D-Addicts~Legal Drama Downloads

iloveoki · Post by **iloveoki** » Feb 3rd, '07, 18:33

I couldn't help but notice that D-Addicts is far from illegal. Sure, people post the dramas edited by themselves and such, but when I read about how a Korean broadcaster asked D-addicts to delete their dramas off the list, it got me wondering. What if D-Addicts partnered with the major Asian Drama Networks and sold full episodes to viewers like us? I would not mind paying for an episode, as long as it was legal. It bothers me that D-addicts holds so many dramas, that aren't quite appreciated by the Asian Drama Networks that create them. Couldn't there be a better solution to this problem? It could be like an iTunes from Dramas. Anyone else agree?!?

-iloveoki

omoiyou · Post by **omoiyou** » Feb 3rd, '07, 18:54

sry but only reason ppl here is because its FREE otherwise you goto yesasia they got everything

Kamui6 · Post by **Kamui6** » Feb 3rd, '07, 19:01

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/ ... ed53-1.gif[/img]HUH! I could swear it was 'Licensed Dramas' from YA Entertainment. I don't recall them being a 'Korean broadcaster'.

iloveoki · Post by **iloveoki** » Feb 4th, '07, 04:29

Yes, i understand that YA Entertainment distributes licensed dramas. My point is that if Drama networks knew about D-Addicts, they would probably try to shut it down. I'm just wondering if i am the only person that thinks so... I'm just worried that D-Addicts will turn into what Napster did years ago. Companies sued them for they distribution of free licensed media. Isn't D-Addicts doing the same thing, but with Drama Torrents?

That's just my opinion...

-iloveoki

groink · Post by **groink** » Feb 4th, '07, 04:41

iloveoki wrote:Yes, i understand that YA Entertainment distributes licensed dramas. My point is that if Drama networks knew about D-Addicts, they would probably try to shut it down. I'm just wondering if i am the only person that thinks so...

No, you're not the only one. I believe this as well. It's just that:

1. Asian TV companies don't make a vigorous attempt to hunt down copyright infringement.

2. Most people here are naive about the whole copyright thing. There's actually a generation of people who really think everything in the world is free.

3. Some of us who are aware of the legalities take a "nothing's illegal until you get caught" approach.

iloveoki wrote:I'm just worried that D-Addicts will turn into what Napster did years ago. Companies sued them for they distribution of free licensed media. Isn't D-Addicts doing the same thing, but with Drama Torrents?

I believe that some day that there will be no Korean content on D-Addicts. Korean entertainment becoming so popular around the world is actually going to hurt D-Addicts. As soon as someone is able to purchase licensing and start turning the licensing into a business opportunity, that's when the clock starts to tick down.

I mention Korean content specifically because as of right now, no Japanese company is interested in licensing their dramas for DVD opportunists. Ever. Chinese/related material - I don't see them happening either. There may be a handful of C/Taiwanese/Singaporean that may become licensed by a U.S. company, but I'm sure it won't happen in a large scale like you're seeing with Korean dramas. Between KBS and YA Entertainment, 99-percent of what's out there will eventually be licensed in the U.S.

--- groink

naive_nostalgia · Post by **naive_nostalgia** » Feb 4th, '07, 04:50

omoiyou wrote:sry but only reason ppl here is because its FREE otherwise you goto yesasia they got everything

. . . I'm not here because it's free. I come here because I would actually like to know what the people are saying instead of watching them look pretty but have no idea what the hell they're talking about. If I could buy the dramas I watch with English subtitles, I definitely would. While Yeasia does have an impressive selection of foreign dramas, there aren't many foreign dramas randomly released with English subtitles. If a company in my country manages to license any series that I'm interested in or have watched and enjoyed, I will happily buy it.

So I voted yes. Whether it could ever happen or not is another story, but I still voted yes.

InTr4nceWeTrust · Post by **InTr4nceWeTrust** » Feb 4th, '07, 06:12

I would pay, but it's not very likely that the Japanese companies would take any interest in it. There would be very little, if any financial gain. Using the figures from the poll as of this minute (25% would pay, 75% would not), a rough average of the top downloaded subtitled drama on D-addicts (Gokusen at about 30k per episode). 7500 would pay for it. I'd pay at most 30 USD for a series, so let's use that. The company gets 225,000 USD if they didn't pay the fansubbers. But they will pay the fansubbers...5 of them I think worked on Gokusen...let's say just 100 USD per person per episode...500 USD per episode, so 6,000 USD per series.

