' JOKE, even next to the same joke anime). If Yu-Gi-Oh weren't what I was so passionate about, I wouldn't have bought all 38 volumes of the English edition in the first place. I really detest their translation, even if they did manage to do several things right, like the proper cover art, the transliteration of MOST names, and the right-to-left format. But they got a lot more wrong that made me wince whenever I read it, doubt Viz' integrity (which is bad for their future releases), and on several occasions, email them angrily. (I never got a reply.)
I don't like Smith's comparison of fansubbing to breaking and entering an Apple Store to steal the iPhone or some other "hot product" the day before its release. No, fansubbing is NOT like that. It would only be like that if I were breaking and entering into Suncoast or Blockbuster and stealing a DVD.
Fansubbing involves effort. Fansubbing involves hard work. Fansubbing involves PEOPLE-- LOTS OF THEM. Fansubbing is almost exactly what the licensed companies do, except they do it faster and FOR FREE. They do it knowing they won't be paid for their hard work. Many fansubbers do it BETTER than the "official" companies.
Any thug with a fire extinguisher could break the display glass in a store window and steal something. There's no brains involved in that, no effort. It's not the same at all. And guess what? If you steal one iPhone from a window, you can't sell it to a mass market. You can't break it apart and give it to millions of people. Sure, if you steal a case, you can sell them on the black market and make a profit, but fansubbers don't do that either (usually). They fansub what is NOT AVAILABLE AT ALL, what is NOT LICENSED at all (or marked for eventual licensing). And if they do fansub something that's available in the U.S. they do it because the licensing company either does it too slowly, badly, or both. And again, they don't get DIDDLY SQUAT from it. So how does that compare to stealing iPhones and probably selling them to the masses?
Answer: It doesn't. And I'm pissed that Smith tried to make it seem like it does.
Overall, bifocalism (the idea that there are only two possible choices for something) is a problem for the anime industry. There needs to be a realization that other possibilities besides "accepting the licensing for what it is/respecting the intellectual property" and "not accepting the licensing for what it is/disrespecting someone's intellectual property." There is a middle-ground. Not everything has to be set on two ends of a spectrum, where you're only considering the extremes.
