Hiya I'm new to trading and VCD's etc so please be nice ^_^

I have fansubbed 'Narutaru' & 'Kimi ga Nozomu Eien,'(anime) downloaded from animesuki.com. They're on CD-R. A trader has asked me for them but he hasn't got anything I want so he says he'll pay the postage & packaging & cost of the CD-Rs. I'd charge him about 80p for each CD-R as the P&P is approx 65p & CD-R 15p. I'm confused. Is this allowed? Because they're still unlicensed. I don't wanna be doin anything illegal.

Sorry for the bother I'm just asking to make sure, I'm a good citizen =D lol.

Thanks for reading my query, reply will be appreciated ^_^

Jessica

-- Jess (cactusdream@hotmail.com), September 09, 2004

Answers

I don't know about UK laws as I am not a UK citizen, but probably this is not technically legal. In fact, I have serious doubts that your downloads are legal. The authorities are unlikely to seize your mail for sending 2 CD-Rs to some trader, but it doesn't seem to me that what you propose is legal. Even if you sent them for free, you're still sending copies of films you (probably) illegally downloaded. I say "probably" because I am not an anime fan, so I know nothing about any of the films at this site, but it looks to me to be a site where people can download illegal copies of various anime films. The fact that the site encourages the use of bittorrent doesn't make me think it's legitimate. Bittorrent is notorious for its use to trade illegal copies of movies and music, much like Kazaa. Why can't the trader just download them himself from animesuki.com and leave you out of this? Bottom line - you're unlikely to get in trouble for doing this, but no, it's not technically legal.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), September 10, 2004.

Thanks for your answer :)

"Fansubs violate copyrights We have to admit it: the distribution of fansubs is technically a violation of copyright under the WTO TRIPS agreement. However the TRIPS agreement does not demand that distribution of copyrighted material is a criminal offence unless it is done on a commercial scale. This means it is up to the copyright holder to bring the offender to court. The copyright of unlicensed material is held by the original creator. In the case of anime this usually means the Japanese distribution company. If something is licenced, the licensee holds the copyright and thus the right to sue any copyright infringers within the area covered by the license. (source: ato's forum post)

Up until now fansub groups have had little to worry about legal pressure from Japan. However US companies are more likely to sue, therefore it is an additional reason for fansub groups to stop distributing a series once it gets licensed in the US."

For more info: http://www.animesuki.com/doc.php/licensed/

This guy thats willing to pay for the P&P hasn't got broadband anymore as he lives in the middle of nowhere so was just asking for trades. I don't want to make a profit out of this he just asked and I don't know what to do as money is involved =S If trading anime for anime thats a different matter it's allowed.

Oh well I'm dumb lol I'll tell him to get them from someone else as I'm unsure still ^_^

-- Jess (cactusdream@hotmail.com), September 10, 2004.