225,000 USD
- 6,000 USD
-----------------
219,000 USD

So the company gets 219,000 USD per series if they're lucky that it's a GREAT success.

Let's say a show does poorly and gets 500 downloads. 125 people will purchase it for a total of 3,750 USD.

3,750 USD
-6,000 USD
-------------
-2,250 USD

The company loses 2,250 USD.

Going along the lines of an itunes for Jdramas, they'd have to pay for webspace, bandwidth, domain name, web techies, etc. My guess on what they pay the fansubbers is a COMPLETE guess. But even if they payed each fansubber 62.50 USD per episode, they'd break exactly even on a show that did poorly. I don't believe anybody would take 62.50 USD to professionally fansub an episode.

Kamui6 · Post by **Kamui6** » Feb 4th, '07, 06:12

Crap! I just remembered that I technically already pay to download drama among other things.. I just don't go around advertising it.

[Nothing legal about]

Nothing's free in this world.

kobe23 · Post by **kobe23** » Feb 4th, '07, 06:58

Pointless poll. The answer will forever be a firm "No". There's no such thing as a "generation who thinks everything in the world is free" - EVERY generation believes that.

Downloading dramas on the internet is very different from other similar licensed content because dramas are available on free to air TV first, whereas other similar licensed material such as video games and recent release movies are not.

Just think of it as taping your favorite TV shows on your VCR or your favorite songs from radio. It's considered illegal in some parts of the world, but no one has ever thought it to be morally wrong.

InTr4nceWeTrust · Post by **InTr4nceWeTrust** » Feb 4th, '07, 07:16

kobe23 wrote:Pointless poll. The answer will forever be a firm "No". There's no such thing as a "generation who thinks everything in the world is free" - EVERY generation believes that.

Downloading dramas on the internet is very different from other similar licensed content because dramas are available on free to air TV first, whereas other similar licensed material such as video games and recent release movies are not.

Just think of it as taping your favorite TV shows on your VCR or your favorite songs from radio. It's considered illegal in some parts of the world, but no one has ever thought it to be morally wrong.

I don't believe generation before us had such severe piracy issues, so I'm with groink in saying that THIS generation thinks everything is free.

It's not really that different than video games and recently released movies. Think about content control. And I believe the dramas uploaded here have commercials removed.

Taping a show is fine. But when you tape a show, the TV broadcaster delivers the show to you, then you save it for later. With what goes on here, the TV broadcaster delivers the show to a viewer, then the viewer redelivers that show to thousands of others.

Believe what you like, but it's seems rude for you to label this as a pointless poll because you think it's a firm "No". There are still others that think otherwise and their opinions have a point.

kobe23 · Post by **kobe23** » Feb 4th, '07, 14:02

The generation before us didn't have the internet, did they? I can assure you, if they did, they would be downloading copyrighted material just like the rest of us. Besides, where do you think the term "piracy" originated from? Sure as hell wasn't from THIS generation.

Believe what you like, but it's seems rude for you to label this as a pointless poll because you think it's a firm "No". There are still others that think otherwise and their opinions have a point.

I admit it was slightly rude to the original poster, and for that I apologize. But D-addicts is essentially an indexing site for torrents, and in a community such as this, it should not come as a surprise that the overwhelming majority of members would not even think of paying for it. (as you can see it's already 85% for 'No').

iloveoki · Post by **iloveoki** » Feb 4th, '07, 14:47

Yes, it is a shame that many would not pay for a drama. But here's what i think...

Just think of it as taping your favorite TV shows on your VCR or your favorite songs from radio.

D-Addicts is a lot like "taping your favorite show on a VCR, but uploaders are sharing that show with other people. So it's not intended for personal use. I think that if Drama Networks noticed the vast number of people interested in their dramas, then they might help us view them. ABC airs episodes of their hit shows online. Even if there was a way that the Episodes would be legal, i would feel better about downloading them.

(btw, i can't download torrents anymore because a slew of trojans and viruses flooded my computer. Thanks utorrent!!)

-iloveoki

groink · Post by **groink** » Feb 4th, '07, 21:33

iloveoki wrote:ABC airs episodes of their hit shows online. Even if there was a way that the Episodes would be legal, i would feel better about downloading them.

