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Japan starts crack down on fansubs and scanlations Tue, 9 Oct 2007

With the continuing saturation of Japanese pop culture across the internet being largely based on illegal distribution, it appears that Japanese officials are finally starting to take a firmer stance on unauthorized reproduction of their digital works (and essentially, anime and manga).

  • First up is news that Japan's government is tightening laws on the downloading of copyrighted media. As the country's rules stand now, it's actually perfectly legal to download something as long as it's intended for "private use" (though uploading is against the law).
  • A couple of days later, it emerged that Gonzo (via FUNimation) had requested that anime fan-subbing group Shinsen-Subs cease translating and distributing subtitled copies of their as-yet unlicensed anime TV series Romeo X Juliet; marking one of the first times that a Japanese company, rather than a US DVD distributor, has made an effort to stand against fansubs. FUNimation say that "Japanese producers are highly motivated to stop unauthorized distribution" and "there will be a strong trend toward these types of anti-infringement actions being taken more regularly".
  • Finally, MangaNovel and Toshiba have joined forces to combat manga scanlations (scanned copies of comic pages distributed via the internet for free) by offering a legal source for online manga downloads. Not only will manga fans be able to download "raw" Japanese manga, but create their own translations and sell them online via MangaNovel, effectively offering a rapid translation service to manga fans eager to get their fix of new Japanese manga without having to wait around for a domestic release.
Related: GONZO
Reported by Paul — Comments: 56

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