Internet Piracy

[s0teric]

Well your here. What did you come to this website for the ethical conversations you would have in the mako reactor? Unlikely. You came for the free anime downloads. What do you think of piracy and how do you justify it? Or do you? Or is there anything to justify? Share your thoughts.

[† L4ugh]

I've been asking myself this question a lot lately. I don't really have any problem against the fan subbing of anime that hasn't/won't be released in the USA because this is really the only way that people on the North American continent will ever see it. I'm starting to have issue with the blatant piracy of dubbed anime though. While I will agree that sometimes the original japanese audio is better then the dub. There are other times the leading characters sound far to girly in japanese for me to believe they are as strong as their character is suppose to be. These times I almost always prefer the dubbed version, but at the rate that companies that do the dubbing are going under recently. There may not be enough money/profit to produce the english dubs anymore. This is why I'm starting to move more towards a DL2Retail methodology to downloading anime, because any way you look at it downloading is the quickest and most reliable way to gain access to anime. The vendors of anime make it far to difficult, I think, for people to gain access to anime whether by renting or buying. Once I have seen enough to know if it is something I want to own. I try to make a point of buying the dvd if for no other reason then to say "yeah I own that one".

Now that Best Buy has stopped carrying the amount of anime they used to, it's getting hard to even buy anime. I think this is were the anime market is really failing, because if someone has to dl one anime in order to watch it. They will be more likely to just go straight to the dl in the future. If they are downloading anime then they're far less likely to actually buy the dvds they already downloaded.

As for Hollywood movies, I say fck um. The crap they got passed in the DMCA is total bullshit, and the lazy way they are going about making movies today is even worse. So I say to hell with their dvd/bluray earnings, they make enough money at the box office if the movie is even half as good as they say it is.

[BURNTHEPRIEST]

I'm all for it, just this morning I saw a report on the news on how its costing the music industry millions and are losing out on piracy, really? I don't see it. Same with Hollywood, musicians and actors and still making lots of money. Although I may get a lot of stuff off the net, I do believe in trying before buying in some cases and will buy a product if I like it and help support the people responsible.

[Asch]

Hmm....I don't think so, I have never downloaded even a single piece of anime[or anything] from here, neither was ever interested to do so. Now in the case of piracy, take it out of the context of US, not all parts of world gets the releases, so if the people from that place are downloading it, should it be accounted to lose ? Well, they can not buy it too anyways.

[idl12]

This country doesn't get anime Dvds, only a few old releases from Manga entertainment and Sony can be found and I already have all of them, if all the legal streaming sites were open to this country I would use them, People may hate on Crunchyroll, but they're the only site that has most of it's stuff available in my country, so whatever's available in my country for free there, I'll stream it instead of downloading it, whatever isn't I'll download, I don't really like piracy that much and this is the only reason of justifying it really.

[DrumRoll]

I speak for the majority when I say: BECAUSE I CAN AND ITS FREE SO I DOWNLOAD IT BECAUSE I LIKE FREE, FREE IS SUCH A NICE WORD.

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Besides I half the stuff I watch would never warrant my interest enough to pay the inflated prices of anime in england. I'd probably buy like five anime. So when it comes down to it I'm not costing the industry anything because if I couldn't get it for free I wouldn't get it at all.

One more time...FREE:)

[Koby]

I download Japanese dubs with English fansubs of shows that are just airing because the vast majority will never be licensed and those that are take years to come out. I don't use Crunchyroll because their translators suck, they often use internet slang in their subs or alter the translation, the video quality is terrible, and Crunchyroll never streams correctly for me. Even though I have a 10 MBps connection Crunchyroll still fails to load the video for streaming the majority of the time.

Why do I download English Dub? For the most part I do buy everything I find enjoyable; when I can actually afford it that is. However a lot of the Anime is overpriced when first released and also I simply cannot afford to buy everything. I buy the series when it's cheap enough and I can afford if it I actually liked it after watching. Given prices I want to know if I'd actually like it first. So I download it first. Without downloading I'd probably not have purchased even half of the collection I have.

