A recent comment thread on GRSI, plus this bit of news and my experience with this site, has led me to ask myself a question so bleeding obvious that I feel stupid asking it. I’ll stress right now that I’m not a professional computer programmer (why else would I be using a stock WP theme?) and I don’t follow the industry too closely (Omo does some very insightful and in-depth analysis on the subject though) but even so, I do wonder: I’ve noticed a potential solution that would help fans AND make money for the industry…two facts that ought to mean it should’ve been done already. Only it hasn’t.
The current attempt at a solution to the fansub/piracy problem is through the streaming with region-locking and paid subscriptions, i.e. Crunchyroll’s model. I’m not aiming to criticise what CR are doing here: they did great things in giving Eve no Jikan exposure, made last year’s Global Shinkai Day even more special and are so far the only independent site that has made a high-profile attempt to seek the middle ground.
BUT…not every English speaker lives in the US. Yes, there’s only 60 million of us on this damp little rock, but there are fans here. And elsewhere. Region locking is a pain, but unless the contracts between CR and the Japanese licence-holders change, I suppose that issue will stay with us for a while yet. They also dropped the DTO service for reasons that I sadly can’t recall, and don’t offer as much HD content as I’d like either.
Above all other points I make in this post, I firmly believe that the fansubs debate would move forward if the fans/fansubbers and the licence-holders/distributors talked more and eyed one another with suspicion less. Studios don’t want to deliberately piss their viewers off, and fans don’t want to see the film-makers and actors they admire out of work. There IS a compromise here somewhere – I’m strangely optimistic about that.
What would I ask for in an anime streaming/downloading site? If it’s a series or movie I really, really like I’d want a DVD/Blu-Ray so this post isn’t about DVD/BD piracy, or issues associated with packaged media and licencing/distribution thereof. For ‘casual’ viewing, I’d want to watch it like I’d watch an ordinary anime show: being able to see it subtitled every week.
Good sound and picture quality are desirable. Much of Youtube’s content has godawful pixellation and artefacting, which is an experience I find somewhere between staring at the sun and being stuck in a lift with Harriet Harman in terms of discomfort. Newer PCs can cope with 720p and even 1080p, and quite a lot of currently-airing anime is at least 720p, and it looks great.
Broadband speeds vary worldwide. The UK is pretty shabby in that regard but again, not every part of every country has the same speeds as urban areas of Japan and the US. Streaming can be a bit choppy in many places, which is even more infuriating than ropey video or poor resolution; downloading the episode then watching it off your hard drive solves this but (quite rightly really) the Industry types of wary of it. DTO makes it hard to stop piracy since it’s a system open to abuse from unscrupulous viewers who can all too easily ruin the fun for everyone else.
So, what would I do if I were a programming genius with execs from Shaft, KyoAni, Madhouse et al waving contracts at me? The criteria would need to be:
- Decent quality video and audio that can deliver 720p and at least 2.0 stereo, using formats that are compatible with current standards
- The option of live streaming for people with reliable, fast connections and DTO for those who haven’t
- region-locking that *works*…a bit of a bummer, but that’ll have to be thrashed out later
- The option of setting a limit to the timeframe in which the content can be downloaded and viewed
- a system that allows revenue to pay for new licences and site maintenance
The last point is an important one: my personal feeling is that good entertainment is worth paying for. Not necessarily the eye-watering prices those poor Japanese fans pay for their Blu-rays, but a subscription fee is fair enough; CR already uses this, and it’s not a bad idea. The other criteria might sound like a tall order but why do I think it’s possible, at least from a technological/software standpoint? Because the tech already exists, and has been used by millions for some time now.
The answer is obvious for UK residents, but for the rest of you it’s this: BBC iPlayer. To clarify, this is an online service that give access to a lot (not all, due to copyright reasons) of programmes broadcast on BBC TV and radio. After a show is aired it is available on iPlayer streamed, or to download if you prefer.
I personally think iPlayer is one of the best ideas the BBC has ever had. I don’t have a TV so don’t pay a licence fee, but there is some good quality stuff that’s worth watching; if iPlayer required a subscription fee, I’d rather pay it and watch the programmes I like via the internet. It’s a neat way of watching stuff without requiring the infamous TV licence; which is effectively a blanket tax for merely owning a TV set…a stupid idea in this day and age. But I digress.
The clever bit of the iPlayer service is that, if your connection speed can’t reliably support streaming, you can download the programme and watch it later. There’s a timebomb-like feature built in that automatically deletes the file from your machine after a given period, and there’s even a security measure that somehow prevents you taking screencaps (I don’t know how that works, but it does. I tried it). There are even some programmes in high definition, that match the standards of picture of the BBC HD channels.
The iPlayer Desktop application uses on Adobe Air, and can run on Windows or a Mac. Long story short, it works, and fits all the criteria listed above apart from the payment system. So then, the technology exists for viewers to watch their favourite shows but it also has security features built in to allow the site’s webmasters to control who can access the content, and for how long.
I’m suspect there are a lot of other, legal rather than practical, reasons why Crunchyroll’s site and terms of service aren’t ideal and why the fansub/piracy debate rages on. I must confess I’m ignorant to many of them, because right now I’m thinking “what’s stopping it?” If it’s physically getting it to work, there are real-life examples of film and television that is viewable publicly and legally. It works for the viewers AND keeps those corporate folks happy.
The bottom line is that there needs to be freer dialogue between the people who make the shows and the people who watch/buy them. The physical act of getting the content available online however is the easy part…if the rest of the obstacles are insurmountable that’s fair enough, but how cool would it be if the fandom could pull something like this off?
yes, I’m an idiot. I get it
Any minute now, someone’s going to make a point that will make me feel incredibly dumb. I’ve already braced myself for a facepalm that it’ll give my unborn grandkids nosebleeds, so fire away and stop me daydreaming like this. But I at least wanted to try and make a constructive suggestion, because the *real* stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask.