why are minor anime/game sites such wimps?

[Don]

This is kind of a continuation of my earlier thread relating to copyright/fan communities. I follow a lot of fairly obscure game/anime that is clearly outside the mainstream. Obviously, to get most of this stuff you end up pirating it because it's difficult to buy some of this stuff even if you wanted to pay. And small stuff community are deathly afraid of copyright, or perhaps afraid is not the right word, rather hypocritical. For example:

Q: Where do I get Megaman Zero 4?
A: It is against the forum rules to ask for ROMs. I recommend this and that site to buy. Their service is so good they sent the game here before it was even out in Japan!

Q: Where can I get Tsukihime the game?
A: This game is out of print and costs $1000+ on EBay, a perfectly normal amount of money to blow on an outdated game. After all we all got our copy this way!

Q: Where can I get Fate Stay Night anime when it comes out?
A: FSN the Anime is licensed by someone and will probably be bought by all of 30 guys when/if it comes to US so we can't provide torrents to that. Of course all our forums members have this magically taped from Japan.

I mean, if I was the head distributor for say, Naruto fansubs, I might actually be inclined to pretend I don't know where this stuff is because a lot of people actually watch Naruto so whoever owns the copyright to it might be interested to go after me. But who, in the grand scheme of things, cares about Megaman Zero 4 or Fate the Anime? It's not like 95% of the people there didn't get all this stuff illegally, and it's not like any of this stuff is actually hard to find if you know where to look.

You'd think if you follow an obscure thing, then you'd help out fellow fans all the bit more, not less. Maybe that's why obscure stuff remains obscure...

[Nev]

Because I'm sure many of these sites advertise, and make some money, however small, from the advertisements, and run the risk of getting sued into smithereens if they were ever convicted of distributing ROMs.

Even if they don't advertise, they could still easily get sued to smithereens.

Come on, Don. You're rather anti-piracy for most things, and whether or not you agree with it, you have to at least know what a hard line most companies take against it. And even "outdated" or "obscure" stuff is not guaranteed to never be a moneymaker for its company again afterwards - look at the Nintendo Revolution's planned download-on-demand services to see why companies protect their intellectual property zealously.

[Kupek]

Q: Where can I get some crack?
A: Right around the corner! There's a little house with a dealer who would be happy to hook you up. Maybe even a free sample. Hell, I have some. Wanna go hit it?

[Don]

Of course I know it's illegal. But it's a matter of degree here. You've people like Sine advertising Naruto fansubs are great and where to get them on this forum here, and Naruto is something that is actually being watched and commercially viable. The chance of him being sued is slim, but it is infinitely higher than anyone distributing stuff that's both unpopular and not commericially viable.

I don't mean obscure stuff as some kind of justification for piracy, or that such sites needs bold letters telling people where to get this stuff. But if every person who ask for Naruto torrents got told everyone else taped their own shows from Japan or something bogus like that, I'd imagine even Naruto would not have been nearly as popular.

[Kupek]

Static sites whose main purpose is to disseminate information are more visible than our little message board. They're not going to tell people how to get pirated material for the same reason that someone's not going to answer the crack question like that: it makes them a target.

[Don]

A lot of obscure stuff sites are about as big as this message board.

People don't go out of their way to disguise where to get Naruto fansubs anywhere, which has infinitely more commercial value than just about anything obscure you can pirate. Does popularity give a false sense of legality? Because Naruto fansubs sure aren't more legal than any other anime fansub.

I'll stick to fansub because it's easiest to contrast. You've roughly 3 kinds of anime:

1. Licensed and is being shown here.
2. Licensed but has no plan to move to USA.
3. Not licensed and no plan to move to USA.

Of course based on copyright laws, supplying fansubs of such anime is illegal in all 3 cases. However, there's obviously a descending order of commercial interest. Stuff in the first category the owners obviously care the most about because each Naruto or whatever you download could potentially mean one less buyer when it's out on DVD or one less viewer when it's on TV.

Yet you don't have to jump through any hoops if you want to get Naruto, or Yugioh GX, or anything that's actually popular enough to be commercially profitable. It's all the stuff you've never heard of that is most likely never coming to USA that you have to go through all the loops to get.

That strikes me as totally weird.

[Nev]

You bitch at other people for pirating things, then you want it to be okay when you do it, because "it's obscure"?

Come on, Don.

[Don]

Errr no, I never have a problem with finding what I need and I end up buying most of the stuff anyway. This isn't about me. I'm just annoyed that if someone new getting into whatever obscure thing, they'll be hard pressed to find any of this stuff without shelling out a ton of money (and some of the stuff you can't reasonably buy even if you've money) based on advices from a community that almost certainly pirated everything to start with. I mean, yes I wish people would actually buy the real stuff instead of pirating it, but let's not get too out of touch with reality here.

My friend bought the Fate promotional anime DVD which is $25 for 3 minutes of 2nd-rate Anime preview. You just don't tell people who you're trying to convince this thing is the best thing since sliced bread that they should start by putting down $25 for a 3 minute clip that not even a Fate Stay Night fanboy can love, or $1000 on a Tsukihime original edition from EBay that the owner probably doesn't even own the copyright due to some legal oversight. Yes there is loyalty to what you like but you can't all be like my friend who bought a $25 3 minute DVD clip fully knowing it's going to suck just to support Typemoon, and even he doesn't have the $1000 original edition of Tsukihime.

[Oracle]

I <3 Kupek