The key component to network TV-sponsored streaming is that advertising on the site helps fund both the site and the TV network. In the case of D-Addicts, the advertising that pays for this site goes to D-Addicts and NOT the TV networks. So as of the current model of D-Addicts, it cannot be compared to legalized network TV streaming. And as for Ruroshin, I don't think he has any professional interest in this site like Shawn Fanning did with Napster, as he has other personal things in mind like career, marriage, and the rest of his life. So I'm sure D-Addicts would be shut down forever before any "deal" would be made with the TV networks. Legalizing drama distribution was NEVER EVER the goal of D-Addicts. Maybe for everyone else here, but most certainly not for Ruroshin.

--- groink

iloveoki · Post by **iloveoki** » Feb 7th, '07, 22:03

I kinda understand now. D-Addict's goal was to share jDramas, not necessarily legalize them...

christaluvsdrama · Post by **christaluvsdrama** » Feb 7th, '07, 23:22

I think its quite the contrary about saying that OUR generation thinks that everything is free. For instance we are all knowledgeable ppl, we have computers were on the internet, we surf sites we have some insentive on how things function in life. I believe that our generation acknowledges that things in life aren't free being things are always overpriced but we choose to believe we should have the option to choose how we would want something to turn out. I'm pretty sure that majority of the ppl here who are watching these dramas would proably never had the opportunity to watch them or even hear of the dramas if it wasn't for D-addicts and the ppl who post them on the streaming sites such as you tube and dailymotion. I feel if we were to pay it would defeat the purpose to why ppl choose this site to dl in the first place.

bela_mex · Post by **bela_mex** » Feb 8th, '07, 20:00

a couple years ago i tried finding warriors of the yang clan online to see if i could buy the series with english subtitles... the only versions i found carried chinese/taiwanese subs... so i contacted the TV station ( i dont remember the name of it now, but its channel 18 in southern california) and another company, and asked if it was available.. they both said no, which seemed strange to me since i had been watching the series on TV with eng. subs...so i asked why and i got the response "it takes too much money to place these dramas with eng. subs on the market, without being completely sure that there's even a significant group of ppl that would purchase it" .... something like that ....

it wasn't until i tried looking for eng. subs for Gokusen that i came across this site....
so i don't consider downloading these dramas completely illegal, seeing as how it really is the only way we will ever be able to see them with subs.. if at alll...

anyway i voted that i would pay for these dramas if d-addicts were to ever be closed or something like that

but that would also mean that i would severly limit the quantity of what i watch
so even if i paid, i doubt they would get much profit

pokute · Post by **pokute** » Feb 8th, '07, 20:09

The accountant who would handle the distribution of the incoming funds to the hundreds or thousands of fansubbers who would need to be given their royalties would have to be paid more than the site would ever bring in!!

nikochanr3 · Post by **nikochanr3** » Feb 8th, '07, 20:16

thus, i volunteer to be said accountant. please IM me for the place to send the check.

pokute · Post by **pokute** » Feb 8th, '07, 20:24

The spirit of volunteerism breeds new opportunity! So kind of you to volunteer to do it for nothing!

nikochanr3 · Post by **nikochanr3** » Feb 9th, '07, 18:11

Hmm...i stated this wrong.

aokami · Post by **aokami** » Feb 9th, '07, 18:47

I think that the benefit of casting a blind eye to sites such as d-addicts is that the network sponsors have a greater potential of developing an overseas presence with no investment of their own. Granted we are a small market, but we came for free. Most copyright litigation comes about as a result of protecting the interest of sponsors. Having some hobbyists develop a new market for your product with an incredible potential for future growth is priceless. Crap, I have dvds of commercials just because. Ok well it's because I am a complete design/marketing geek, but still... brand recognition in any form is powerful.

Besides if d-addicts did go commercial it would be a hop skip and a jump to complete implosion. People would just migrate to another forum to dl the work from this site for free. Sad but true.

princessmushroom · Post by **princessmushroom** » Jan 21st, '08, 14:36

Is it legal to download from this website just to watch only or should I just watch those websites that already have videos loaded on them like veoh...mysoju...and crunchyroll? Please help...

Airhead · Post by **Airhead** » Jan 21st, '08, 16:43

wrong forum ....

nothing is totally legal... torrentclients are logging, downloadwebsite's (MU,Rapid, ...) are logging, veoh - crunchy - yotube logging the ip's(filename,time,...) too

take it or leave it ... and live with the consequences ... like everyone else

Saragorn · Post by **Saragorn** » Jan 21st, '08, 17:19

Don't, don't watch on mysoju.com. They take the subtitles that fansubbing groups make and stream them online without permission.

