Download Legal Anime

[x_rex30]

When I watch a lot of fansubs I end up buying them on DVD when they come out. I don't want to pay for both!

[EmilLang1000]

Something has been bugging me, though... aren't you able to download and record movies and TV shows using TiVo? I don't remember exactly what it can do, but I remember thinking, "HOW THE #$% CAN THEY DO THAT!!! THAT'S BLATENTLY ILLEGAL!!!!" Really, the only difference between downloading anime off of ______ and using TiVo for the exact same thing (I guess because you're paying for TiVo... but you can make the argument that you're paying the same amount for your Cable connection to do the exact same thing - but that way you CAN be arrested). The American legal system is really screwed up.

[Solaria735]

My best guess about the TiVo thing is that it's allowable for personal use. It's the same principle as popping a tape into your VCR to record a show, for your personal home viewing.

Where it becomes illegal, I believe, is when you distribute the recorded program to other people, in any form.

[bum]

Why would you want crappy compressed online subtitled video for money when you could just get DVDs for money instead?

Fail.

You do not know how crappy they will look. And if you want to try an anime to see what it is like, this is good for that. This could be a good thing, but we will have to wait and find out.

DVD quality audio and video, multiple audio and subtitles, fancy extras, plus the physical box and case. Even without mentioning AMV related aspects, they'd have to be selling for $2 an eppisode at most before they start to sound like decent value.

Then off cource their's allways BT which is free, exactly the same content and you're as likely to get sued using it as you're likely to get arested for selling marijuana openly in denmark.

[EmilLang1000]

BT... is free, exactly the same content and you're as likely to get sued using it as you're likely to get arested for selling marijuana openly in denmark.

[SpringBoy]

For all the people talking about the superior quality of DVDs - we're talking about ANIME here. Go watch another DVD, the quality of MPEG2 compresion for cartoons is far worse than equivelent MPEG4 or AVC (especially the latter). I imagine these would be compressed with DivX6, NeroDigital or the like so quality would not be the primary issue.

Personally, I doubt I'd pay for them. Fansubbers often put out fantastic releases so I'd wait a day or two to get those for free instead of paying a couple dollars every week for every show I watch.

And then buy the DVDs when the actually get released here.

[Lyviathon]

Interesting... I will look into this.

[Unpronounceable_Symbol]

If they wanted to recoup a roughly equivalent amount by download as they do by DVD, wouldn't we be looking at $5-10 per episode? If people are willing to pay $1 for an mp3, there must be someone willing to pay for an .avi.

Though it might not be a bad idea to just get the first two or three episodes of a series, then decide if you like it enough to buy the series. That's if (or when) the hammer comes down on fansubbers.

And I wonder if fansubbers could be included in the process somewhere? For example, if a group made a fansub and submitted it to the show's production staff for final "proofreading" and release. Of course, it's illegal to download the raws to do this in the first place, so it would still slow down the fansub train considerably, and that's not including the Japanese studios' turnaround time, which would probably be extremely slow and necessarily complicate licensing deals for US distribution.

[BasharOfTheAges]

My best guess about the TiVo thing is that it's allowable for personal use. It's the same principle as popping a tape into your VCR to record a show, for your personal home viewing.

Where it becomes illegal, I believe, is when you distribute the recorded program to other people, in any form.

That's exactly why RIAA and MPAA can only get you for uploading. There was an artcle in Newsweek a while back that essentially stated that if all uploading was done in other countries where U.S. companies had no legal rights, and the governments had no reasons to grant them those rights (Korea was the example they used, but any country that has more important issues to deal with works fine too) then nobody would get in trouble for piriting anything.