1337 BitTorrent Users Sued

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Oh come on! 1337? Really? Do they seriously want us to believe that suing 1337 people wasn't intentional? Heh, I guess it is kinda funny though, even more so if that number was truly unintentional. ;)

Piracy worries and BitTorrent lawsuits have made their way into the generally very liberal anime industry. Last week, the producers of the new anime series Fractale told distributor Funimation to stop the online broadcast of the their show in the United States over piracy concerns, and a few days later Funimation announced a lawsuit against 1337 alleged BitTorrent downloaders.
Click to expand...
 
They're being sued for downloading Episode 481 of a series I've never heard of but that the pirates are probably hooked on. Sounds like a good plan to screw your addicts while advertising your product... if it weren't completely backfiring, anyway.
 
Wow. Considering the only way these anime find any mass appeal in the US is by grey area fansubbing and torrent distribution makes it kinda a shot in their own foot if they ever want to make money over here, no?
 
Two questions:

Is it illegal to download a tv show from bittorrent when you pay the cable company and could have easily recorded it wen you werent there, and when that tv show is probably on netflix for steaming?

Do you feel feel you're doing something illegal when you download a tv show from bittorrent when you pay the cable company and could have easily recorded it wen you werent there, and when that tv show is probably on netflix for steaming?

A technical and opinion based question.

Personally....

1. i dont really know
2. nope.
 
Oh come on. They're suing the only people that would watch that crap anyway. Way to go.
 
Its technicaly not at the fault of the downloaders, more of the fan subbers, but if its being officially subbed by a company for release then its wrong to release. Most of the blame goes to the subbing community, not the downloaders.

Also it is wrong even if you are paying the cable company, the shows generate revinue from the commercials watched, on these there are no commercials, nor any way to track the amount of views the commercials are getting.
 
Actually... One Piece has a huge following..... I'm not one of them, but almost anyone I talk to that likes anime, likes that anime.
 
Trimlock said:
Its technicaly not at the fault of the downloaders, more of the fan subbers, but if its being officially subbed by a company for release then its wrong to release. Most of the blame goes to the subbing community, not the downloaders.

Also it is wrong even if you are paying the cable company, the shows generate revinue from the commercials watched, on these there are no commercials, nor any way to track the amount of views the commercials are getting.
Click to expand...

yea but in most cases fan subs are superior to the subs release by the company. Some of those I'm thinking they hired 5 year olds to translate that shit.
 
Definitely intentional. The odds of it not being are "more than being struck by lightning"

Good though, now each of the individual 1337 losers who stole/watch the anime will have to walk up stairs to the 1st floor of their house and beg their 60+ year old mom to pay another bill of his this month.....nobody over 16 should be collecting anime, its like seeing a 8 year old whom watches Barney the dinosaur in terms of patheticness.
 
pothb said:
Actually... One Piece has a huge following..... I'm not one of them, but almost anyone I talk to that likes anime, likes that anime.
Click to expand...

Its a good show.

Anywho. I figured it would be one piece. Sounds like a publicity stunt to me.
 
One Piece really didn't do much for me either, I know its popular but so was Pokemon.
 
Dylan80 said:
Definitely intentional. The odds of it not being are "more than being struck by lightning"

Good though, now each of the individual 1337 losers who stole/watch the anime will have to walk up stairs to the 1st floor of their house and beg their 60+ year old mom to pay another bill of his this month.....nobody over 16 should be collecting anime, its like seeing a 8 year old whom watches Barney the dinosaur in terms of patheticness.
Click to expand...

A bit narrow minded no? Anime is generally derived from Manga. Manga are basically Japanese comic books. So any comic book adaptation would fall under your same classification of people who watch them, are losers?
 
funkydmunky said:
Feeling a bit tardish. What the hell is the 1337 reference?
Click to expand...

1337 = l33t = leet = elite.

I wonder if the defense would have any grounds to strengthen their case based on the 1337 number? Something along the lines of the them arbitrarily suing these 1337 people rather than the full number of people they know are pirating their product.
 
They could ask each of those 1337 people for 1337 dollars... just in case they didn't realize they were part of that number of people or didn't get the "joke"... ok, maybe that would be silly.

But seriously, how much are these folks gonna pay for one measly episode?
 
funkydmunky said:
Feeling a bit tardish. What the hell is the 1337 reference?
Click to expand...

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is an alternative alphabet for the English language that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. For example, leet spellings of the word leet include 1337 and l33t; eleet may be spelled 31337 or 3l33t.

The term leet is derived from the word elite. The leet alphabet is a specialized form of symbolic writing. Leet may also be considered a substitution cipher, although many dialects or linguistic varieties exist in different online communities. The term leet is also used as an adjective to describe formidable prowess or accomplishment, especially in the fields of online gaming and in its original usage, computer hacking.
Click to expand...
 
