I noticed that there is a GTO DVD-version on sale. It seems like the one from JTV. Can someone pls verify if it is the same as the one at JTV?

The seller is selling this series at a really high price too. $24.99!!!


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3392720592&category=41524
Seller's name: firearm01

Takez0 wrote:

I noticed on recent Musui encodes he started covering the KIKU letters with a mosaic kind of thing.

yeah, i've seen black bars covering corners as well!

how much do you guys think is a reasonable price for each cd? would it be .75 cents? because normally one cd worth 2 blank cds. and each cds are about .4 cents?

duba878 wrote:

how much do you guys think is a reasonable price for each cd? would it be .75 cents? because normally one cd worth 2 blank cds. and each cds are about .4 cents?

I guess it all depends on where you buy your CD-Rs. For me, I'm quite anal when it comes to media... And I will only buy one particular brand/make: Memorex 48x 700MB black CD-R. At CompUSA in Hawaii, a 50-disc spindle sells for $24.95+tax. So that comes out to 50-cents per disc on my end. Usually on snail-mail trade, I get stuck with 2-cent crap CD-Rs. I go for the 50-cent discs because I've had 100-percent success with them when giving to others. However, my success rate when receiving the cheap-o's are about 90-percent.

That's why when trading with someone, it's very important to work out not only the dramas, but also the quality of media being used.

--- groink

Smiley_18 wrote:

I noticed that there is a GTO DVD-version on sale. It seems like the one from JTV. Can someone pls verify if it is the same as the one at JTV? The seller is selling this series at a really high price too. $24.99!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3392720592&category=41524 Seller's name: firearm01

Yes, that is JTVs version so you're better off downloading it via BT.

BRAND NEW eBay seller -- t_amo_1217
http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=t_amo_1217

Actually, this seller isn't new... He's been on eBay for a little over a year. However, he thinks that he's found a new item to sell on eBay -- fanworks!!!! So I've sent him just now a greetings note:

Man, I wish you wouldn't sell fanworks like these. The selling of fanworks on eBay goes against Japanese drama fan ethics. People like JEM, keal, musui, among others capture dramas and make them purely for the basis of trading and NOT selling, even for no-profit. Matter of fact, on all JEM captures, he makes it very clear on every file he's created, which includes transparent text mentioning this fact. If people continue to sell fanworks, these capturers will STOP offering captures to the fanbase, and that will BE IT!

A group of people on JDorama.com, who I'm part of, have so far shut down about six eBay sellers after reporting them to eBay Safe Harbor on the basis of selling copyright infringed materials. So we can put a stop to this! Please don't have us report your sales to eBay. To prove that we're not fooling around:

http://www.jdorama.com/viewtopic_3702.htm

http://www.jdorama.com/viewtopic_1646.htm

http://www.jdorama.com/viewtopic_2245.htm

Hope he appreciates the head-up notice!

--- groink

groink
good job...

I wonder he'll stop selling fanwork or not

groink wrote:

Reason for creating this list and aggressively tracking these sellers is that I'm an up-and-coming capturer, and my fanworks are starting to pop up on the drama trading scene. This is my pro-active way of making sure these sellers don't even THINK of selling my capturers, and at the same time help out other capturers from others making a profit on their works. --- groink

Hi groink,

Don't be surprised if your fansubs are being sold ala blackmarket in Asia already via VCD. I remember one fansubber who was furious to find that his fansub was being distributed by a VCD site in Indonesia. Also, those who are selling fansub anime have started selling J-doramas. Some of those anime selling folks have websites that list fansub J-dramas that they are selling. Anyway, good job in pursuing these people!!!

kndy

zaza_tk87 wrote:

groink good job... I wonder he'll stop selling fanwork or not

I don't think so... The seller e-mailed back a reply, filled with denial and other nonsense. I should've kept the e-mail, but I've already dumped it. I don't give a rats *ss what they say to me, y'know? I'll just let eBay handle it -- it's all I can really do right now.

