Question about legalities

[CelestiaLegends]

I'm just kinda curious, why is it that anime from japan is ok to download, but illegal for games? Or is it only licensed games that we're not supposed to download? (licensed in the US?)

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by CelestiaLegends

I'm just kinda curious, why is it that anime from japan is ok to download, but illegal for games? Or is it only licensed games that we're not supposed to download? (licensed in the US?)

From what I have reading the forum, technically it is illegal for people to download anime off the internet whether it is licensed in your country or not.

From what I gathered, the main reason "fansubs" are in the gray area is because the anime licensee in your country and the production companies in Japan just tend to "keep their eyes shut" since you do not have access to broadcast anime like we do in Japan.

But even then, the "fansubs" that are distributed throughout the internet are from "raws" taken by people in Japan, which in itself is illegal. A good example would be BS-i satellite broadcasts as the warning label that scrolls at the bottom says something like: "Recently there are increasing amounts of videos distributed over the internet and P2P networks. This is act is illegal and is punishable by [Japanese] copyright law."

People have their reasons. There are many animes that are shown here in Japan that would never make it to your country.

"Fansubs" are illegal. So is walking your dog without a leash. If they decide to pursue it, they will. "Ignorance of the law is not an excuse." That's how I got my ticket for riding my bicycle without proper headlights ^^;

[JAppi]

Originally Posted by kj1980

From what I have reading the forum, technically it is illegal for people to download anime off the internet whether it is licensed in your country or not.

From what I gathered, the main reason "fansubs" are in the gray area is because the anime licensee in your country and the production companies in Japan just tend to "keep their eyes shut" since you do not have access to broadcast anime like we do in Japan.

But even then, the "fansubs" that are distributed throughout the internet are from "raws" taken by people in Japan, which in itself is illegal. A good example would be BS-i satellite broadcasts as the warning label that scrolls at the bottom says something like: "Recently there are increasing amounts of videos distributed over the internet and P2P networks. This is act is illegal and is punishable by [Japanese] copyright law."

People have their reasons. There are many animes that are shown here in Japan that would never make it to your country.

"Fansubs" are illegal. So is walking your dog without a leash. If they decide to pursue it, they will. "Ignorance of the law is not an excuse." That's how I got my ticket for riding my bicycle without proper headlights ^^;

That is 100% correct. Thank you KJ1980 for blessing our boards with another well thought out post ^_^

[Aquillion]

And as for this forum, as far as I can tell from the games forum rules:

Links to downloads are strictly forbidden. The only types of download links allowed are translated games, either as full translated game or as patch. Links to licensed (commercially available in English) or untranslated ("raw") games are not allowed and may result in immediate permanent ban.

The moderator team also reserves the right to close any thread which seems to be related to getting the banned games mentioned above to work or otherwise revolves around pirated games.

To reiterate:
Posting links to or ask how to get warez, licensed or untranslated games is NOT allowed!*
Doing so may result in immediate permanent ban without warning!

...it seems to imply that it's ok to link to downloads for translated games that were never released in the US (e.g. Super Robot Wars 3), same as this site's policy for anime. Legally, though, such downloads of copyrighted games would fall into the same illegal zone as the fansubs we download, as outlined above.

Actually, at second glance it's not so clear. It says: "The only types of download links allowed are translated games, either as full translated game or as patch." But it also says: "Posting links to or ask how to get warez, licensed or untranslated games is NOT allowed!" An illegally translated version of a whole, copyrighted game that has only been released in Japan would be "warez" by most people's definitions, so perhaps we're only supposed to link to complete downloads for freeware games?

Translation patches are a little different--most game translators release their works as a binary patch to avoid such legal problems. A patch like that doesn't contain the game's copyrighted script, but instead contains what amounts to instructions that a patching utility could use to convert an untranslated version of the game into a translated form. For myself I'm not sure if that makes it legal, but most game translators would insist that it does; they get upset at the distribution of an already-patched version of the game, which they believe leaves them open to liability.