What is the legality of downloading unlicnced anime?

[Ausx]

Sorry if this question has been asked before but I can't seem to find an answer to it anywhere. Basically, if an anime has not been licensed to the area you live (in my case the UK) is it illegal to download it, and if so who's copyright are you breaking by doing so? If not, why is it legal to download unlicensed stuff?

Thanks

[jedinat]

As far as I know it's not really legal, but who gives a flying f!@&$*(##@

[kayos]

Actually if I am correct (please someone correct me if I'm wrong), once an anime is licensed by the distributor, it's there play on who and where they would sell it to. No one has any claims to that anime except for the one that licensed it. So technically if someone was to download it illegally, that distributor may take it to court.

Now onto the questions of where. Whoever has the license to it, can sell it where ever they please. Just because it's in another portion of the world, an anime that is licensed is licensed which makes it illegal to download it without the consent (truthfully I'm not even sure what the hell I'm saying anymore because I really don't know the jurisdiction of other countries).

Now onto the legal stuff. Unlicensed stuff are free play, it's legal because no one actually owns rights to it, or should I say license to it. So spread it as you may.

jedinat:

It's true, no really gives a flying f#*k to it but one day it might catch up. We're like in and out so fast, think no one saw us, then what do you know they have cameras.

[Kamui4356]

This question has been asked before. It is illegal to download anime, regardless of it's status as licensed or unlicensed.

People seems to have a huge misconception about copyrights and licensing. The company producing the series has the copyright, which is good in any country. *Well, any country that honors copyrights, but that's another issue.* If a company in another part of the world is interested in the title, they may lease the rights for it in their area. This is called a license. That company now has a legal right to release the series themselves for their region. However, the copyright was valid from the start.

Granted that's overly simplified, but basicly how things work.

The only possible exception would be series that is so old, the copyrights have expired and it has entered the public domain. I don't know of any anime like that, though there are many classic books in the public domain.

[Nidas]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

This question has been asked before. It is illegal to download anime, regardless of it's status as licensed or unlicensed.

People seems to have a huge misconception about copyrights and licensing. The company producing the series has the copyright, which is good in any country. *Well, any country that honors copyrights, but that's another issue.* If a company in another part of the world is interested in the title, they may lease the rights for it in their area. This is called a license. That company now has a legal right to release the series themselves for their region. However, the copyright was valid from the start.

Granted that's overly simplified, but basicly how things work.

The only possible exception would be series that is so old, the copyrights have expired and it has entered the public domain. I don't know of any anime like that, though there are many classic books in the public domain.

This guy knows his shit. Just to add to this, though it is still illegal to download "unlicensed" anime (its always licensed in Japan) few companies are willing to sue people internationally because of the difficulty of such court cases and the bad publicity that might generate

[kayos]

So what you're saying is that Animesuki is illegally distributing unlicensed anime.

EDIT 01:

Any word from the defendant (admins) on this topic.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by kayos

So what you're saying is that Animesuki is illegally distributing unlicensed anime.

Not at all. Animesuki is just telling you where to find people illegally distributing unlicensed anime. Animesuki doesn't host the files or torrents, so isn't doing anything illegal.

[kayos]

Wouldn't that be called an accomplice to a crime.

[Amethyst]

You're asking posters to set an analogy. You'll never find a general analogy to this. In some eyes, indexing sites such as AnimeSuki.com can be "accomplices to a crime", however they could also be those who call 911 (if we make an analogy). Technically, they are accomplices to organized crime, which piracy is but at the same time they don't pirate anything. So until clear laws are set against sites that index links to illegal material, AnimeSuki hasn't done anything wrong. Mind you, such a law could be the end of Google Inc.

[Clarste]

Note that Animesuki has stopped linking to unlicensed Media Factory titles because the Japanese company asked them to.

[SinsI]

Actually, some of those guys above are saying misleading things. It is perfectly legal to download anything, licensed or not, anime or not... Simply because until you've finished your download AND watched that anime - it is not a "copyrighted material" but some random electronic information junk you've found on the Internet. Of course, after you've thoroughly examined it and found that it is really illegally copied copyrighted material, you must delete it.
Its the uploading that is illegal.

[DarkCntry]

Originally Posted by SinsI

Actually, some of those guys above are saying misleading things. It is perfectly legal to download anything, licensed or not, anime or not... Simply because until you've finished your download AND watched that anime - it is not a "copyrighted material" but some random electronic information junk you've found on the Internet. Of course, after you've thoroughly examined it and found that it is really illegally copied copyrighted material, you must delete it.
Its the uploading that is illegal.

Actually, distrobution and reception of electronic data are just the same as recieving physical property. This means that even the 1's and 0's of data are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without prior consent from holder of the copyright.

What you're trying to allude to is the age-old "must delete within 24 hours, educational use only" scapegoat. This worked about 10 years ago, but with recent copyright law changes and other updates to include digital media, it no longer is true and is nothing more than a laughable attempt to sidestep the law.

[SinsI]

DarkCntry, I'm not alluding to any "must delete in 24 hours" scapegoat.
To inform you, 0's and 1's in the computer are not copyrighted at all - and that is not my opinion, that is an opinion of a professional lawyer I've read. Unless those 0's and 1's can be transformed into a real-life analogue images and sounds, and creative at that (white noise can't be copyrighted) with a publicly available and widely known method, (that is, you are able to find out that it is really a copyrighted material, and that it has no "free copying" inside it).
That's the big difference between physical and electronical data - you can easily say what physical property is, but you have no way of really knowing what exactly you are downloading(it can be fake), so you don't break any law until you've finished downloading and checked it.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by SinsI

That's the big difference between physical and electronical data - you can easily say what physical property is, but you have no way of really knowing what exactly you are downloading(it can be fake), so you don't break any law until you've finished downloading and checked it.

This is one of the typical outs that the anti-copyright people claim. In reality, it's from someone with a good imagination. Unless you can prove it was randomly created, it fails the noise test and is copyrightable. Even if it is a fake, it is likely still copyrighted content. Just not the content you thought it was.


(IANAL)Legally, let's just say that it very very likely tastes better than bologna since nobody has ever used it in court sucessfully since it would have been reported in tech news sites if someone did. By the way, in the US, intent to download is illegal (thank you DMCA), and your above comment is 99.99% of the time, clearly intent.

(And this thread needs to be locked, its going down a slightly different variation of the typical path.)

[Kisuke06]

Give a look at this post.