Dylan80 said:
Definitely intentional. The odds of it not being are "more than being struck by lightning"

Good though, now each of the individual 1337 losers who stole/watch the anime will have to walk up stairs to the 1st floor of their house and beg their 60+ year old mom to pay another bill of his this month.....nobody over 16 should be collecting anime, its like seeing a 8 year old whom watches Barney the dinosaur in terms of patheticness.
Click to expand...

are you just trolling for comments? By your basis anyone who likes Batman is a loser who lives in their parent's basement. All anime isn't like pokemon dontcha know.
 
SilverSliver said:
Wow. Considering the only way these anime find any mass appeal in the US is by grey area fansubbing and torrent distribution makes it kinda a shot in their own foot if they ever want to make money over here, no?
Click to expand...

Not really, One Peice does air in the USA but it is slower then the japanese releases. Most people turn to the fan subbing area which as already stated is usually BETTER then the "official" release of the episode. Most people in the USA can't wait for the new episodes so they usually go for the free fan-subbed ones. These are usually the same people who hate subbing but since they are so addicted they put up with it anyways.

I honestly doubt this will even put a noticable mark in one-peice, that show is only second to naruto currently.
 
Trimlock said:
Not really, One Peice does air in the USA but it is slower then the japanese releases. Most people turn to the fan subbing area which as already stated is usually BETTER then the "official" release of the episode. Most people in the USA can't wait for the new episodes so they usually go for the free fan-subbed ones. These are usually the same people who hate subbing but since they are so addicted they put up with it anyways.

I honestly doubt this will even put a noticable mark in one-peice, that show is only second to naruto currently.
Click to expand...

Naruto and One Piece represent .001% of the anime available in Japan but represent probably 50% of the anime currently on US TV with another 25% going to Pokemon and another 25% to Dragonball. Whats the biggest appeal that Naruto, One Piece, and Pokemon, Dragonball have in common? Series length (the majority of anime being 6-26 episodes long and not worth the investment, with One Piece being 486 episodes so far, Naruto 166 episodes, Dragonball 291 episodes as of writing)
If it dont make money then it aint worth releasing in the western world. Unfortunately Fractale seems to have become a somewhat popular release with the western world. While the japanese community are annoyed with the extreme differences between the manga and the anime, the western world, a lot of which have never read the manga, seem happy to embrace the changes and have loved the anime.

Seems like a case of. Whoops we fucked over the target audience but somehow hooked a bigger market because of it. The chances of Fractale being release domestically are slim to none anyway.

Mind you, this article has peaked my interest. Gonna pick up the first few episodes and see what the deal is. :p
 
Sooo Fractale started it but then dropped it and put eps online on hulu (guess they realized they were being silly) then funimation the american company wait HEY! we can sue people zomg monies!

Though really guys, really? you guys are going after otakus now? i mean ffs the only reason anime even has such an impact was because of those fan subbers who buster their ass getting that shit out there and you know what? no one gave 2 shits and most companies that produced anime thought it was cool that they had an american following, in fact i'm pretty sure most japanese anime companies (you know the creators) are cool with it, though leave it to the american company to start suing the shit out of everyone *facepalm*

Also my god what are they losing dvd sales or some shit like that? cause we can watch the shit on hulu with a 2week delay and most of the money is made in merchandise, not dvds. All this seems to be doing is a cash grab/ piss people off/ PR.
 
Skirrow said:
Naruto and One Piece represent .001% of the anime available in Japan but represent probably 50% of the anime currently on US TV with another 25% going to Pokemon and another 25% to Dragonball. Whats the biggest appeal that Naruto, One Piece, and Pokemon, Dragonball have in common? Series length (the majority of anime being 6-26 episodes long and not worth the investment, with One Piece being 486 episodes so far, Naruto 166 episodes, Dragonball 291 episodes as of writing)
If it dont make money then it aint worth releasing in the western world. Unfortunately Fractale seems to have become a somewhat popular release with the western world. While the japanese community are annoyed with the extreme differences between the manga and the anime, the western world, a lot of which have never read the manga, seem happy to embrace the changes and have loved the anime.

Seems like a case of. Whoops we fucked over the target audience but somehow hooked a bigger market because of it. The chances of Fractale being release domestically are slim to none anyway.

Mind you, this article has peaked my interest. Gonna pick up the first few episodes and see what the deal is. :p
Click to expand...

Its an 11 episode series BTW, no chance of an american/EU release.
 
