Fan-subbing & translations of copyrighted works without permission - by Si-Jia Mao

Fans' participation is considered to be a cost free advertisement for TV series, dramas, books, etc. Despite being termed as 'free labor', it can also be considered a double-edged sword. Translations of copyrighted works are being mass distributed on the Internet without permission. Many publishers are concerned that these fan-translations can hurt the market as more and more people get access to series for free in a language that they prefer.

The Questions to Consider
In this case, how does the 'free labor' of fan-translation influence the overall market of a series? Does more exposure overweight the fact that more people watch fan-subbed shows for free online? How much profit do copyright holders lose due to piracy and online distribution of fan-translated works?

The Reasons Behind Fan-subbing & Translations
Language barrier is usually the main reason behind fan-subbing and translations of works without permission. Books, movies, and TV shows are usually released in the language targeted to a specific audience. Although famous titles will eventually make it to an international market in multiple languages, the time between the first original release and the official translated version can be extremely long. More so for titles that are not popular enough for the publishers or producers to take the risk. This is when fan-subbing and translations are the solution for many people. Fans who are in no way related to the copyright holders of the original work would come together and translate movies, TV shows and books for other fans who do not speak the language of the original work. They are doing this contribution for free and out of their own free time. The fan-translations would be massively distributed on the Internet and eventually everyone will have access to them for free. They could also open the option of getting translated in other languages as well. This practice is a huge thing in the Japanese animation and manga industry as well as Korean and Chinese drama series.

The Japanese Anime & Manga Industry
Japanese animation and manga (Japanese comic books) have a massive fan-base in the West. The entire anime and manga community is the perfect example at how far fan participatory culture can get. It is very impressive how the fan-base is always up-to-date with all the new airing anime every season and the various manga chapters published every week in Japanese magazines. By conducting the following Google search: “watch free anime”, one will be presented with an endless list of websites that offers free streaming of fan-subbed anime. This also applies to “read free manga” which will yield a list of websites that lets one read fan-translated (or scanlated/scanlation; a term used to describe the process of scanning and translating Japanese manga) manga for free. The fan-subbing and translation practice of anime and manga is available in such abundance that it extends to other media such as light novels and visual novels.

It is without a doubt that this fan activity which was overseen as “free-labor” by publishers and producers until recently is starting to become a big concern for the industry to the point that publishers and producers of anime and manga are taking legal steps at discouraging the practice and encouraging fans to buy and support official English release of their favourite series. In 2014, Japan launched its massive anti-piracy campaign for the anime and manga industry. The campaign is called Manga-Anime Guardians Project also known as M.A.G. which is responsible to monitor and remove illegally uploaded copies of anime and manga on the Internet. The campaign was set into movement after a report of the damage caused by piracy of anime and manga. According to a report in 2013 from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, the cost of damage from major cities of China for Japanese contents is $560 billion Japanese Yen which converts to approximately $5.6 billion USD per year. Additionally, a 2014 Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) report indicates that the estimate cost of damage from online piracy is as much as $2 trillion JPY which is approximately $20 billion USD.

Although M.A.G. was launched in 2014, the war between Japanese and U.S. manga publishers against scanlations have been on-going since 2010. This brought together 36 Japanese and American manga publishers to put an end to what they call "rampant and growing problem" of scanlation, the practice of posting scanned and translated editions of Japanese manga online without permission from the copyright holders. The booming sales of manga in the U.S. have decreased more than 30% from a high of $210 million in 2007 to $140 million in sales in 2009. It used to be common belief from many manga publishers and retailers that scanlation actually helped attracted new readers and boosted the popularity of manga overseas. However, they are now blaming the decline of sales on scanlation sites that allowed a new generation of readers to grow up reading manga for free off the Internet.

With that said, the anime and manga industry is just perfect to investigate the extent of fan participatory culture and how much it can influence the entire market through 'free-labor'.

Methodology
On top of doing research on the topic and reading about news related to the sales decrease of anime and manga, it is also important to take into account the fandom's perspective on this problem. A survey about fans' spending on anime and manga merchandise will be conducted. The survey will be distributed on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Most questions would inquire about fans' spending habit, what makes them buy or not buy anime or manga, why are they spending or not spending, etc.