Funimation Sues 1337 Anime Pirates
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Jan 26, 2011 19:01 JST
- Tags: Copyright, Fansubbing, Funimation, Internet, Litigation, Marketing, Translation, USA
Funimation is suing 1337 anime pirates for pirating a pirate anime.
The lawsuit, alleging copyright infringement and filed in a Texas court, accuses 1,337 IP addresses of the illegal bit-torrent distribution of episode 481 of One Piece.
The suit demands they delete the episode and desist from further unauthorised distribution, as well as possibly seeking damages and costs.
The actual identities of the alleged pirates the IP addresses belong to (“John Does”) would normally be included into the suit at a later date pending further investigation.
As the anime most widely available through legal channels the world over (being both simulcast and released onto DVD in unedited form), even the most self-righteous of anime pirates are likely to have trouble justifying illegal distribution of One Piece – not that this is likely to stop them trying.
However, some are speculating that the real reason behind the suit may be a reaction to the recent scape-goating of Funimation for the piracy of various simulcast series, and the unusual display of litigative wit in the selection of “1337” defendants certainly suggests an ulterior motive beyond the usual butting of heads between Internet and copyright holders.
| 
Dead or Alive Ero-SFM Doubly Dirty
Flying Witch “Cute But Boring…”
Phantasy Star Online 2 Phantastic: “What About the West!?”
Shounen Maid “A Fujoshi Delight”
Terra Formars Live Action Web Drama Announced
Dragon Quest Heroes II Quite Monstrous
KumaMiko Lovingly Innocent
Aqua Onahole Parody Hopefully Moist
A-Size Classmate Profusely Petite
One Day With Maria Raunchy & Romantic
The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 Raises Its Voice
Hai-Furi in Troubled Waters
Star Fox Zero “Pandering To Kids!”
Kiznaiver Shares Its Pain
Love Live’s Koi ni Naritai Aquarium PV “Will Sell Thousands!”
Skimpy Kataigou Figure
Ellen Baker’s Illustrator: “Keep It Clean!”
Bullet Girls 2 Goes At It From All Angles
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization A Real Grind
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri Immensely Gruesome
Goddess of 2ch “Another Bathing Beauty!”
Tantalizing Hestia Cosplay Busts Out
Kashiwazaki Sena Cosplay Pure & Innocent
Minami Kotori Casino Girl Cosplay Takes No Chances
Shimakaze Cosplay by Ema Sakura
Harley Quinn Cosplay by Miyuko Colorfully Crazy
Sonico Ero-Cosplay by Yuka Hoshikage Super Sexy
Kasugano Sora Bunny Girl Cosplay Absolutely Admirable
Goddess of 2ch: “Barely Legal Beauty!”
Highly Yuri Tenryuu & Tatsuta Cosplay by Garo & Usagi
You can tell that the people at Funimation have a sense of humour at least, with the amount of people they decided to sue.
Not like this lawsuit will get them anywhere, though
It won't, but to be honest, if that was an intentional number, then I actually totally support the hell out of them. I honestly don't care if that makes me exceptionally shallow, that's like an adult swim bump style humor ^^
Either way, the reality is Funimation is between a rock and a hard place in this case. I'm sure they think similar to us on this, as in the only people the Japanese were hurting were Funimation themselves, by completely removing ANY profitability for the episode, rather than getting at least some. Unfortunately, as generally cool as Funimation is regarding not going overboard about the foolishness of the fandom, when it comes down to the political perceptions the Japanese have of American companies and anime distributors, they were basically handed a carrot on the edge of a fishing rod and were baited into this move.
In this case it's not Funimation that deserves any retribution or blame, but the foolish Japanese who demanded this ridiculousness of them in some strange ploy to see what power they have over them. I'm all for controlling piracy and forcing spoiled whiny brats to actually support the good stuff (especially now that the official companies have smartened up a lot), but there are ways to handle it. Simulcast is one of the key ways. I believe in people too much for that simulcast pulling decision to process effectively in my mind as something intelligent.
Oh well. I'll root for Funimation regardless. Unlike other companies that couldn't adapt and have fallen by the wayside, Funimation has constantly gotten better for it. Even for Funi, the lawsuit seems like a drop in a pond. They have DVDs and streams available every-freakin-where including Youtube. So they probably will win on the availability front. Not sure about keeping them down when they're a group of anons though.
As for other anime distributions, I'm in much more favor of fansubs and other releases as long as they don't have any concrete plans for a western release. And I must admit, I must get my new anime NOW! I'm guilty.
Funimation is suing 1337 anime pirates for pirating a pirate anime.
I just love the pun in there!
Should of posted this at 13:37.
I cannot understand why people would illegally spread this around when it is legally availible for free. This is entirely stupid, as this leaves the grey area of what manga and anime fansubbing lives in.
Really all depends on how much funimation pushs this lawsuit really, I'm thinking they may start pushing harder.
Some People dont like funimation subs, plain and simple
"Funimation is suing 1337 anime pirates for pirating a pirate anime."
Say that line fast. Quickly!
