the adventures of teapot the cat

Anime Fansubbing & P2P .. or .. Automate Downloads with Azureus and RSS Feeds

Posted on July 5th, 2006

The BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog has a tutorial on How to: Automate Anime Downloads with Azureus and RSS Feeds. This is a pretty nifty way to get your Daily Recommended Dose of Fresh Squeezed Anime without having to check on new torrents (though the true Anime nuts will check daily anyway!).

I think it’s quite interesting how the Japanese Anime industry has not caused a fuss about the whole p2p paradigm and the efforts of fans (perhaps as part of their marketing strategy?). Until anime series are officially released in the USA, the overseas studios seem OK with groups of fans translating the shows, fansubbing them, and releasing through p2p (Usually BitTorrent) Once the shows are released in the US, the fansub groups cease distribution of the titles - the subs themselves often include a statement to this effect also. Of course, this is all probably far from legal. There has been one US company that sent cease and desist letters to fansub groups. And anyway, torrents don’t usually survive until a title is released - that specific p2p delivery depends greatly on the link have a heavy activity. I have watched some great series through seeing fansubbed versions, and then bought the box sets. Though i can understand misgivings by studio execs worried about loss of revenue … It’s a fascinating case that I think only serves to increase the popularity of anime, and must certainly drive up the revenue of the merchandises… An would totally love to read an in-depth piece done on this topic, with proper investigation and interviews with the heads of Japanese and US companies.

Entry Filed under: Japan, SciTech