As for the Asian black market... I expected for that sort of thing to happen. However, so far I've only released one really clean series and that was Hatchobori Seven 4. If they want to bootleg that one, I'd still be unhappy about it, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Younger Men is the first series where I'm starting to take the JEM school and mark up the video with messages. However, unlike JEM's use of transparent fonts that apparently none of the buyers are annoyed over, mine are in bold-white type on the top of the video, and placed about three to four places throughout the episode. I only did it to episodes 10 and 11, so if a bootlegger does actually sell the series to someone, they still might not be annoyed by the messages, but it's also impossible not to ignore them either. I do humbly apologize to the drama community for adding those messages, but it had to be done so I at least get some sort of satisfaction and continue to seed this stuff.

--- groink

groink wrote:

I don't think so... The seller e-mailed back a reply, filled with denial and other nonsense. I should've kept the e-mail, but I've already dumped it. I don't give a rats *ss what they say to me, y'know? I'll just let eBay handle it -- it's all I can really do right now. --- groink

that's really *humphh *... I don't know what to say

anyway... let the eBay handle the rest... u've done your part for the drama community

Seller is gingertoys2

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=gingertoys2

You don't even have to guess that this is a KIKU-TV capture:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3396118341&category=617

He posted several image captures from the video, along with the KIKU watermark on each one. And, he even had the nerve to place his name on all the images. Yeah, like someone's going to steal his images, how dare someone rips off his work!!! Hey, dude... look in the mirror, will ha????? And he's selling the set for $18.00 (10 DVDRs) PLUS shipping/handling.

--- groink

j/w what does the ebay do besides suspending accounts? do they set out a warning or any other threats?? i think ebay doesnt really do a good job on terminating these people
_________________

MixxDreamer wrote:

man, i wish they would stop doing that but j/w what does the ebay do besides suspending accounts? do they set out a warning or any other threats?? i think ebay doesnt really do a good job on terminating these people

I agree... About three years ago, I posted a video tape containing a keynote speech given by Steve Jobs (Apple CEO). It was totally legit, with the Apple logo and everything on it. Then within HOURS after posting it, someone from Apple sent the wolves at eBay on me.

Out of that, I think eBay will listen very carefully if the copyright holder makes a complaint. However, if it's a regular Joe Blow like myself, it may be something like this:

eBay sends an e-mail to the seller.
Seller says his stuff is legit.
eBay says, "Oh, okay. Sorry to bother you."

To really put things into perspective, eBay receives THOUSANDS of complaints from other members each day on just copyright infringement issues. One thing that goes against the fanwork/fansub efforts is the fact that Japan-based copyright holders do not monitor eBay and vigorously go after people as aggressively as U.S. based copyright holders. I could only imagine Japan companies do monitor their own country's auction sites like Yahoo Japan.

--- groink

groink wrote:

To really put things into perspective, eBay receives THOUSANDS of complaints from other members each day on just copyright infringement issues. One thing that goes against the fanwork/fansub efforts is the fact that Japan-based copyright holders do not monitor eBay and vigorously go after people as aggressively as U.S. based copyright holders. I could only imagine Japan companies do monitor their own country's auction sites like Yahoo Japan. --- groink

think that if japanese tv stations do come out and hunt down all the fanwork, then we'd all be done for. including groink, jem and all the fansubbers best we can do is cut down as much ebay crap as possible......

there must be some other way, i mean theyre probably aware of the fansubbing network around the world right?, specially it helps to expose to those who couldnt have them in their area..

i wish they could just hunt down the people who sells them, illegally. (eg. from ebay or any other auction sites)
_________________

slave2music wrote:

But the japanese copyright owners (the only people that could file charges) don't really care about fansubbing or drama subbing because they don't have a market over here. Granted, that all changes once a fansub is licensed in the USA, but speaking for dramas, I've yet to see a drama licensed for distribution in the USA

This is purely a pro-active effort on my part... I'm actually looking ahead five to ten years from now.