Why does it honestly feel like Funimation is just trolling us
Forget the Elite 4, now we have the Elite 1337.
@Lonespica Think again, pal. All Funimation subs sucks ass!
@TNinja,tried,it's fun!
why 133y 15 0ur fr13n|)
1 4M 50 54|)
It's not legally free all around the world, as Funimation only allows the stream to be accessed by US and maybe a couple of countries. The internet being global and all that mean millions of people do not have access legally. Until content producers get it through their heads that the world is bigger then japan and the US they won't make as much money.
Funimation is bullshit, just like 4Kids Entertainment!
@Anon 23:24
Well those same people are willing to watch those same bad subs on a fansub website?
WTF!? People are crazy...
"My question is this, how can Funimation sue the people for copyright infringement if they don't own the copyright for the property."
A: An Exclusive License
One of the management looking dudes with funimation has a tatoo of binary code on his arm.
1337? O U so funi.
lol.. i see what you did thar~!
Only 1337? Wow, that's too damn FEW.
I don't think it's even 5% of all the pirate otakus who use BT worldwide. Especially that we're talking about One Piece here.
Likely not even .5% and IPs of individual computers are very weak evidence that is nearly worthless in court because of the nature of how the internet works.
It really depends how technically inept the judge and jury are.
If you have the slightest clue you'd know they can be spoofed and logs can be altered.
Deletes 481...
Waits for 482...
Problem?
who the hell is still download one peice?
Surprisingly, many still do, but what a waste of space =_=
never dld a single piece
and yet another reason to avoid it, especially 481 (soap operas anyone?) on top of wasted space
all the pieces fit together
@Yoshii-kun:
Surprisingly, ONE PIECE KICKS IN THE ASS TO ALL THE MOETARD ANIME YOU'VE EVER SEEN :D
Anon 03:09
Surprisingly, ONE PIECE SUCKS ASS, like you! :D
Surprisingly, ONE PIECE KICKS IN THE ASS TO ALL THE MOETARD ANIME YOU'VE EVER SEEN :D
-KICKS
+TAKES
@VVayfarer's Yuri Alter Ego:
You're stupid enough to not find out that you are an asshole and you can suck my dick with the bitch of Yoshii-kun, like I said, fuck you good shonen anime haters, moe animes are finished...
@06:20 Yeah and fuck you anon! Anons are anals! Go suck my other self's dick, bitch!
Fairy Tail is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than One Piss!
VVayfarer's Yuri Alter Ego
............ /´¯/)............ (\¯`\
............/....//........... ...\\....\
.........../....//............ ....\\....\
...../´¯/..../´¯\........... /¯ `\....\¯`\
.././.../..../..../.|_......_| .\....\....\...\.\.
(.(....(....(..../.)..).. (..(. \....)....)....).)
.\................\/.../....\. ..\/................/
..\................. /........\................../
....\..............(........
....................../¯/
....................../../
.............../¯/¯/../¯¯\
..............|..'...'..'..|¯\¯|
..............|............¯../
...............\..........._/.........…
................|.........|...........…
................|.........|...........…
................|.........|...../|....…
Fairy Tail is shit and so are you
wow! Funimation actually followed Fractale's orders? all in the name of profit I presume
on a side note though there are many more pirate sites outside the U.S. so I wonder if they're going to sue them as well?
I'd imagine they may not have such "jurisdiction" in areas where they don't have business with....
I doubt the two are directly connected. Fractale is handled by a completely different studio.
The wiki says Ordet and A-1 Pictures pinched off that loaf.
Funimation is just a distributor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractale
Really it would have been no big loss to loose distribution rights as both companies are tiny and don't carry many big titles.
In fact Ordet and A-1 Pictures should be extremely grateful a company like Funimation picked up one of their productions as otherwise they'd have no US sales.
Fractale is shit I would have ignored it.
As far as I'm concerned A-1 Pictures can go bankrupt.
If they sue individual pirates it will actually cost them more money then they'd gain.
What happens if you sue someone who can't afford to pay they declare bankruptcy.
At best the lawyer might seize their house but in this real estate market it will sell for next to nothing.
Don't they learn from their own anime that pirates never taken down from the government?
Recursive piracy is always fun.
Except it's one piece so it sucks.
1337 ? xD
Funimation must be ran by George Bush.
I think it's ran by Lars Ulrich dood.
so much fans of this maniac (bush)
While I still see "This content is not available in your territory." anime will be pirated.
The internet does away with all geo boundaries. Stop trying to price gouge.
~~ Regards, Australia
They woke up only for an episode of One Piece?
Damn...
And I believed it was legal if the episode is not in your country.
They woke up because they were in danger of losing their license to stream Fractale.
BBBBBBut there's no purple hair!
Oh yeah, like thats a disaster...
Yah big loss not having that pile of steaming dog flop.
due to Berne convention
signatory countries recognize the copyright of works of authors from other signatory countries in the same way as it recognises the copyright of its own nationals
china don't.
thank you for playing. presented by capcom
china isn't the only place where people don't care about copyright