Largest US Anime Distributor Goes BitTorrent 145
securitas writes "The New York Times' Charles Solomon reports that 'ADV Films, the largest distributor of anime in the United States is releasing promotional packages via the BitTorrent.' The use of BitTorrent is already extremely popular among anime fans who trade films that are unavailable outside of Japan as well as their own subtitled versions, known as fansubs. The company's first experiment with a Madlax torrent in July was so well-received that ADV is launching the bonus promotional packages for upcoming releases Gilgamesh and Goddanar. The question is will other distributors and studios follow ADV's example or stick to their current distribution models?"
Nice Biased Article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Copyright infringement is copyright infringement.
Theft is theft.
They are two diferent things.
Copyright infringement != theft (Score:4, Informative)
Copyright infringement is theft, at least in the US.
What makes you say that? In the United States, larceny is a crime defined by state law (except in cases involving state lines or federal property), and copyright infringement is a crime defined by federal law. They're completely different statutes with completely different conditions and completely different penalties.
Re:Copyright infringement != theft (Score:2)
3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:2)
Big brother must love you guys, you prove that it's easy to make everyone follow the leader.
Re:3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:2)
In this case no, any comment that is just stated as fact without fact, or that is knowingly false will be marked as troll.
Re:3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:2)
Re:3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:1)
Re:3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:2)
Again you have failed to prove it, and resorted to only repeating yourself.
Re:3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:2)
Re:3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps, but the parent post didn't state an opinion. It stated an incorrect fact ("Copyright infringement is theft, at least in the US. Like it or not that's how the law is currently written.") with the apparent purpose of annoying people - the rest of the message was quite arrogant and condescending ("If you don't agree with it, try to get the law changed, but simply saying it's not theft won't make it true."). Stating an incorrect fact with the apparent purpose of annoying people enough that they start responding is trolling.
Sometimes, an unpopular position is unpopular for the reason that it is incorrect, and sometimes getting moderated as Troll is justified.
Yes, disturbingly many people seem to be accepting the claim "copyright infringement is theft", despite both law and logic disagreeing with that...
Re:3 cheers for /. groupthink! (Score:2)
It is the crime of taking someone else's property without consent. And property, as we know, is physical.
Uh... "How is up different than down?"
Why do you even need to ask? When you borrow something, you are given permission by the owner to use it. When did borrowing something become a crime? Because you must believe that it is since you are comparing it to one (theft)...
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:2)
Likewise, saying it is and not providing any sources will not make it so either.
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably. I mean, well done, you managed to think of one example of BT being used for a legal purpose, and if pressed you could probably think of a few more. But the vast majority of BT traffic is pirated content, and the reporters tone is pretty justified. I'm a fan o
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:2)
Every large media download seems to have a BT link.
Trailers, demos, patches, linux releases....
Just keep painting the world red, but in the end it doesn't matter because no protocol is capable of doing misdeeds on its own.
So instead of believing in the misdirection why don't you just say there are sites offering illegitimate copies of software and media. Granted, that would make your comment off topic, but in full scope of things it already is.
There is little reason to blame bit torrent for
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:2)
Who's talking about blame? The author of the article reflected the impression in the mainstream media that bittorrent is very widely used for distribution of pirated content. I pointed out to the OP that the article's author is quite correct about that, and shouldn't be criticised for displaying that opinion. I made no statement a
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:2)
1. IRC DCC Bots
2. FTP servers
3. Usenet newsgroups
4. AIM filesharing
Opponents of BT must first recognize that any technology suitable for the legitimate uses will be suitable for some illlegitimate uses. As far as I can tell, software cannot be moral or immoral, good or evil, or right or wrong. Only the people who use it and what they accomplish with it.
Re:Nice Biased Article (Score:2)
About time (Score:1)
I hope the RIAA takes notice.
Re:About time (Score:1)
Oh, they'll take notice alright.
Re:About time (Score:2)
Re:About time (Score:1)
Here's a list of Stuff That Doesn't Suck (TM)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (some won't get it, but it's still massively awesome)
Tokyo Godfathers
Serial Experiment Lain
Berserk
Gunbuster
Escaflowne
FLCL
Jin-Roh The Wolf Brigade
Memories
Perfect Blue
Spring and Chaos
Macross Plus
Paranoia Agent
Now these are all very different, but I'm sure you'll be able to find at least something you'll like in there. On the other hand I also like Bebop, even though it's not among my favourite series, so
Re:About time (Score:2)
Neon Genesis Evangelion was just too dragged out for me.
I did see Lain and I seriously think I will enjoy it 10 years later, just not now. It seems way ahead of its time.
