The first article is a biased blog on a theory posed by a guy after reading another article that was never actually published but leaked (same study as article 3), the guy posits that if people are completely banned from the internet due to a French anti-piracy act they will spend less in other entertainment venues.
The second article is a biased news story that takes "high piracy of leaked albums by big name artists also correlates to a large number of sales" to mean "Piracy helps sales" ignoring the fact that people might just be pirating popular releases, which is even more likely when the same results are not found by lesser known artists with large pirating numbers.
Third article is a horribly biased blog on a study that was unpublished that was "leaked" to news media from a collection of self reports that asked "Do you pirate" and "how much do you spend online".
Third article is another biased blog on the 3rd's study from a different site.
I'm not going to say piracy is as bad as Hollywood states it is, Rob Reid did a great job of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0
So yeah, piracy isn't that bad, but you'd be a fool to believe piracy is helping the industry, the true question is just how much piracy is killing the industry. How many US anime distributors have gone under since piracy has become more rampant due to increased storage, higher internet speeds, and increase in fansub groups? Couple that with the decrease in Japanese and US sales. Now this does not take into account the burst of the anime bubble in the early to mid 00's, nor does it take into account the slumping economy, but is it such a stretch to believe piracy has not played a large part in the shameful state anime is in right now?
How many US anime distributors have gone under since piracy has become more rampant due to increased storage, higher internet speeds, and increase in fansub groups? Couple that with the decrease in Japanese and US sales. Now this does not take into account the burst of the anime bubble in the early to mid 00's, nor does it take into account the slumping economy, but is it such a stretch to believe piracy has not played a large part in the shameful state anime is in right now?
The biggest issue is their inability to relate to their consumers. The companies that fell didn't adjust to the times. Funimation changed to start selling sets, rather than individual volumes. Though Bandai would later release sets, by then too much time had past, same with Geneon. They were trying to continue with the Japanese business model, and that just doesn't work in this market. Once you factor that with the stagnant state of the economy, it is no wonder why Funimation, the one who gives you the most value for your money, is on top. Piracy among everything else isn't selective, so it would stand to reason that Funimation should be just as bad off it it was a large contribution to the problem would it not?
Funimation, in my opinion, should be seen as a shining example of how to stay with the market. Still ongoing is their efforts to reach all types of consumers, rather than hanging onto the past. Their combo sets alone is something no other distributor is doing, not to mention their streaming service. From what I can gather, many of such pirates tend to be kids. These are kids with no job or money. This isn't meant to be a generalization though, as I know some that also spend their own money, whether allowance money or hard earned money on buying stuff they like. That is a generation that the streaming service might be more appealing to, especially if it has a broader range of streaming access.
Netflix is an easier sell to parents who can enjoy it themselves as well, but it has very limited anime content and adds stuff sparsely. It only seems that Netflix has stopped adding stuff since Funimation's streaming service went active, so I have wondered if Funimation has halted that route altogether so it doesn't compete. Kind of disappointing to see the first three parts of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on there and the rest is not, almost a year after its release date. Not a problem for me since I have them all, but I could imagine it would be annoying to others.
There are just a large number of factors to consider, I think people just find it easier to blame piracy, it just seems easier to blame a single thing rather than actually determine what they can do to improve.
I truly worry that both Funimation and Sentai will fall with the end of the A.D. Vision lawsuit. If Funimation wins the lawsuit I doubt Sentai will give up much assets before declaring bankruptcy resulting in Funi taking the hit on huge court costs and little reward. I also worry that Funi is banking too much on the hope that they will win, if they lose the court cost Sentai stays around but Funi might end up failing. I used to believe these huge companies are too big to fail, hell a few years ago ADV was the very picture of an anime company doing everything right, but they came crashing down. Last year Funi sales were down 50% from 2004, Navarre went from 3 potential buyers to 0 and Funimation had to buy itself with the stipulation that it could not make any risky business ventures (licensing an anime) for an entire year for fear it would result in Funimation not being able to afford the deal.
I would love to believe Funimation is a strong company doing well, and from what I have seen they are, but history shows that in a year they might be gone and even if they offer streaming videos, subscription services, complete collections, and great prices they still might be gone by this time next year, ADV offered all those things and they still died.
If companies like Funimation want to kill piracy they just need to iron out the kinks of their streaming service. Hard to convince people to use their service if the site can't handle the load.
