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In an about face from the usual reporting we do on anti-piracy lobby groups, BRIEN, a Dutch organisation is being sued by the Free Subtitles Foundation, a group that creates fan-made subtitles for movies. Its claim, is that what it does is protected by freedom of speech and it wants to stop anti-piracy groups from going after it by setting a precedent in court.
BRIEN is a lobby group that has had its fair share of legal tussles over copyright law breaches online. It's also one of the few lobby groups that has lost a few times too, with Dutch ISP Ziggo famously undoing a block order after defeating BRIEN in court.
While an ISP has much more resources to throw at the lawyer money vacuum, the Free Subtitles Foundation isn't exactly devoid of funds. Over the past two years it's raised nearly 15,000 Euros (£11,300) to help fight its case, in the hopes that it can stop BRIEN from going after subtitles groups in the future. In the past, it's done just that, despite them being mainly used for unavailable foreign translations, or for the hearing impaired.
Translating half the crazy in your average anime is worthy of praise in itself. Source: jsks/Pixabay
BRIEN is expected to receive its court summons in the next week or so, though its position on the matter is already known. Fansubbers has (as per TorrentFreak) contacted the lobby group in the past, but was told that it believes large scale subtitle distribution can do great damage to the industry.
It's way of thinking is that unlicensed subtitles allow people to watch foreign language films from other territories, even if the film has yet to be released in their country.
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KitGuru Says: The solutions for these sorts of issues are just bizarre. Instead of accepting that people want to watch the content in those countries at the same time as everyone else, they try and block subtitles. Just do worldwide releases and all of these legal headaches go away for good.
I’m all for an international release straight from japan (the case was focusing mainly over fansubbed Japanese anime), like you can see more and more (One Punch Man, Gundam Origin, etc.).
But, translations unauthorized by the legal rights owner, even if not in your country, is prohinited by law (related to copyright).
BRIEN might not have to right to stop fansub if they don’t represent the legal rights owner, but that doesn’t make the translation legal either.
It is btw. BREIN and not BRIEN.
I, as a fansubber, make no bones about stating that my output is technically piracy. But I don’t make a point of fansubbing stuff I think has a chance for a legitimate release in the US market, so there’s no competition with legitimate releases.
And even if the series you worked on eventually get released, I suppose you won’t attack the publisher.
Correct; most of the time the translations of official subs are superior in most regards to our work (*I* think at least) and I WANT people to support the official product.
I have reason to believe that one of my favorite shows tanked here because one of the major fansub groups working on it spread false rumors about the DVD release in order to hurt the sales. When another company picked up current episodes for streaming (still leaving an over 600 episode gap between where the old company left off and the new one picked up, so there’s still a valid reason for fansubs to exist) we made sure that would not happen again.
I would disagree it’s technically piracy. I think free speech is right. You’re translating heard words (or even text? There’s no difference) into another language. I don’t see the copyright claim there. Official publishers can still sell their own DVD with official sub’s. You haven’t deprived them off that right.
The copyright holder has the exclusive right to make or procure translations (at least under US law). Therefore a fan translation is technically piracy. However, I believe that the benefit to the populace at large outweighs its illegality.
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Oh, I know. I think we agree. It is technically, but totally shouldn’t be, piracy.
I’m extremely grateful to the fansubbers who go out of their way to explain things that would have otherwise gone over my head. Sometimes a whole episode or plot point can be based on a single pun or cultural reference, so it’s nice when someone points these out. Sometimes I even end spending hours engrossed in additional research on a topic, which is cool.
Official fansubbers almost never give the level of detail fansubbers do, so my thanks to your kind.