Skirrow said:
Naruto and One Piece represent .001% of the anime available in Japan but represent probably 50% of the anime currently on US TV with another 25% going to Pokemon and another 25% to Dragonball. Whats the biggest appeal that Naruto, One Piece, and Pokemon, Dragonball have in common? Series length (the majority of anime being 6-26 episodes long and not worth the investment, with One Piece being 486 episodes so far, Naruto 166 episodes, Dragonball 291 episodes as of writing)
If it dont make money then it aint worth releasing in the western world. Unfortunately Fractale seems to have become a somewhat popular release with the western world. While the japanese community are annoyed with the extreme differences between the manga and the anime, the western world, a lot of which have never read the manga, seem happy to embrace the changes and have loved the anime.

Seems like a case of. Whoops we fucked over the target audience but somehow hooked a bigger market because of it. The chances of Fractale being release domestically are slim to none anyway.

Mind you, this article has peaked my interest. Gonna pick up the first few episodes and see what the deal is. :p
Click to expand...

Not sure if you are argueing with my post or what but I was mainly talking about the US. The episodes represent zero value as you would spend a fortune keeping up with the dvd releases and pull your hair out waiting for them to be released here in America.

Fractale = good
Psyren = good

What do they both have in common? Awesome series but with a lack of ADHD a low responce to the sereies means both are ended soon. Not a bad thing honestly, one of the reasons I love Kenshin is because they ended under 100 episodes, plus the last 45'ish was pure fan created crap, I just end watching the show some where in the 50's and 60's.

thyshallsmite said:
Sooo Fractale started it but then dropped it and put eps online on hulu (guess they realized they were being silly) then funimation the american company wait HEY! we can sue people zomg monies!
Click to expand...

Sadly this is how most fan subbing communities go down, dattebayo was possibly the biggest at one point but was forced to stop producing episodes once people were uploading to youtube. Before the youtube uploads they weren't getting any heat, but with the selfish acts of some of their downloaders to produce a measly few 100 hits...
 
Funimation had to do it intentionally. The whole lawsuit in their eyes is a joke anyways. Its the Japanese side they are licensing from is forcing them to do it. They don't understand Funimation doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell to get anything out of the lawsuit so might as well have fun while being forced to tie up the court system.
 
This really sounds like a way for an underdog series to make some noise. I had to double check my NAS to make sure I hadn't seen this series under another name, but it appears to have fallen under my radar, which doesn't mean it is a bad series, just not one that didn't summon enough Otaku fan boys to forward it to me.

Yes, I have friends in Japan and Taiwan who filter this stuff for me and send me the good stuff. It is sad the great series that Americans miss out on because the studios deem that the series wouldn't transfer markets. Not to bash on the Narutards and Bleach fans, but seriously haven't you guys gotten tired of those series by now?
 
LOL, didn't they watch the other bittorrent movie try to sue the downloaders.

What a mess, they can't prove if you really downloaded it unless they grab your computer. Good luck on all the search warrants.

I know the other big case was dropped after months of BS.
 
Funny Fractale really isn't an under dog series, it is however receiving a lot of flack in Japan for altering the characters from the original art from the light novels. My guess is since Asia is right now really anti-American is to focus on something that is sort of a hot button issue. Don't look for support in the Japanese anime community, they look at Americans as out right thieves, they can pay as much as $90+ for one or two episode, on the other hand each volume of manga costs about $5 (except certain collectors editions) where here we pay $10+ ($13 in case of Negima!, bastards). Ken Akamatsu actually started a website that distributes out of publish manga free over the web. A lot of these companies (in Japan) are now trying to dig into US revenue streams by licensing anime directly here, simulcasting it on the web (sites like Crunchyroll and Hulu) and profiting themselves rather then selling the licenses to US companies to do with as they please. There are good chances that if I don't download my series that they will never see the light of day here (unlikely with Fractale) or I have to wait 3-4 years to see it here (now more like 1-2 years). Also depending how popular the series was the more expensive or the more gimmicks they are going to come up with to sell in multiple volumes (like 2 or more parts at the price per you would normally pay for on complete so so series).
 
Just to make it clear, they're not suing those who downloaded Fractale, but the latest One Piece episode (ep 481). Now, One Piece is about REAL pirates. lol

Funimation is under fire from Fractale's producers because of fansubs. Those producers claim that if Funimation don't do anything about it, they should stop streaming Fractale.

But it's really quite pointless, what Funimation is doing, because fansubs cater to THE WHOLE WORLD OUTSIDE OF JAPAN, while Funimation is US-only. I CANNOT WATCH ANY FUNIMATION STREAMS, so the allegations of the Fractale producers is moot with the rest of the countries. They're quite stupid in thinking that there are only two countries in this world, US and Japan, with all "foreigners" automatically being Americans.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top