(And this forum is just for subtitles, and subtitles only. Please read the rules first.)

loveless_soul · Post by **loveless_soul** » Jan 21st, '08, 20:31

A lot of things online are illegal... you just have to live with it like airhead said.
Downloading or watching online, either way is illegal so... wouldn't you rather download and have it rather than watch it online?

Also you post this in the wrong forum, this is for subtitle ONLY. (Looks like you just joined today so read the rules and everything else before posting.)

Takekaze · Post by **Takekaze** » Jan 21st, '08, 21:35

No, this is illegal. The NSA is watching your PC already and once you download from here, the German GSG9 and the British SAS will storm your room. Then they will arrest you and ship you to Sibiria without trial.

Now, on a more serious note... I'd say it's somewhat of a grey zone. I can only speak for Japanese dramas, but as it is, outside of Japan is not a market for the tv stations, so they don't really have a reason to hunt us. If they ever publish all tv series in Europe, I'll gladly buy them all. But until then I only buy those I really like (or if they have someone in their cast who I really like). Not to mention that I want to see a series before I buy it. What if I don't like it? Then I've shot ~15,000 Yen (not counted shipping charges, customs and taxes). Do that once, not so bad, do that ten times a year, then it's not funny anymore. That said, this is a different issue than, for example, Hollywood movies. I can get those anywhere, in any region, but with, let's say, Teru Teru Ashita things are a tad bit different. I can get the DVDs legally in Japan and import them and that's the only source there is. The reason: I, in Europe, am not the targeted market of a Japanese tv station. Another issue is that many of the series appearing here are currently running in Japan, so basically, what this site is doing with those is: I make a copy of something on TV with my VCR and lend the tape to someone (BASICALLY).

It would be interesting to see how the actual legal situation is. The problem, however, is that this issue deals with the laws of dozens of countries. It would be a "bit" confusing.

Saragorn · Post by **Saragorn** » Jan 21st, '08, 23:45

"I make a copy of something on TV with my VCR and lend the tape to someone (BASICALLY)."

Funny enough, that's technically illegal, too.

siantut · Post by **siantut** » Jan 22nd, '08, 00:28

This talk is freaking me out. What are my chances if I sub japanese doramas while being a japanese living in japan? I also download, plus softsubbing. Maybe my japanese ISP is having me on their list already. I had better stop

raider73 · Post by **raider73** » Jan 22nd, '08, 00:28

Saragorn wrote:"I make a copy of something on TV with my VCR and lend the tape to someone (BASICALLY)."

Funny enough, that's technically illegal, too.

Yup, fair use only applies to you. You recording for someone else or someone else recording for you is illegal. Hella stupid law.

Fair use doesn't apply to DVDs, ANY copyrighted DVD being recorded even for yourself is illegal. Thank that bum Bill Clinton for signing that damn DMCA law for that.

princessmushroom,

If you're afraid and have a laptop, go get yourself a Cantenna and drive around town looking for unsecure networks and download using other people's network. This isn't illegal yet but some places want to make it illegal which is BS in my opinion. The specifications for 802.11 A/B/G states free for use if you don't secure your network. If you don't secure your network, it states that you're making your network public. Be careful, however, since a lot of places are now charging people w/ "theft of services" even though there is no specific law for this.

Saragorn · Post by **Saragorn** » Jan 22nd, '08, 00:54

siantut wrote:This talk is freaking me out. What are my chances if I sub japanese doramas while being a japanese living in japan? I also download, plus softsubbing. Maybe my japanese ISP is having me on their list already. I had better stop

Siantut, don't worry about this. We're just saying not to pretend that this is all completely legal. I may not be completely in the loop, but I haven't heard of any fansubbers getting busted. The most I've ever heard is that anime subbers (hardsubbers) have gotten cease and desist letters/emails. If you're just doing softsubs, there's nothing wrong with that. That's why WITHS2 switched over to soft-sub-only projects. They could possibly get in trouble for distributing videos (as could anyone else), so they only distribute their own sub files.

I'm sorry we freaked you out, but please calm down.

They're not going to go after you for providing subs. I'd be just as worried about any mp3s you have hosted on your website as the videos you have. If you aren't even the uploader, then you really do have nothing to worry about.

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