I was reading (again, trying futilely to catch up) my RSS feeds when I came across a Bits Debate on the topic of copyright and technology, the first in the weekly series.

The arguments from both sides, while valid at times, seem a bit vague and general. Maybe just warming up for the first day? In any case, the comments are what's really worth reading and provide much insights for both parties, especially the nay side. I haven't the time to go through all of them, but the ones I've read so far spurred me to write a little on this matter myself.

Granted, I am no business major nor am I expert in law and history and whatever may be affected by the issue. I can only offer my meagre two cents based on my experience and practice as a consumer/end user, within the confines of anime (video), music, software, and touching a bit on books. Seeing how I tend to rant on and on, I'll break this into several posts over the next few days, each pertaining to one category.

[Anime (Video)]

Living far away from the land of the rising sun and its yam-shaped island neighbour, anime-related stuff are hard to come by. Even when they do, they're usually charged for a premium. Quite a few of my friends know that I watch anime and fewer still share similar interests (eg. Japanese/Taiwanese/Korean drama and Tokusatsu). As a result, I can't rely on friends for anime support and have to buy them myself.

With the wide range of anime genre and the sheer number of titles, picking out ones I'd like while not emptying my bank account is no easy feat. Due to the high price tag for anime DVDs, I generally only shell out for the sure bets. Nine out of ten times, the sure bets are series that I've already seen. The odd deviations so far are G Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Char's Counterattack. Yeah, they're all from the Gundam family. Go figure, eh?

So how do I get to watch a series before the DVD purchase? Fan subs. I can't speak for the other people, but my anime DVD collection has grown from nil to close to a hundred ever since I started watching fan subs. Sure, YTV's been showing a few anime these past few years, but those offerings, with the sole exception of Gundam Wing and Fullmetal Alchemist, haven't been successful in keeping me in front of the TV at all. I couldn't really stand the English voice acting for a lot of the other series, and I stopped watching all together after the 1st re-run of Bleach about a dozen or so episodes in. I much prefer my anime in Japanese.

As far as I know, all North American anime DVD releases have to have the English audio track. I imagine that's included in the price tag and thus the reason of them being more expensive than their Taiwanese counterpart, which only has the Japanese audio track. If it wasn't for the region code issue, I'd import a whole bunch of them from Taiwan. Not to mention that there's way more choices and stock over there.

With the high cost and less than scarce availability of anime titles (I'm still bitter that Geneon ceased distributing Fafner in the local retail stores here without ever releasing all the volumes), I'm not spending my hard earned cash blindly. Because of fan subs, I know what I'm getting when I put down the money for my anime purchases, and I'd happily and readily contribute to the North American anime industry. Because of fan subs, I absolutely refuse to buy bootleg anime DVDs, no matter how cheap or how fast they can come out, and I strongly encourage my friends to only buy legitimate discs. While it's not exactly legal to download and watch fan subs, it makes no sense to help fatten the pocket of bootleggers if you're going to pay.

Fan subbing has done wonders in North America for the anime industry in general. Not only does it help drive DVD sales and related products like model kits, figurines, and accessories, it's also free and viral marketing. Neko-kun mentioned in a blog post that during an anime convention panel session, the seiyuu Yukana was asked by someone from the audience about the future development of Code Geass. The question greatly surprised her since the series is not released in North America yet. I can bet you, though, that a lot more fan sub watchers will buy the DVDs when they come out than people whose only source of anime is Cartoon Network (US) or YTV (Canada).

My bottom line for anime (video) is this: I watch fan subs, and I buy the DVDs if I like the series. I'm not buying it if I don't know whether I'll like it or not, because anime DVDs are expensive, much more so than movie DVDs. And bootleg is a definite no-no. In the North American setting where anime is niche market and far from being mainstream for the near future, fan subs actually help the industry and contribute greatly in terms of customers, sales, marketing, and overall anime evangelism. Fan subs downloaded are not lost sales.