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Yaaar Me Hearties!

Most people associate pirates with thieving good for nothings, people who cause direct harm to companies for no good reason other than to get stuff for free. Guess what? Pirating is by no means the same as stealing. Yes, that’s not what companies say, but the truth is that saying that pirating is equal to stealing is an exaggeration. You see, most of the time when someone pirates something, they had no intention to buy it in the first place. They simply got the “free” version since they wouldn’t or couldn’t get the other.

Everyone pirates something at a given time, it’s bound to happen. We don’t support piracy, but we don’t think it should be linked to theft in a direct way. People think you are stealing because you are technically taking something without paying, but in this day and age you are taking the idea of something. Most (if not all) of modern piracy comes by way of downloads. You are taking bits and pieces of emptiness, not the entirety of a physical product. People insist that it’s theft because “An illegal download equals a stolen sale!” but the truth is that taking a cracked copy of a game, or a fansubbed anime doesn’t mean that you are stealing a finished copy that a consumer won’t be able to buy.

A pirate is simply taking something that in most cases they can’t legally get, whether it is because they can’t afford it or it’s not available to them. However, this doesn’t mean that they will take away from the consumers. And that’s where it kicks off in relevance to Otakus.

What this has to do with anime

Do you buy the DVD’s or BR’s of every show you watch? How about movies? Well, there you go. Most of you would say “No” which means either one of two things: you pirate it or have a rich friend that lends you stuff. If you said yes, then you have a lot of disposable income or just don’t care to buy your shows.

Most Otakus are “forced” to pirate at any given point. Not because they are cheap or are trying to “stick it to the man, dude!” but because most anime shows either take forever to be localized (if they ever are), or are horribly watered down once localized. Say you want to catch up with your favorite manga or anime. Would you really wait months if not years between updates?

Sacanlantion, fansubbing and fandubbing are all piracy. But Otakus do not seem to worry about it much. The ones that love a given show will buy the official release due to the extra goodies that come with it, so there’s still a sale there. We are not trying to justify piracy, but there would be a hell of a lot less had the anime industry seen the potential in the international market….like they did back in the 90’s.

The proliferation of the internet has given pirates new powerful tools, but it has also given the industry new ways to distribute their goods. It’s rather sad to see the declining profit margin of your favorite studio pegged on pirates, rather than say the stale and bland new shows they crank out in droves that revolve around fanservice and especial edition sales (it’s uncensored now, so watch it again!).

Piracy isn’t that bad

What’s bad is that an entire industry seems inclined to closing itself off from the rest of the world, claiming that it’s protecting its interests and business. The reality is that they only manage to harm the fans, who are more than likely pirating stuff since they have no “legit” way of getting it.

Now you may say “Learn Japanese and buy the imported DVD’s then!” Oh, you…sitting there on your hypothetical high horse. But no, not everyone can learn a second language, and they shouldn’t have to. That’s what subtitles are for, and that’s what dubbing studios are in the business for! Saying that you can only enjoy it if you go through a gruesome process sure makes you smart; okay, you learned a new language and can now alienate others by holding it over their heads. Does it feel right? Art and entertainment should be accessible, that’s why you have hundreds of scanlators and fandubbers working to bring a title to the masses.

These people are pirates, but they are not charging anyone or causing direct harm to a company’s stock. If you downloaded a title and enjoyed it you are likely to tell your friends about it, maybe one of them will buy it as well as some of its merchandise.

It’s a necessary evil

Piracy within the anime world is something it needs to thrive; else it would simply stay in Japan growing more and more horribly inbred as they run out of audiences to cater to. Companies love pointing fingers, but piracy isn’t much of a shadowy side-business as it’s a simple outlet to allow fans to go without starving.

We don’t want to glorify piracy, we know that some pirates are massive assholes that can cause damage to companies, but for the most part they are pretty harmless and serve to fill in a gap left in the distribution of a given media. You can tell them apart as long as they don’t charge or are entitled to pretty much force “donations” to continue working; the good ones are dedicated fans just like you, not some super internet criminal.

Hope this gave you food for thought, tomorrow we talk about the decline of modern anime so stay tuned!

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