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Originally Posted by vio5555
[...] Fansubs do a disservice to both Japanese and American anime corps by creating a demand for raws and providing a potentially limitless supply for an alternative to a dvd of an anime.
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I have seen many people make this argument before. But, what I am more interested in is the solution to the problem. See, I would propose that the problem is not the
demand itself (in a free-market economy, demand is always a potential positive); the problem is that, in this case, the demand is not being met a legal and ethical way.
You are proposing that the problem with fansubbing is that it creates a demand and then immediately satisfies that demand, thus creating greater demand. It is thus a self-perpetuating demand, also known as an addiction cycle. There are two ways for a free-market economy to react to this problem:
1. Try to kill the addiction cycle. (Case in point here would be the RIAA)
2. Find a way to profit from the addiction cycle. (Case in point here would be tobacco companies, for lack of a better example)
In this case, thankfully, this addiction is relatively harmless, so in an ideal world, someone would have already figured out how to profit from this trend. That is what I am missing in this whole argument. People can argue forever about the ethics of fansubbing, but so long as the demand is not being met in any other sensible and comparable way, the practice will continue. (I would argue that R1 DVDs are not a comparable substitute for the practice of fansubbing, and it's not just about the price.) If it's a self-perpetuating addiction to marketable products, the only sensible way for companies to react is to try to profit from it. (Will they be that perceptive though? That's the real question.)
So, in response to the main thread, no, HDTV protection won't seriously affect fansubbing, because the demand is still there and is not being met in any other way. The only thing that will truly end the majority of fansubbing is when the demand is being met in a *better* way. I would argue that it's in the best interests the companies to *be* that better way.
Note: This is not an attempt to rationalize fansubbing - it is clearly illegal under international law, and is, at best, ethically questionable (most especially for series that are surely going to be licensed). However, villifying the demand doesn't get us any closer to a solution.