Re:About time (Score:2)
Doesn't make sense... (Score:1)
I mean why would anyone want to have to install and setup another piece of software, load it up, and then share your bandwidth in the hopes that everyone else is doing the same so that your download can be a little faster?
I don't know about you but I would definitely prefer that the damn company increase their download bandwidth so that they can support thousands of users direct-downloading thei
Re:Doesn't make sense... (Score:2)
For most people, using up the background bandwidth is a less painful proposition than paying more or getting less.
Slashdot tries torrent for dupes (Score:1, Funny)
When will BT be webbased? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:5, Informative)
and also see this PDF
http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824-2004/reports/jwol
Thanks to http://mimir.silverfir.net/blogs/index.php?blog=6
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:1)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:1)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
At the moment your option is:
1. port forward 6881-6889 to a single machine.. Sucks if you have more than one machine (there are a dozen machines on this network and I'm damned if I'm updating the firewall every time someone decided to use bittorrent instead of ftp).
2. Don't do it, and suffer 0.5k/sec transfers making the protocol useless.
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:1)
4. ???
5. Profit!
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:1)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:1)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:1)
Other content that more or less relies on peer seeding will probably be at a loss though.
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
That's one of the reasons that USENET is still going strong with quality file trading after all of these years. Since it's still (relatively compared to P2P) hard to post/leech (combining parts, dealing with missing ones, etc...) easily without seperate pieces of software to deal with it, it is ignored by the masses and the media.
It tak
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:1)
What are you talking about? (Score:2)
Re:When will BT be webbased? (Score:2)
Hmm? (Score:3, Insightful)
Well it's not really a distribution model. They are just releasing promo material. You can already get promo material from most distributors just not over BitTorrent. This is really nothing new.
the difference (Score:2)
Yes, other markets.... (Score:1, Funny)
Oh wait....
Woops....
"Via the bittorrent"? (Score:1)
It's a protocol, not a network like kazaa/eMule/eDonkey...
(Yes I know eMule/eDonkey uses specific servers to connect to, but with the UDP search technology you can search a lot of servers together, if they support it.)
Re:"Via the bittorrent"? (Score:1)
Read The Finite Article (Score:2)
Via the bittorrent?
Not everybody is born in anglophone territory. Other languages have different rules on when definite articles are used, and mistakes may spill over into a fellow's use of English as a second or foreign language.
with the UDP search technology you can search a lot of servers together, if they support it.
It's too bad that the Azureus protocol and the BitTorrent protocol for the newer distributed features are mutually incompatible.
Re:"Via the bittorrent"? (Score:1)
I hear you can even send the mp3's through the e-mail these days.
Promotional Packages? Get DRM going! (Score:1)
But companies need to make money. And anime distributors need to sell videos. But BitTorrent is a rather open system. You can use a tracker with authentication, but that won't work with things like the dynamic tracker protocoll and so an developing. You'll have to secure the actual content. How can that be ma
Re:Promotional Packages? Get DRM going! (Score:1)
Lost Season 1 Episodes 1-25, 8.8Gb in size, 399 seeders (people who have it), 5784 peers (people who are getting it). I'm normally getting about 35Kb/s.
I'd say thats scaling pretty well.
Land of the Lost World in Space (Score:1)
Lost Season 1
Lost where? In space? [overstock.com] Or Land of the Lost [walmart.com]? What about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World [buy.com]? Oh, it appears you're looking for Walt Disney's Lost [ecost.com]. One word: Bleh [losingnemo.com].
I'm normally getting about 35Kb/s.
Except remember that BitTorrent reports rates in bytes, not bits. A rate of 35 KB per second is better than you'd get on HTTP.
I'd say thats scaling pretty well. :D [assuming sarcasm]
Just go to bed and it'll speed up. Often the Peers will remain online overnight, and they'll turn into
Re:Promotional Packages? Get DRM going! (Score:1)
movies (Score:1)
Re:movies (Score:2)
No, probably not.
Re:Promotional Packages? Get DRM going! (Score:2)
If you can't beat 'em... (Score:5, Insightful)
With promotional freebies, distributing via BitTorrent gets you free publicity and lowers your distribution costs to practically nothing. Furthermore, doing it through your own trackers is likely to give you realistic download statistics, which are very valuable in themselves. (And why go to, say, Pirate Bay if the publisher itself is seeding?)
For commercial products you'd rather sell, there's also something to be said for BitTorrent distribution. If you know that a significant portion of your customers are going to trade the files on P2P anyway, and you realize there's *nothing* you can do to stop it, why not get some love by seeding the things yourself?
