This is how companies should respond to piracy

This was something I had glanced upon while revisiting some websites for old times sake, and thought it was interesting.

Some background: DB is a site that releases, through torrents, subtitled versions of various kinds of anime (yes, I used to watch Naruto, shut the fuck up). They do this for various reasons: while one is that some don't particularly like the English dubbed voices, the primary reason is that American releases are at times hundreds of episodes behind their Japanese counterparts (or don't exist at all).

As I looked at the site, I noticed that they had stopped subbing Naruto, and read this post, http://dattebayo.com/pr/100 which said:

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When I spoke at Otakon this past summer, I talked about the steps that anime companies needed to take to compete with fansubs. I said how it would have to be available just as fast, and free.

And though I don't dare take credit for it, that's now happening. Viz, the US licensor of Naruto, will be offering streaming viewing of Naruto for free a week after it airs in Japan.

For some small fee, you can pay to see it the same day it airs in Japan over at Crunchyroll starting in January.

Why did Dattebayo start subbing Naruto? Because we loved it, and because we felt the fans deserved to see a good-quality subtitled version promptly after the Japanese release. And come January, you can do that legally for a small fee, or for free after a week. Viz's subtitling work on the show is respectable, though a little stiff. And sure, it's not the same having a nice AVI that you can watch on your TV or whatnot, but its going to have to do.

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This is exactly the kind of response that many users that turn to piracy are looking for. Not scare tactics, not punishing users, and not charging exorbitant fees, but something very simple: flexibility. Yet many companies fail to see this.

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If we continued to sub Naruto, it would be a direct affront to Viz, a company that, for the most part, has been pretty amazing to us as fans. Sure, you can say that their dub sucks, or whatever other axe you have to grind, but never once did they ask us to stop subbing Naruto or Bleach, something that is well within their rights and power to do. We have episodes that have gotten almost a million downloads. We've had episodes that have gotten more downloads in their their first 24 hours than they had viewers when they showed on Cartoon Network.

I've often asked people I know in the anime industry why they think Viz never asked us to stop, and they say, "Well, Viz isn't really into the whole C&D thing, they just don't do that." That may be true to some extent, but I've always liked to think it was because we had a silent symbiotic relationship. We only did things that helped the popularity of their shows, and they turned a blind eye to us.

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And again, they raise a good point: while they weren't exactly release groups sticking their ass up to the man, they weren't exactly harmless either. The Naruto licensers have every right to force a cease and desist through intimidation tactics, but they realized that wasn't the right way to go. And more importantly, they perhaps realized that efforts such as this only served to help them and further their publicity, not as other tunnel visioned producers seemed to have so vehemently believed in the malignant nature of torrenting.

And as of such, the fansubbers grew to respect the licensing companies. And when they began to provide a reasonable alternative, DB respectfully stood down. It is possible to reasonably cooperate with piracy, and it does not come from alienating customers with scare tactics.

So here's a lesson the perhaps the next company to produce an AC2 like DRM or scare off the next customer with an infringing letter from BayTSP: this is not the way to go. Just look at movies like Ink that blew up through BT. Learn to listen to your customers, and maybe even embrace BT. And even if you don't, provide reasonable alternatives such as what Viz did. You'll win over new customers in the process, and heck, probably even reduce piracy. It's a win-win situation for all of us.

Nice post, Rart! The problem here is that the Industries have never had to cooperate with, or even tolerate customers, musicians, (for the most part) actors, or anyone else. They have had absolute control over who got famous, what was played on the radio, how products were packaged (usually one, or two decent songs on an entire album), when, and where these items could be used.

Technology has made these middlemen obsolete. All of these lawsuits and threats, DRM, C&D letters, etc. are efforts to return to the glory days when consumers were sheep. This is a war over digital rights, and the general public doesn't know what is truly at stake. If the content and freedoms that the well-connected file-sharers have became common knowledge, the Industries would have no chance of taking that away. They are using every tactic available (mostly threats and intimidation) in an attempt to keep that from happening.

Dattebayo has one of the most mature staff and best quality in town.
The post shows what the companies should realise.The key word is "flexibility".Its about time the bussiness system is remodeled.But until the companies get the fact the hard way,there is no way they are gonna change.They keep doing what they do the best and we keep doing what we do the best.:D

Well said megabyteme, I agree

Big company are tend to be careless. Unless they broke or released a product that fall like a landslide. Because they have one purpose : to control and capitalize you as a customer.

They thought that they didn't need any new approach anymore. "Just use old ways, because it's still making profit".

Two cents