----- Original Message -----
> From: <section9@bellsouth.net>

> Rare is
> the otaku who will allow ethics to get in the way of seeing a two episode
fansub
> of Rurouni Kenshin

There's ethics, and then there's the situation imposed on us by our love for
what is at best a niche market.

I suspect that the situation would be quite different if, on this side of the
pacific, we had a good chance of getting a popular anime within 6 months to a
year of day and date with when it airs in Japan.

Or perhaps when the rare anime that DOES get shown in its original medium
(i.e., television) isn't butchered and bastardized like Sailor Moon has been
and Card Captor Sakura promises to be.

Or just when something like Kodomo no Omocha doesn't require petitions to get
licensed in America years after its original airing.

Hell, I'm STILL waiting to see a decent legal version of 3x3 Eyes, 6 or 7
years after I first saw the show.  Thankfully it has recently been announced
(like within the last month).


Tell me it's unethical to distribute fansubs of Rurouni Kenshin once there is
a legal means of seeing the show in an equivalent format, and I'll agree.  No,
reading printed scripts doesn't count, since translation scripts don't count
as equivalent, and are legally iffy now that the show is licensed; just
remember what happened to fan translations of the OMG Manga once Dark
Horse/Studio Proteus got wind of them.

Perhaps it is unethical, but let he who is without sin cast the first stone,
and all that.  There are damn few companies with purer motives than the vast
majority of fansub-watching otaku (who, when you get down to it, really just
want to watch the shows they love), so I really can't feel all that sorry for
them.

Talk to me about ethics when things like Region Coding don't get forced into
video games and/or the DVD spec so that companies can artificially divide up
the world into little pocket markets, thereby limiting the free-market
competition that would naturally help level the playing field for people on
both sides of the Pacific.)**

Perhaps it really hurts the original creators, who I would be far more
inclined to sympathize with, but I seriously doubt it.  Healthy corporate
profit margins undoubtedly make the real impact from fansubbers a mere drop in
the bucket.

(As you can probably tell, this is something of a sore point for me, so don't
take my rant personally.  I would probably agree with you if the situation
were better here.  It is improving, but it ain't there yet.)


- Gregor  vorlon#iglou.com
http://anime.at/gregordyne
Anime, Amber, 3d, Mage, Eidolon, Miscellany

** The author is not an economist, and does not play one on TV.