Well, it looks like the anime/otaku/fansubbing crowd doesn’t read Techmeme or Techcrunch, for that matter (this blog too, obviously, but that’s something I’m willing to overlook :), but someone had, and it looks like the word is spreading about Crunchyroll’s success, and it looks like they are not pleased.

So here’s the recap: Crunchyroll (a You-Tube “clone” which is a video-streaming site for folks who love and/or who are obsessed with Japanese animation and /or Japanese/Asian movies / television series) got VC funding from Venrock about two weeks ago to the tune of 4 million dollars, which was a contentious position, I asserted, because the vast majority of its content was, and continues to be, copyrighted — hosting the videos was, and continues to be, a legal landmine for Crunchyroll.

It tries to get around this by saying that it will happily take down videos if the appropriate DMCA paperwork is filed, but will not actively police videos at the point of upload.  Because the copyright owners are unaware or do not care (or have other reasons that I’m not aware of), there continues to be a whole *LOT* of copyrighted material still on Crunchyroll, and this includes both animated shows and television series..

What’s become apparent to me since writing the original is that there’s a human side of this story that I didn’t appreciate.

And that is of the fansubbers, whose contribution, it can be argued, Crunchyroll’s success is based upon, and whose existence it owes itself to.

Fansubbers are folks who, often as a group, subtitle television shows and movies from their native language into other languages.  Fansubbers exist for all kinds of niches, and for all kinds of video media.  To me, fansubbers, are a little bit like the creators of open source software, in that they spend a whole lot of their own personal time and energy making something that can be enjoyed by a whole lot of other people.

However, *unlike* folks who create open-source software, very few can use this hobby as a launchpad to professional activities, and very few of them make any money for their efforts (almost all make none).  Many of them are literally doing it for the love of “the game”, and a desire to want to share it with others.

Furthermore, unlike folks who create open-source software, many of them are *also* the potential targets of legal action, as subtitling itself and the redistribution of the original video is in a legally shady area to begin with.  In fact, many fansubbing groups have asked its fans *NOT* to upload their videos to sites like YouTube so that they won’t be the obvious target of legal action.

So, it adds a greater dimension of irony that not only is Crunchyroll getting funding for streaming videos that are already copyright protected, but the folks who have made those videos possible for watching (subtitling) have gone through hoops to avoid copyright prosecution themselves — with no practical monetary gain in the first place.  In fact, many go out of their way (and add a message directly to the videos that they sub) that their work isn’t meant to be sold or resold at any price.

And right now, it looks like they’re realizing what’s going on, and they’re not happy.

With the fansubbing community coming to grips with how Crunchyroll is making out (like bandits, as it were) off their hard work (and at their own personal risk), it remains to be seen what kind of ramifications this will have on Crunchyroll — if the amount of media taken down changes (i.e. increases), or if fansubbers are going to be adding interesting “messages” to Crunchyroll at the end of their work, in the event that it gets uploaded to Crunchyroll.