If you really want to do Funimation a favour, spread the word of their video streaming service. 8 bucks a month is more than worth having instant access to most of their library. Reporting every streaming site you come across is a futile effort.
The first article is a biased blog on a theory posed by a guy after reading another article that was never actually published but leaked (same study as article 3), the guy posits that if people are completely banned from the internet due to a French anti-piracy act they will spend less in other entertainment venues.
The second article is a biased news story that takes "high piracy of leaked albums by big name artists also correlates to a large number of sales" to mean "Piracy helps sales" ignoring the fact that people might just be pirating popular releases, which is even more likely when the same results are not found by lesser known artists with large pirating numbers.
Third article is a horribly biased blog on a study that was unpublished that was "leaked" to news media from a collection of self reports that asked "Do you pirate" and "how much do you spend online".
Third article is another biased blog on the 3rd's study from a different site.
I'm not going to say piracy is as bad as Hollywood states it is, Rob Reid did a great job of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0
So yeah, piracy isn't that bad, but you'd be a fool to believe piracy is helping the industry, the true question is just how much piracy is killing the industry. How many US anime distributors have gone under since piracy has become more rampant due to increased storage, higher internet speeds, and increase in fansub groups? Couple that with the decrease in Japanese and US sales. Now this does not take into account the burst of the anime bubble in the early to mid 00's, nor does it take into account the slumping economy, but is it such a stretch to believe piracy has not played a large part in the shameful state anime is in right now?
The biggest issue is their inability to relate to their consumers. The companies that fell didn't adjust to the times. Funimation changed to start selling sets, rather than individual volumes. Though Bandai would later release sets, by then too much time had past, same with Geneon. They were trying to continue with the Japanese business model, and that just doesn't work in this market. Once you factor that with the stagnant state of the economy, it is no wonder why Funimation, the one who gives you the most value for your money, is on top. Piracy among everything else isn't selective, so it would stand to reason that Funimation should be just as bad off it it was a large contribution to the problem would it not?
Funimation, in my opinion, should be seen as a shining example of how to stay with the market. Still ongoing is their efforts to reach all types of consumers, rather than hanging onto the past. Their combo sets alone is something no other distributor is doing, not to mention their streaming service. From what I can gather, many of such pirates tend to be kids. These are kids with no job or money. This isn't meant to be a generalization though, as I know some that also spend their own money, whether allowance money or hard earned money on buying stuff they like. That is a generation that the streaming service might be more appealing to, especially if it has a broader range of streaming access.
Netflix is an easier sell to parents who can enjoy it themselves as well, but it has very limited anime content and adds stuff sparsely. It only seems that Netflix has stopped adding stuff since Funimation's streaming service went active, so I have wondered if Funimation has halted that route altogether so it doesn't compete. Kind of disappointing to see the first three parts of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on there and the rest is not, almost a year after its release date. Not a problem for me since I have them all, but I could imagine it would be annoying to others.
There are just a large number of factors to consider, I think people just find it easier to blame piracy, it just seems easier to blame a single thing rather than actually determine what they can do to improve.
Being wrong is not a democracy!
I truly worry that both Funimation and Sentai will fall with the end of the A.D. Vision lawsuit. If Funimation wins the lawsuit I doubt Sentai will give up much assets before declaring bankruptcy resulting in Funi taking the hit on huge court costs and little reward. I also worry that Funi is banking too much on the hope that they will win, if they lose the court cost Sentai stays around but Funi might end up failing. I used to believe these huge companies are too big to fail, hell a few years ago ADV was the very picture of an anime company doing everything right, but they came crashing down. Last year Funi sales were down 50% from 2004, Navarre went from 3 potential buyers to 0 and Funimation had to buy itself with the stipulation that it could not make any risky business ventures (licensing an anime) for an entire year for fear it would result in Funimation not being able to afford the deal.
I would love to believe Funimation is a strong company doing well, and from what I have seen they are, but history shows that in a year they might be gone and even if they offer streaming videos, subscription services, complete collections, and great prices they still might be gone by this time next year, ADV offered all those things and they still died.
I read a relevant article recently as it happens:
http://www.mangauk.com/index.php?p=the-shadow-line
Signature? What signature?
If companies like Funimation want to kill piracy they just need to iron out the kinks of their streaming service. Hard to convince people to use their service if the site can't handle the load.
If you really want to do Funimation a favour, spread the word of their video streaming service. 8 bucks a month is more than worth having instant access to most of their library. Reporting every streaming site you come across is a futile effort.