DJ scratch-n-sniff wrote:
I was'nt being cocky I was only stateing facts. I'm not a bad guy I don't know why you keep acting like I am.
Please see dokool's post at the top of this page; your quoted comments and his reactions to them. It's reasonable to be disappointed when someone tells you "your plans will not work for these basic reasons", but not to just keep lashing and lashing out. You've presented yourself not only as someone who doesn't care about other people, or the law, but also someone who does not care about breaking the law in a way that may affect people here.
Smarts and cluefulness do not travel hand in hand; I've seen a fair number of smart people destroy themselves or get stuck in dead-end situations because they got into something that they didn't think through enough, or someone pulled a fast one on them at some point. You may be intelligent, but do you know enough about the situations you're heading for to keep from hurting yourself?
Your facts strike me as solidly the products of someone who has never had to wait out a staute of limitations, and who has never even considered the possibility that someone will roll over on them. And your ideas on "free hosting from friends who own their own servers and businesses" should have already led you to to consider this. If you attempt to do illegal stuff on their space and bandwidth, and the law finds out, they will roll on you like a SUV on a hairpin curve. They will cop a nominal fine and continue doing business, and you will get whacked with the big fine or time in jail. And the only way for you to try and avoid that would be to roll on this site and its massive IP violations -- and while the chance of someone accepting that as a plea-bargain is slim, it is still extant, and that is why people are trying to talk you out of this.
If you really want to build a legitimate licensing business, do the following:
* start with manga. There are a lot of undiscovered gems out there in Japan, and while the market is getting crowded, the license fees are still typically lower and the barriers to entry are not as high.
* build locally. Your first releases may have to be sold on commission at your local game shop or from a table on the con circuit, but you should still do this. Once you establish sales on this level, you will have a better chance of getting shelf space for real, and once you can establish shelf space sales, you have a better chance of drawing distributor attention and getting your product exposure elsewhere.
* do hentai. Nobody ever lost money on pornography. This is a fact. Look at ADV's early releases, and the ratio of normal titles to ecchi/hentai, and look at the ratio now; it's possible to transition away, but it is *the* way to accumulate startup cash and probably the least expensive way to break into the anime market.
* act like an indie label. This means signing what you have the money for, no matter what it is, working fanatically on every aspect of promotion, being really anal about translation and presentation quality, and accepting the realization that you are probably not going to get rich, and even if you do it's going to take a long while.
Once you're established and have good licensor relationships, then you can start thinking about streaming episodes of stuff in your catalog for micropayments, offering one-ep preview downloads, or working out licensing arrangements with the original creators and the pertinent record labels to allow you to present AMVs based on stuff you hold the license to. It is not easy, but you're still young enough to double-major in business and Japanese in college and spend your free time reading up on IP law, so a ten-year plan might very well have you where you want to be.
Could you still set up a fansub-and-AMV paysite tomorrow and start raking it in from the gullible? Sure, but is it worth the risk of prosecution, and the feeling every time that you look at the server admin who used to be your friend, thinking "does he still like me enough to not roll over on me if the cops come knocking"?
hth,
--K
You guys are so mean. First off I would like to say that alot of what everyone has to makes sense. I know nothing about the real world. As a matter of fact if my mother kicked me out I wouldn't know what to do. But there are alot of things I failed to mention and flameing me will only result in me flaming back and or a something much worse. I respect what you guys have to say and your right for the most part Im,as you stated,a pup. But I know my way around the net and can do pretty much whatever I want (meaning encodeing graphics shit like that). I know I stand no chance in the real world right now I have no license, no car, no job, and no clue. But I will get there in time pretty much when I'm ready. I don't want to cause trouble here I like this site. But I have my opinions and ways of thinking and doing things. I have nothing against any of you and I won't until you give me reason to. I will admit I use torrents but it's only cause I cant afford to buy the anime, I dont have access to any anime stores, I cant buy anything off the internet, so I do what I have to. I realize my dreams are very big and mabye impossable for me but I have confidence, or atleast I did until I got yelled at by you guys, that my plan could work. Sorry if I upset anyone with my rude but honest opinion. 
and as far as The financing, budgeting, and the dodging of the law not working for a 17 year old and me being able to do Calculus, build a database using SQL or Oracle, set-up a network on 100 Mbps cables using hubs, routers I would like to know who said I couldn't Inance and budgeting is no problem it goes along with why dodging the law would not work. It's not as much in what you know as it is who you know. Before you say Im being cocky I'm really not I can get free hosting from friends who own there own servers and buisnesses. Dodgeing the law peice of cake, regardless of what you think speakign from experience there are ways to get away with it and even if you get cought there are still ways to keep yourself from getting charged. I dont know calculcus but everything else I can do, pretty much.