Of course that doesn't get you to the magic "3. Profit!" all by itself, but at least you get something back from a process that's inevitable anyway.
That leaves the question of how to turn that good will into a buck (or Yen), which I admit is not easy. But as it stands Hollywood isn't even interested in trying, so it's nice to see someone inching down a new path.
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
If anything, this is a move of desperation on ADV's part rather than a move of simply embracing a technology because it works.
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
1) The fansubs are often better translated than the real thing. Most DVDs I have gotten have remarkably bad subtitles.
2) The price. It costs 20-30 dollars per 4 episodes (80 minutes). Thats absolutely ridiculous!
3) There is no easy, convenient way to watch an anime series once unless your local video store has it (unlikely). Thus, anyone who want
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
2) Start looking around for some collections. You can get full 24-26 episode seasons for $30-40.
3) Netflix.
One huge problem with this route is that with fansubs, the people that make the work, the animators and producers in Japan and elsewhere, make no money from fansubs, basically it leeches the work of others.
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
1) I've seen a few bad subtitles, but nothing nearly as bad as I've seen on some fansubs. Unless maybe you've been buying bootlegs, then that doesn't count, funding criminals and all, when fansubbers commit the deed for free. Check the Berne Convention if you don't believe me, fansubbing and bootlegging really is against the law in most countries because of this treaty.
2) Start looking around for some collections. You can get full 24-26 episode seasons for
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
In effect, fansubs do eventually generate profits for both licensees and the original owners of an anime series.
Of course, now that we have DMCA style laws popping up around the world now, fansubs are getting much harder to find and support. Perh
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
As you pointed out, the distribution costs for BT are practically free, compared to say mailing out promo DVDs or even bundling promo DVDs with other titles. The only other medium that's even close to it in benefit per cost is promos bundled ON other titles' DVDs, which we've been seeing for years now. With anime at least, it
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
Probably for the same reason people download various Linux distros off of MiniNova, Suprnova (when it existed) and other torrent sites -- it's all aggregated in one place where everyone can see it when they go to get their 1337 0-d4y w4r3z (yes, I realize 0-day warez doesn't show up on those sites; no lectures on the pirate chain, please).
Re:If you can't beat 'em... (Score:2)
Now if they were distributing full episodes and working on a model that allowed them to do that and make money as well that would be enlightened. Now all you really have is the
Not rocket science (Score:2)
"Hey, we let the customers handle all the costs, and we undercut the other fellows".
It's called competition.
Re:Not rocket science (Score:1, Redundant)
One success is hardly enough (Score:1)
Re:One success is hardly enough (Score:1)
Azureus can be used to circumvent any distribution restrictions that a torrent publisher attempts to put on a torrent.
Including putting phone-home DRM around the keys required to decrypt and play the work encoded by the file? How would Azureus circumvent that?
Don't read too much into this (Score:1)
Where were they at Otakon? (Score:2)
Re:Where were they at Otakon? (Score:2)
Most of the stuff they showed at their first panel was, as they mentioned, available on their Bittorrent pilot program.
Not to mention that this Slashdot story is a dupe and ADV has been doing this for months now.
Re:Where were they at Otakon? (Score:2)
Their Business Model (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Their Business Model (Score:1)
Re:Their Business Model (Score:2)
No, they are using BT as their distribution system for their commercials, not for anything that is a direct revenue generator.
In the anime community ADV is well-known for some of the suckiest customer-facing behaviour from any publisher. While the engineer who has been the internal promoter of using BT this way is a good enough chap, management clearly sees it as a way to advertise for really, really cheap - they don't even ha
Re:Their Business Model (Score:2)
Only in the way Big Brother can never be wrong. It doesn't mean they can't change their position.
talking about bittorrent (Score:2)
A daemon with the following features wouldn't hurt:
* automaticly seed torrents when they are found in a given directory (also when torrents are added while the daemon is running)
* built-in tracker
* process friendly, e.g. report as seed but don't have an active thread\process for a single torrent until it's actually needed
* an o
So how will they feel? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think this question is being addressed. In fact, some seem to want to pretend ADV is distributing more than promos.
Re:So how will they feel? (Score:1)
Sarcasm Alert (Score:2)
Dumb questions (Score:1)
If so, how?
