Ask John: Will the RIAA Be the End of Fansubbing?

Question:
The RIAA has declared a war against music file swapping. Are they going to say the same thing about anime shows that aren’t available or licensed in the US? Is this the end of fansubbing anime?

Answer:
Especially recently, there’s been a great deal of controversy over the Recording Industry Association of America’s June 25, 2003 announcement of intent to sue individuals guilty of copyright infringement, and the RIAA’s subsequent actions in pursuit of its legal rights. In just the past few weeks, the RIAA has issued over 900 subpoenas to internet service providers across the United States, seeking detailed private information about individuals accused of illegally sharing copyrighted music online. I’m certainly not trying to argue the ethical right of individuals to distribute illegal, unlicensed copies of anime episodes and Japanese pop music, but individuals and fansubbers who primarily share anime episodes, anime theme songs, J-pop music and music videos, and scanned manga pages online probably aren’t in direct, dire jeopardy of being sued for copyright infringement or multimedia piracy.

The RIAA has formally stated that it targets individuals that upload or share “substantial amounts” of copyrighted music online. The RIAA, as an organization representing the American music and recording industry, is primarily concerned with preventing the unlicensed distribution of American owned music copyrights, not imported video clips and music not licensed for official North American distribution. In practical terms, the RIAA focuses its attention on music recordings, not video. Enforcement of video copyrights is generally enforced by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The MPAA consists of representatives from Buena Vista Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros. Notice that none of the major American anime distributors are owned by any of these seven parent corporations. The MPAA is concerned with the copyright protection of any and all recorded video issued anywhere in the world, but naturally focuses its attention on releases from its member distributors and their subsidiaries, including United Artists, Miramax, Columbia Pictures, TriStar, etc.

The MPAA is mainly concerned with the illegal distribution of pirated copies of movies that may sell millions of copies. The illegal distribution of licensed anime DVD footage that sells less than ten percent of the number of units a major studio DVD will sell, or the illegal distribution of anime that’s not even officially licensed for North American release just isn’t really significant enough to attract the attention of the MPAA. So while the MPAA has bigger fish to catch, the American anime industry, which is mainly left to itself to protect its copyrights, has a love/hate relationship with fans that share anime illegally over the internet. Domestic anime companies, of course, don’t like seeing their properties pirated and distributed freely as fansubs or DVD rips; but these domestic companies also heavily rely on the support of the same fans that illegal distribute anime online.

Anime doesn’t quite adhere to the same circumstances that characterize typical domestic multimedia piracy because anime is imported, and often not even in the English language. The content that the American RIAA and MPAA organizations are most ardent about protecting is domestically produced and English language material. As I said before, I don’t mean to condone the illegal distribution of copyrighted anime, but from a purely objective standpoint, anime fansubbing and the illegal distribution of anime online doesn’t seem to be a serious jeopardy or imminent threat of inquisition by the RIAA, MPAA or any other major, influential trade organization.