Follow-up: Side-by-Side a.f.k. and Odex
When I talked earlier about Odex possibly using a.f.k.’s subs as a reference for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, I noted that I’d like to see some shots side-by-side. Obliviousity has provided one in which the two versions were the same word-for-word.
Someone mentioned that this is not illegal. I *believe* (but do not know for sure) that a.f.k. is based out of the U.S., so there’s kind of a fun tangle: in the U.S. once any work is completed it is considered copyrighted, even if you don’t register the copyright. So technically it could be considered copyright infringement for the translation. But the translation itself also infringes copyright, so it probably wouldn’t be protected very well in court.
But that’s all just hypothetical goofiness– no one would sue Odex over this.
However, this company actively seeks to cause financial harm to fansub downloaders. (After all, they’ve said NUMEROUS times that they’re not in it to make money, so clearly their motivation is to be a pain in the ass to downloaders, not to profit.) For a company with that attitude to use a fansubber’s translations is awfully shitty. Either you’re okay with them, or you’re not, Odex. Trying to have it both ways just makes you look like even more of a dick.
Tags: fansubs, odex, piracy, Suzumiya-Haruhi-no-Yuuutsu
September 26th, 2007 at 11:57 am
As I understand it (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer), whilst all fansubbers are doing something illegal, i.e. subtitling and distributing a show without a license, that doesn’t mean that they don’t own the copyright on their translation. To put it in other words, just because you break one law doesn’t mean that you have your other rights revoked as some sort of ‘punishment’.
Now, technically a.f.k. have a case against Odex, I believe, but apart from the cost involved (I highly doubt they could afford it, nor would they probably want to),if they did sue Odex it would open up a whole can of worms. In all likelihood, they’d end up being counter-sued themselves for producing the subtitles in the first place.
Odex’s position on this seems to be “well, because you did something illegal that gives us the right to do something illegal ourselves”. This, of course, is bullshit.
It’s just a shame there’s nothing that can be done about this. I had actually respected Odex for their decision to implement a ‘warning’ system for downloaders, instead of just suing them for a ‘first offense’. (After all, even if it isn’t nice of them to do it, they are within rights to sue unauthorised distributors of their content.) Needless to say, all that respect is now gone, with some added loathing. I’m just glad Odex don’t do business in the country I live in.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I <3 odex, they’re a barrel of monkeys
September 27th, 2007 at 2:51 am
@Anon:
Odex is doing bullshit, and they have been since the beginning. The warning system you spoke about wasn’t even a warning at all. People got registered mail sent to them under Odex’s letterhead, and were forced to pay a minimum sum of $3000 and sign a letter of undertaking which gave copyright holders and exclusive licensees grounds to sue them on.
If you’re referring to the “olive branch”, then it’s still the reverse way of going about deterring people from downloading.
They aren’t within their rights to sue either, being sub-licensees of every show they “produced”, meaning that they can’t sue anyone, with the exception of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed,