Yet Another Open Letter on Fansubs
Some of you may remember that Arthur Smith, the President of GDH International (parent company of Gonzo), provided some of the kindling that has set the fansub debate on fire throughout the innernubs. And at last, Smith himself has responded to the buzz.
He has one very valid point, that a lot of people assumed based on the ActiveAnime interview that he was doing nothing about the piracy problem when in fact he has been pushing for faster releases and even subtitled episodes from JP companies for some time now. But most of the rest? Honestly, I have to say that I think he mostly answered the straw man comments (for those not in a philosophy class, the weakest arguments / weakest versions of arguments).
He addressed why it takes so long to get shows to the U.S. from Japan, some of which is valid but the rest is mostly just corporate politics and back-and-forth mucking about. If the various companies’ system of dealing with each other prevents the product from coming out when it best suits the market, perhaps a new system is in order?
He also addressed the suggestion I (and many others) made about Japanese companies jumping over the heads of U.S. ones and releasing some materials directly. His argument against that went something along these lines: the U.S. anime companies made anime big with their efforts, and now we need to pay too much money for DVDs that come out too late.
Nuh-uh, sir. I won’t deny that the U.S. companies have done a lot and spent a lot of money to help make anime as big as it is today, but we don’t owe them back pay for that or something. Anime DVDs aren’t pro-rated. If they can’t come out with the product when and how the fans want it then their sales will suffer. I’m not saying that justifies piracy, only that it seems like a pretty silly way to run a business.
He DOES make the valid point that the U.S. companies are better equipped to get anime on TV, dub it, etc. But the system I saw most suggested (and suggested myself) didn’t preclude anime being licensed to U.S. companies for dubbing and television broadcasting– only from quickie subtitling. Which they’re not doing anyway!
So, there you have it. I’m not making any personal attacks on GDH or Arthur Smith– whose attempts to push forward ideas for getting anime out faster and better I absolutely appreciate. I am, however, pointing out that much of his defenses of the industry seem to rest on “this is how the industry is,” without mention of the fact that it doesn’t HAVE to be that way (particularly on the timing front).
Wow, that was long. Oh, and I almost forgot: double question marks and exclamation points do not look professional!!??
Original source: ANN
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