I have a vision: entertainment from one culture will be viewed all over the world. In English speaking countries, there already is a pretty good size market for Japanese entertainment (movies, dramas, variety, musicals, etc.) I think we all can agree that the ending result that works best for everyone is for Japanese production companies to provide English subtitles for their works, then sell them to countries like the US, Canada, and any other English-speaking area.

I have a feeling that most people have already given up on this vision, and instead are doing whatever it takes to satisfy themselves, whether it's buying dramas off of eBay, or bootlegging via the various P2P channels. I think legalized and fully licensed Japanese dramas are just a few years away. So let's think optimistically for a few minutes...

How do we accomplish this vision? Let's follow what the Japanese anime fanbase did within the last 20 years or so:

1) Fans purchased legal copies of anime via the various import outlets, or directly from Japan.
2) From that, some fansub groups created English subtitles, then started sharing the subs via electronic text files or printed scripts on hardcopy.
3) Fans started organizing conventions throughout the US (kind of like Trekker conventions) promoting anime, showing the Japanese production companies that there is an interest beyond just Japan.
4) These companies then started looking at the demographic figures collected. They saw that there was also a lucerative market out there for their products. And they were aware of the fansub projects, which actually helped here.
5) They started finding distributors in the US to carry their products (Pioneer, among others), either in VHS/Beta or laser disc format. Fans started buying them.
6) With the advancement of DVD, capable of handling mulitple subtitle tracks, the production companies are now able to release their products with subs that you can turn on/off.
7) From there, the companies started making an investment in translating their products to other languages.
8) To this day, numbers published in the various Japanese anime magazines show that anime fans in the US and around the world are buying the legally licensed products. And, there's also a well-maintained system on the Internet for keeping anime trading legal, by avoiding the trading of licensed products available in the US.

So, if the Japanese drama community can follow the exact same steps, in five to ten years we could actually start enjoying legally obtainable and fully licensed English-subbed Japanese dramas... and on DVD format, too!

--- groink

Just a few questions...

Fansubbing can be considered intellectual property of the fans, right? It'll be very wrong to get profit out of the works of so many pple.

Coz i've not used BitTorrent before, i'm wondering...is it a form of piracy too?

But i do agree with groink that we gotta be pro-active in this area. I remember watching many japanese dramas that were subbed in english in the past. Believe it was done in Hawaii? Can't recall coz it was a really long time ago, but the point is, if there are enough people who are willing to work at it, it is possible to have eng subbed doramas

wai wrote:

Fansubbing can be considered intellectual property of the fans, right?

I believe that the answer is "no". A fansub is a derivative work. Unless you get permission from the original copyright holder to make and distribute a derivative work, you are probably infringing their copyright. Just because you put some effort into making a derivative work does not offer you any rights in the matter.

Quote:

Coz i've not used BitTorrent before, i'm wondering...is it a form of piracy too?

If you are copying a copyrighted work without permission, then almost certainly you are infringing the copyright. It doesn't matter how you copy it (BT, other P2P, Usenet, etc). Piracy is a word made up by the industry to make "infringing a copyright" sound more sinister.

Now, as to how things will be in the future, I can't say, but the ease of making digital copies of works is bound to fundamentally change how we deal with intellectual property. Personally, I think that non-commercial copying ought to be allowed, and exploited by the industry, as it has been shown to have value in grass-roots marketing.

i say you threaten them more severely... instead of reporting to safe harbor team, how about reporting them to the fbi, fcc, or whoever takes care of this stuff (i have no idea), and possibly get them to court or to pay a fine.

OR...

we can always send anthrax in an envelope to their mailing address

Shin wrote:

i say you threaten them more severely... instead of reporting to safe harbor team, how about reporting them to the fbi, fcc, or whoever takes care of this stuff (i have no idea), and possibly get them to court or to pay a fine.

The only people who have a right to legally seek remedy are the original copyright holders.

Yes, the ebay sellers are being parasites, but it's probably best not to make too much of stink about it. Shame them or shun them and move on.

Just my opinion, of course.