As far as piracy costing them millions. I think that is a bit of a stretch or perhaps even a big lie. They cannot prove that because 1000 people downloaded one movie that it cost them anything. They cannot prove that those 1000 people didn't go buy the movie after finding out it was good.. Or perhaps everyone simply thought the product was terrible and not worth their money. Actors and Actresses seem to be living it up well with millions of dollars invested in their homes, blowing money all the time, and buying everything they want. You can't tell me these people are not doing well.

[idl12]

I think we all understand very well by now that hollywood is full of crap, I couldn't care less if it really was costing them millions of dollars.

[DrumRoll]

has anyone seen that southpark episode about internet piracy?

It makes a good point.

Because now poor little timmy isn't going to be able to afford his island mediterranean because of internet piracy.

Moral of the story: These people always make money regardless, if piracy is an actual concern for them then their product was too much of a flop anyway.

[† L4ugh]

I use to think the same thing, but then I realized that there are invisible people in this equation that aren't as important or as well paid as the stars, directors, and CEOs. I'm talking about the film crew and other people that work behind the camera. The heads of companies like MGM are always going to make the amount of money they want out of a movie or they won't make it. The stars won't compromise on their price either so it's the support crew that most likely looses out when piracy cuts into the profits. I don't think Hollywood crews get hurt to much by piracy because they are most likely only paid from what comes out of box office sales. Dubbed anime usually doesn't go to the theater though so these companies rely totally on the income from dvd/bluray sales.

I think it's just another way "The Man" sticks it to the little guy. Worst part of all this is that they would probably have plenty of money to suit all needs if they didn't waste so much lobbing the government for unfair laws like the DMCA.

[† Irish]

I download Japanese dubs with English fansubs of shows that are just airing because the vast majority will never be licensed and those that are take years to come out. I don't use Crunchyroll because their translators suck, they often use internet slang in their subs or alter the translation, the video quality is terrible, and Crunchyroll never streams correctly for me. Even though I have a 10 MBps connection Crunchyroll still fails to load the video for streaming the majority of the time.

As far as piracy costing them millions. I think that is a bit of a stretch or perhaps even a big lie. They cannot prove that because 1000 people downloaded one movie that it cost them anything. They cannot prove that those 1000 people didn't go buy the movie after finding out it was good.. Or perhaps everyone simply thought the product was terrible and not worth their money. Actors and Actresses seem to be living it up well with millions of dollars invested in their homes, blowing money all the time, and buying everything they want. You can't tell me these people are not doing well.

QFT

I have nothing else to add to this...

[Bartender]

BECAUSE I CAN AND ITS FREE SO I DOWNLOAD IT BECAUSE I LIKE FREE, FREE IS SUCH A NICE WORD.

+1

and if you feel bad about it then just think how you keep the world clean with DLing stuff rather than buying plastic

[Kamikazi]

same as drumroll in the sense that i almost never buy any anime except a select few at the alarming prices they've reached now. As for music..... i kinda feel bad about dling so much free music, but i only do that with people who have big names and make millions each year. Smaller and lesser known artists i try to buy... but sometimes i still dont

[Ma5K2]

i never used to buy anime because i had no money, so they werent losing any money from me. Now i have money so i actually buy stuff and i still download stuff. but the prices on most are a little high like others are saying but really they are not too bad. if you look at the HBO shows or any television shows on dvd, the prices are similar, if not higher. but i still only buy when they are cheaper on amazon.

[seirachan]

Yar Har I am a pirate!

In a way I feel we shouldn't have to pay for a lot of things or at least not have to pay $80 for a god damned game I might get bored of. The government getting mad at people for piracy are just money hungry dickheads. But I still buy some things I believe are wroth it. I also praise who ever hacked into Sony Playstations Network. I believe he didn't do anything with the information he took was just proving a point. I don't believe we shouldn't have to pay for anything aired on TV but still get bonus's if we do buy it. I try to gain collections of my favorite TV shows and movies just for the sake of having them and the quality they have on DVD compared to all of the pirated stuff. I still buy games I like as well if I feel they did well enough to deserve my cash.

[† Mute point]

I came here, not for the anime downloads, but because of a friend I met on a game who directed me here.

As for software piracy and other related issues. I tend to go with the law in most cases, and buy the things I like, but I will never buy without trying whatever I'm paying for first, and if that's a problem, then the lawmakers can suck it. I'm not wasting money on something I might hate.

