Funimation Vs. 1337 Pirates

Funimation has just taken a stab at piracy that has led to a lot of chatter in the online anime community. On December 25th, Funimation filed a copyright infringement complaint against 1,337 (How cute…) BitTorrent users in Texas. Those users are being sued for unlawfully reproducing and distributing episode 481 of One Piece, which has been licensed and is currently being simulcasted by Funimation. The unidentified defendants are being represented through IP addresses, meaning if a trial ensues, the addresses shall be tracked, thus resulting in the identities of the defendants to be revealed.

Funimation has done something quite interesting. They are probably one of the first anime licensing companies in recent years that has decided to take legal action against piracy. Many have accused the company of recklessly attacking their own fanbase, mostly due to the fact that more than half of  the anime community uses fansubs. That being said, I still have to side with Funimation on this particular issue.

Upon discovering the opportunities of Crunchyroll, Hulu, You Tube and the ANN player, I have tried to avoid using fansubs. The instance in which I would actually accept the use of them would be if accessing the product though legal or efficient methods was not possible. However, cases such as not liking ads or the quality not being in HD are not legitimate excuses for using fansubs. In fact, these are the main reasons why people don’t use simulcasts despite their availability. First of all, ads are necessary for a licensing company to make money off a simulcast, meaning without them, companies simply couldn’t make money off these shows. Second of all, the reason why simulcasts are usually not in HD is mostly due to the fact that the company wants to give you an incentive to buy the DVD or Blu-Ray. Unfortunately they don’t run a charity service , meaning that while it would be nice if they offered their best video quality, the reasons for buying a DVD and Blu-Ray simply wouldn’t exist anymore. I know I sound like a capitalist drone (Which I proudly am.), but if companies gave all their content away for free , then they simply wouldn’t have the cash necessary to keep licensing  more titles. Plus, as bad as this sounds, you were never entitled to any of these show in the first place, meaning that sometimes you do have to pay the price for entertainment.

Funimation ‘s main strategy with their decision isn’t to get rid of piracy, but to discourage it through a display of power that is this current lawsuit. It’s probably an empty threat, the legal costs of actually pursuing all of the pirates in the United States probably being insane, but it may scare a few people with the thought that they could be caught through a simple IP address. It’s also probably a promotional stunt that will result in quite a bit of attention, if not, maybe a few scared pirates. Funimation has every right to sue these BitTorrent users, as they are stealing content from them, thus resulting in the profit that Funimation receives from these simulcasts to be reduced substantially. Plus, before people start complaining about other regions, you have to understand that Funimation is only suing distributors in Texas, meaning this will have no effect on any other country. There is simply no legitimate excuse as to why anyone in the US would need a fansubbed version of One Piece when a decent quality sub is available on Hulu.

The only aspect that I found to be unfavorable was the fact that this will probably do little to actually stop piracy. Sure it may scare a few people, but it probably will do little to combat the negative affects that fansubs have on simulcasts. That being said, I still have to commend Funimation for taking the a step in the fight against piracy, no matter how small or ineffective that step may be.