License Discussion (Anime)
 

I recently heard that Monster got licensed, while i have downloaded all the episodes fansubbed. Am i supposed to delete the episodes off my disk or to stop distributing them?

(hope it's not a wrong forum)

(lurker btw)

I've not heard that it is licensed... Where did you read it? VIZ have the manga, but that doesn't mean they have the anime.

If it turns out to be true though: yes, deleting them and stopping distribution would be the "correct" / "right" thing to do.

I think it's only licensed in Europe, at least in France and Spain.

Hmmm I looked around a bit and confirmed in wikipedia that you are right, Nightwish. Sorry for that, must have lost the discussion in some part.

One other thing, suppose I go through the trouble of translating the anime into Greek. Would it be legal until some company receives the right to publish it in Greek translation (which is.... never :$), regardless of it being available on, say, English?

(Sorry for that, but some things seem to be taken for granted and are not much explained)

I assume you mean translate it so that you can distribute Greek subtitles? If this is the case then no, unless you have a license to translate it into {insert any language here} and distribute, from the copyright holder, it is never going to be "legal". The same applies to all the English fan subtitled shows on this site: technically they are all illegal.

I believe you are not breaking the law right up to the point at which you try to distribute the translations. They can't very well outlaw someone who knows Japanese from translating the show in the their head while they watch it, however they can (and have) legislated against that person writing those translations down and giving them to other people.

Please read the articles on the main page if you want to know more, as this is not a topic for the Monster forum.

Alright thanks for the help, cleared some things out :)

Any chance of this getting licensed?
 

I'm surprised how much anime has become licensed that wouldn't seem like it would sell well yet I have yet to hear of Monster being licensed. I am itching to purchase the dvd's but a lot of people are telling me to avoid the ones listed with english subs as they are pirated hong kong companys. Any chance a serious company could pick this up?

Not all Hong Kong DVD companies are pirated. It's just the bootlegs on Ebay that you need to be careful of. If you notice it say "Region 0" and has both Chinese and English subs, that's when you know that it's a pirated version.

But it seems an official Singapore company, Odex, has released the series on DVD with English subs. But the DVDs are Region 3 which would be unplayable on most American DVD players. If you have a DVD drive on your computer, with some Google search and then making it region-free, you'll have no problem. :)

Edit:
That link in the article is outdated. Here is the set on the official site:
http://www.odex.com.sg/product.php?product=18
It doesn't mention the DVD specs or subs though...

Please do not buy anything from Odex if you consider yourself a fan of animes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odex

Huh, that sucks, inaccurate translations and a reputation of being against fansubbers. I guess the only alternative now is to download fansubs or to read the manga. I'm actually currently watching the Cantonese dub of it and it's pretty good. :p

There are claims now on Anime News Network that Monster is infact being licensed by Viz Media. Here is a link to what appears to be a booth for a convention they are doing and Monster is listed.

http://www.natpe.org/conference/exhibitorlist/details/index.jsp?id_string=4276:03QlQZ1Zv0jhoMK$$7YmVw**

Copy and paste the link including the **'s. I wonder why 75 episodes are listed. If this is infact true, this is very exciting.

If anyone's curious, Odex's DVD release of Monster Vol 1 is actually pretty decent. The font is a plain sans serif one and white in colour, unlike earlier releases that had yellow serif >.< Translations seem alright to me. I hope they commit themselves to releasing it fully, unlike what they did for Chrno Crusade (got Vol 1 almost 4-5 years ago, and still waiting for 2...)

When it comes to the bottom line, if they can come up with good releases for good anime at good prices, I don't see any reason not to buy from them. They may have made some PR boo-boos (and major ones, too), but they're the only local option for anime DVDs. I could always import, but i don't see any harm in supporting a local company if it does its job well. If Odex cleans up its act I'm willing to give another chance.

I suppose it's already licensed in Singapore, since Arts Central is showing it at the 11.30pm slot...

yeah i heard from ann that Monster and Hunter x Hunter were in a discussion by Viz Media possibly meaning that the animes will be licensed. If that's true then it's about time especially for Hunter x Hunter.