[Sebastian]

I have also though of this problem BUT I think that it helps you find whats good and if you have the money and you liked it you might buy it, I think it helps anime companies sometimes.

[Diablo]

I do download pirated stuff and I agree I came on kametsu to download that kinda stuff. But I do have my reason to do that.

I live in a developing country where people have extremely low income. A normal non-IT person earns somewhere between 10-15K and a normal movie DVD costs nearly 400-500 Rs which is nearly a 5% of a total income of a person, so buying an original DVDs is more of a rich persons thing.

In my country anime movies are never released in the theaters nor are any DVDs released, you can forget about Anime series. There are people who haven't even heard about anime. Last year itself I realized the popularity of Anime and got hung to it. Here animated movies are categorized as "just for kids stuff" or "Cartoons". So only movies that are released here are the movies like "Cars", "Kung Fu Panda" or other kiddie movies from Disney or Dreamworks which I'm not a little bit interested.

[RikuoAmero]

Yar Har I am a pirate!

In a way I feel we shouldn't have to pay for a lot of things or at least not have to pay $80 for a god damned game I might get bored of. The government getting mad at people for piracy are just money hungry dickheads. But I still buy some things I believe are wroth it. I also praise who ever hacked into Sony Playstations Network. I believe he didn't do anything with the information he took was just proving a point. I don't believe we shouldn't have to pay for anything aired on TV but still get bonus's if we do buy it. I try to gain collections of my favorite TV shows and movies just for the sake of having them and the quality they have on DVD compared to all of the pirated stuff. I still buy games I like as well if I feel they did well enough to deserve my cash.

Have to disagree with you there about the PSN hack. If it was to simply make a point, why do something that would disrupt service for the gamers all around the world? Or steal credit card information? Yes, Sony are in the wrong for having a weak security system in the first place, but still...

As for me here are my reasons

1) It's simple 1's and 0's. That are by "nature" free to reproduce.

2) 99% of the stuff I do download, I later find out I wouldn't pay for anyway.

3) When I do see something good, I do pay for it. Just got a (second-hand) PS3 and I went out and paid for a bunch of new games.

4) If I could easily hack my PS3 or Xbox, I would, so I could download games. But...I don't want to lose online capability, plus it's a bit too difficult for me. If I ever get my hands on a spare console and computer, I would risk it.

5) In the case of Blu-ray movies, I prefer to download them, rather than have to bother with the Blu-ray DRM. I bought a Blu-ray drive for my computer, I used a HDMI cable and a 1080p monitor, but I was told I have to buy the software media player too! (The program that came with the drive was out-of-date and demanded a not-free update, to play the latest movies).

However, in some cases, I do pay. For example, I have paid for 37 Steam games, only 6 of which I had gotten on disc. I do have some negative opinions about Steam, but on the whole, its worth paying for.

Anime, in my opinion, is just too over-priced for me to bother paying for. I've paid for Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, and Zone of the Enders, plus one or two others I can't really be bothered remembering. Evangelion was €230 altogether! So, I learned from my mistake there. Don't pay when you can get it for free.

[TheAlterUser]

Okay, well . . . I don't consider Piracy "illegal". Movies for instance. I've never ONCE seen a movie that says "If you download this movie and make tributes to show your love for it, you'll get sent to jail." or even "If you download this movie and give it to friends for them to make videos and spread your love for it, you'll get sent to jail." Last time I checked, it said "If you download this movie and sell it, you'll have a fine AND get 5 years in prison." You see, I download movies to make tributes. And I don't even download live action movies, honestly. Not to mention that the movies I would end up downloading . . . I'VE ALREADY SEEN AND ACTUALLY OWN!!

Not to mention that I agree with seirachan. I pretty much only buy stuff that I feel is worth it. Although, I don't download games "illegally". I only download free games that is meant to be for the PC. I do download video game cutscenes, though. But once again . . . it's to make tributes as well as fanfics. Do I download TV Shows? Not really. Never really wanted to work with TV Shows that much. Now if it's an Asian Drama, maybe. Just maybe. But I mainly just download anime, cartoons, and video game cutscenes over the internet. Whether if it's to watch them, make tributes, or even make fanfics.

And as most people have mentioned, most of the time . . . you can't even find anime out on DVDs. You have to like . . . order them off the internet if you're LUCKY enough to find it on the internet.