Effects of Fansubbers & Pirates on Anime's Future

Even though anime distributors are starting to work at releasing subtitled versions of anime episodes in a digital format within hours of the episode’s original Japanese broadcast, issues with fansubbers and piracy still remain. There are fansubbers who will grab episodes from file sharing sites, putting their own subtitles on them, and distributing their own fansub on file sharing sites.

FUNimation has been working at trying to make subtitles episodes available on their website within an hour of the Japanese broadcast. FUNimation has tried doing this with three titles: One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~. FUNimation was planning to do the first simulcast of One Piece on May 30, 2009. However, someone managed to get the episode off of FUNimation’s server and post it to file sharing services before the episode had been officially made available to the public. Because of this piracy, FUNimation canceled the simulcast, and the company did not know when the simulcast would become available again.

I applaud FUNimation, as well as other companies, for wanting to bring legal copies of subtitled episodes to the North American market in a quick manner through digital streaming. However, piracy and non-authorized fansubs could end up stifling these efforts. If the original Japanese companies decide there’s too much of a risk of the work being stolen, then they may not give American anime distributors the right to make these simulcasts available.

I believe that anime’s future lies in the internet, and that digital distribution will end up becoming a primary source for anime to reach North America. However, acts such as the One Piece episode being found on FUNimation’s server, downloaded, and then redistributed hurt the potential for internet distribution. Not only that, but it could ultimately have a “chilling effect” on anime being licensed to the North American market. If these acts of piracy continue, the Japanese companies could decide that North American fans will work at acquiring anime at any cost, and not caring whether or not the acquisitions are illegal and hurt the copyright owners. And if the Japanese companies end up coming to that conclusion, what incentive would the companies really have to continue making their product available in markets other than Japan?

As of this writing, the digital distribution and simulcast of anime is still in its infancy. I hope that, over time, ways can be found to make the online files more secure and harder for internet users to steal. I also hope that fansubbers can start opening their eyes to the reality that the need for fansubs really doesn’t exist anymore. This isn’t like the 1980’s, where anime wasn’t readily available in the North America, and fans imported, translated, and distributed tapes to expose others in this country to programs they wouldn’t otherwise see. With some of the North American distributors trying to make anime more readily available in a more prompt manner through the internet, there just isn’t nearly as much of a need for fansubbers as there used to be. I really hope that the actions of a few don’t contribute to ruining the future of the North American anime industry.