Dupe? (Score:2)
It's about damn time.... (Score:1)
Mixed (Score:2)
The reason anime has grown so
Re:Mixed (Score:2)
I didn't mean to imply that every single group would stop. There wil always be rogue groups that continue (and frankly I love them) and its usually for the most popular series, but you'll never get rid of that. So I hope that rather than attack the groups who follow the unwritten agreement, I hope that they just take it as a cost of doing business.
reporter needed to do a little bit more research (Score:2)
fansubbing is a gray area if it is anime that hasn't been licensed in the country you're living. i'm not talking about fansubbers that continue to fansub material even after it's licensed. i'm only talking about fansubbers who fansubbed material that won't be available in their language any time soon. in fact, most fansub groups that I know about
Re:reporter needed to do a little bit more researc (Score:2)
No it's not.
Re:reporter needed to do a little bit more researc (Score:2)
for example, most major manga artists start off by creating doujinshi [wikipedia.org]. it's basically taking someone's copyrighted character and making up a side-story and (yes) selling it to fans. no one ever pursues these artists? why? because that's probably how 90% of all manga artists start out and the more doujinshi there exists, it just means the more popular the series is and it doesn't compet
Re:reporter needed to do a little bit more researc (Score:2)
i may have exaggerated a bit by using the word "never", but companies have also came out and spoke out at conventions thanking the fansubber community for bringing interest for particular series globally. and most of the time, companies either don't care or actually support fansubbing.
And this explains why ADV is cutting staff, tit
Please DON'T follow ADV (Score:3, Interesting)
The fly in the ointment was the incomprehensible fact that subtitled tapes where consistently 33% more expensive than the dubbed alternatives. This, coming from a group that introduced themselves as the "anime by fans for fans" company, caused quite a few fans to question ADV's true motives. Requests, demands, and even (or especially) screaming demands for an explanation were often ignored completely. I sat in on several convention panels where, when asked point blank, ADV representatives would either carefully sidestep the issue completely, get angry and ignore it, or provide a ridiculous justification. The fact is there is simply NO WAY producing a subtitled translation cost more than a dubbed translation but ADV felt justified in gouging their "fans" because they knew they could get away with it.
After being snubbed by ADV reps on the dealer room floor several times I decided to boycott ADV. Years passed, and the question became moot once DVDs became the media of choice. This coupled with ADV's penchant for snatching up every good title the moment they can and at the same time their search-and-destroy policy against fansubbers left me little choice but to try them out again. I was disappointed. Their subtitles left a lot to be desired, and their dubs where, with some exceptions, simply insipid. Paying $.50 to $1 a minute for anime that in many cases had been been partially fansubbed FOR FREE at a superior level of quality really rubbed me the wrong way. I watched series after series get snatched up by ADV, fansubs shut down left and right before completion, and then episodes parceled out at a rate often slower than that of its domestic release. The only conciliation in the entire mess was, if you were patient enough and willing to wait the literal years it took, ADV would eventually come around and release a box set of all the episodes, usually at a price per minute that made the purchase worthwhile. Until...
ADV, in their marketing magnificence, introduced these collectors' kits. Wow, what a concept. Combine box sets with the necessity of purchasing individual episodes one disc at a time and bam, the best of both worlds. We keep the box set guys happy, AND, we rake in even more cash. Goodbye the old series collections, wherein, if the consumer is patient enough, the entire series is sold at a discounted rate per episode. Hello brand shiny sparkly NEW collections, and hey, we'll even throw in a $5 t-shirt for $20. Now, if you want the entire thing from ADV, you're forced to buy them one disc at a time for the full retail price, no breaks, no deals, daddie's gotta buy a brand new car and pay for that heated driveway.
So I'm back to boycotting ADV, secure in the knowledge that if all else fails I can fall back on US Mangle or one of the other smaller commercial subbers now scurrying for scraps from ADV's table. Except, damn if they don't catch on and start doing the exact same damn thing that ADV started. The shelves are now riddled with "collector sets" that consist of large flimsy cardboard boxes filled to the brim with one disc and, if you're lucky, a shirt or some manga, or, if you're not, a neat and completely useless block of styrofoam.
So I say, hats off to ADV, you guys are working your way into bankruptcy one marketing idea at a time. The entire industry is so bent on paying for those driveways that the ONLY source for quality subtitled anime is from the fans, where it's always been. With the exception of Pioneer who've been top notch with the few titles they've managed to wrest from ADV's clawing grasp.
Bonus Point for "The" + Some Other Word (Score:2)
Dammit! And I was hoping that maybe they would be pirating The REM and The Aerosmith!
What Next? (Score:2)
I've become quite used to the speed, convenience, and quality of fansubs -- if the anime companies can be faster, more convenient (eg legal), or higher quality, I'd be only too willing to pay for them.
Come to think of it, what would the problem be with a company like ADV simply buying out a fansub group, getting them to do everything as