Funimation/Anime industry clamping down on fansubs/illegal downloads?

[saladesu]

In the past few days, we've had two big things happen in this respect:

1. Funimation was forced to stop its simulcast of "Fractale" because of illegal distribution on the internet (ANN article)

2. Funimation sued 1,337 BitTorrent users for downloading/sharing One Piece ep 481 (MH article)

This is of course not the first time any one company has tried to clamp down on fansubs or the illegal distribution of anime on the internet in general. I don't know how many people remember, but some years ago there was the whole fiasco with Odex.

What's different now from then is that while Odex is a small firm based in tiny little Singapore (I am Singaporean, but facts are facts...), Funimation is a pretty big company based in the United States of America. Funimation thus has a lot more power and pull than Odex did back then. Plus, if Funimation is able to win this suit, more suits are likely to pop up from other firms who are now confident that they can win similar suits

What do you think the impact of these will be on the illegal downloading/distribution of anime on the internet? Will it affect how you personally get your weekly anime fix? Also, what do you think about the situation with simulcasts right now? Does it even benefit you? Do you like watching simulcasts?

[Divinenega]

I'm in the US and therefore get pretty much every single simulcast therefore I watch them, and watch the fansubs to series that are not simulcasted if I want to see them. I can understand the feelings of those who live in countries where there aren't simulcasts, but generally if you live in a region where there are some for shows you want to watch, then there's really no excuse.

About the Funimation One Piece lawsuit thing, the people they sued were most likely American since those are obviously smarter to target since they can definently get the simulcast.

[saladesu]

Yeah, if simulcasts were available where I am, I would definitely watch them Back when D.Gray-Man, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and other series I was interested in had same-week telecasts on TV in my country, I would watch them too. Since FMA:B, none of the series I wanted to watch even got same-week telecasts, let alone simulcasts, though, so for such series that I don't have "legal" access to...

I also agree that those sued were most likely American. In addition to the reason you listed, there's also the fact that it would be pretty difficult to deal with someone who's living halfway across the globe

[CBlitz]

this is just a stunt, a veritable slap on the hand to all the people who torrented that episode of One Piece. Funi has only filed suits for a total of $150,000, which comes out to a little more than $112 per defendant. That total isn't even enough to cover the legal fees they'll build up if they actually pursue all those cases in court. They'll most likely drop the charges after a bit. Not to mention 90% of this suits will be thrown out because of jurisdiction issues, Funi isn't dumb enough to actually go through with this.

and lol yibis is gonna die after this. But this won't affect downloading and distribution of fansubs at all. As long as the industry keeps using an outdated business model, they'll lose to fansubs 9 times out of 10. They're competition are fansubs, they have to make steps in changing their tactics. Simulcasts is a great idea, all they have to do is take a step further.