Are the bittorrent anime downloads legal?

[frodon]

Here is for example one of the biggest english fansub team but it's not the only one :
http://www.shinsen-subs.org/

Sorry for not providing you more links but i'm more used to french fansub teams because i'm french.

[pmj]

Just because something isn't licensed in your country doesn't mean it's legal to download it. It's still copyrighted, and copying it without having explicit permission to do so is copyright infringement and very much illegal.

[frodon]

Just because something isn't licensed in your country doesn't mean it's legal to download it. It's still copyrighted, and copying it without having explicit permission to do so is copyright infringement and very much illegal.

Do you know what you're talking about ?

Japan anime is special case and just a very few of them aren't free to download in europe, the fansub-teams are really well known and always respect the laws otherwise the site get closed quickly and trust me they are watched.

[pmj]

Japanese anime isn't any different from Japanese books or Japanese live action films or Japanese music. It's covered by copyright and international treaties, and just because producers of anime generally turns a blind eye to copying of their works in the west doesn't make it OK to copy them, at least not in a legal sense. And that, I think, was the question the starter of the thread was asking, not if the FBI would haul him off to pirate jail by request of an anime studio.

[beefcurry]

This was covered ..in alot of detail, for alot of times. IT IS ABSOLUTELY ILLEGAL! But** distributors dont care (until it gets lisenced by a american company).

more info here on lisenceing: http://animesuki.com/doc.php/licensed/

[frodon]

This was covered ..in alot of detail, for alot of times. IT IS ABSOLUTELY ILLEGAL! But** distributors dont care (until it gets lisenced by a american company).

more info here on lisenceing: http://animesuki.com/doc.php/licensed/

Well, statements like this are useless if you're not a lawyer in your country.

What i can say you is that there's nothing in the law in my country and that big companies always try to get money where they can't. Maybe one day this will be put in details in the law of my country but for the moment it isn't and then even if some companies concider this as illegal the law of my country say nothing and thus there's no official illegal status on this topic.

However i can only speak for my country and i don't know the laws in yours so you may be right in your case, i honnestly don't know.

[beefcurry]

frodon, i may not be a lawyer, i might sound abit cocky but...

http://animesuki.com/doc.php/licensed/ clearly says:
"We have to admit it: the distribution of fansubs is technically a violation of copyright under the WTO TRIPS agreement."

its more indetail here: "http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=951"

and france is infact a signed member of the WTO TRIPS agreement, source here: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/...f_e/org6_e.htm

"France has been a WTO member since 1 January 1995. It is a member State of the European Union (more info). All 25 EU member States are WTO members, as is the EU (for legal reasons known as the European Communities in WTO matters) in its own right."

if you want a overview of the trips agreement: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/...e/intel2_e.htm

arguing that much back in model united nations sure made me learn a thing or two about intellectual property rights

[frodon]

Honnestly this discussion don't interest me and i'm truelly not an expert, you stated it's illegal everywhere and i just answered you back that it isn't in my country (i mean anime without license) and thus your statement were not exact, that's all.

Now you can show me the theory, the fact is that this specific purpose don't have a clear illegal status in many countries.

[beefcurry]

basicly i said just then in my post above that it is illegal IF your country signed the WTO (world trade organization) TRIPS agreement. I see from your profile you come from France. and FRANCE is part of the WTO and signed the TRIPS agreement. There may not be a domestic law but under international law it is illegal to download (distribute copyright information) anime in france. Thus your country. My point was that it is illegal in your country if you didn't know.

And also, yes i may have been wrong, out of 192 countries in the world only 149 have signed the treaty, so yes not EVERYWHERE, (full list of countries: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/...f_e/org6_e.htm ). You are right not everywhere, but most places, that includes the WHOLE of EU, North America etc. If your country is NOT in the WTO list there is also a HIGH probability you have a domestic LAW that stops you from distributing copy right infomation. So yes, i may be exaggerating when i say EVERYWHERE.

[frodon]

basicly i said just then in my post above that it is illegal IF your country signed the WTO (world trade organization) TRIPS agreement. I see from your profile you come from France. and FRANCE is part of the WTO and signed the TRIPS agreement. There may not be a domestic law but under international law it is illegal to download (distribute copyright information) anime in france. Thus your country. My point was that it is illegal in your country if you didn't know.

And also, yes i may have been wrong, out of 192 countries in the world only 149 have signed the treaty, so yes not EVERYWHERE, (full list of countries: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/...f_e/org6_e.htm ). You are right not everywhere, but most places, that includes the WHOLE of EU, North America etc. If your country is NOT in the WTO list there is also a HIGH probability you have a domestic LAW that stops you from distributing copy right infomation. So yes, i may be exaggerating when i say EVERYWHERE.

This is pure theory and i'm not going to argue on this.

The FACT is that there's no clear illegal status in my country, end of the story.