Yasuo
Yamaguchi goes back to the days before there was an anime industry in
Japan, when Walt Disney set the standard with full animation and
Japanese artists tried to follow that path. "We failed miserably and
fell into the red," Yamaguchi admitted. :Fortunately we learned how to
do TV anime." That limited-animation technique, less expensive and more
efficient than full animation, paved the way for the animation enjoyed
by American fans. Then as now, the Toei studios were production
leaders. Yamaguchi started his career at Toei and still has ties to
that studio -- and the rest of the industry -- as the head of an
organization that promotes Japanese animation. "I am responsible for
reporting how American fans are when compared to the Japanese fans," he
said. Part of that comparison was brought into the open when a fan
asked
Yamaguchi what he thought of American fansubbing of series that had not yet been released in the U.S.
Yamaguchi
first said that fansubbing could be seen as a kind of fan approval.
"The problem of copyright is a two sided blade," he said. "The
fansubbing means the work is very popular. If there's no copyright
infringement, that means there are no fans. We can't really say `this
is bad, you can't do it.'" On the other hand, that fan approval doesn't
make fansubbing legal. "Regardless of whether the copyright has been
acquired in the states or not, the copyright belongs to the original
creators. Unless you're using it for personal use, if it goes onto the
internet it is illegal. However, the media (of distribution over the
internet) is progressing much faster than the industry anticipated.
When it goes on the internet, it's available to the entire world. We in
the industry are talking with the Japanese government on how to
modernize our copyright system."
Yasuo
Yamaguchi goes back to the days before there was an anime industry in
Japan, when Walt Disney set the standard with full animation and
Japanese artists tried to follow that path. "We failed miserably and
fell into the red," Yamaguchi admitted. :Fortunately we learned how to
do TV anime." That limited-animation technique, less expensive and more
efficient than full animation, paved the way for the animation enjoyed
by American fans. Then as now, the Toei studios were production
leaders. Yamaguchi started his career at Toei and still has ties to
that studio -- and the rest of the industry -- as the head of an
organization that promotes Japanese animation. "I am responsible for
reporting how American fans are when compared to the Japanese fans," he
said. Part of that comparison was brought into the open when a fan
asked 
Yamaguchi
first said that fansubbing could be seen as a kind of fan approval.
"The problem of copyright is a two sided blade," he said. "The
fansubbing means the work is very popular. If there's no copyright
infringement, that means there are no fans. We can't really say `this
is bad, you can't do it.'" On the other hand, that fan approval doesn't
make fansubbing legal. "Regardless of whether the copyright has been
acquired in the states or not, the copyright belongs to the original
creators. Unless you're using it for personal use, if it goes onto the
internet it is illegal. However, the media (of distribution over the
internet) is progressing much faster than the industry anticipated.
When it goes on the internet, it's available to the entire world. We in
the industry are talking with the Japanese government on how to
modernize our copyright system."
