Japan's Revised Copyright Laws
 

Before we can continue discuss about the issues here, let me give you the special announcement: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese Government or Diet (Parliament) has revised the amendments of the Japanese Copyright Law Act. With Millions and Billions of Yen lost not only to COVID-19, but also from those pirated websites with illegal downloads of the Japanese television programs and movies online, the Japanese Government/Diet has ordered the permanent termination of such websites (both Japanese and Abroad) and their owners to be jailed. The said amendments also said that these programs, movies and online streamings can be seen exclusively to Japanese viewers and moviegoers only and not to foreign individuals. However, if any of the websites (such as this one) wants to publish articles such as photographs and videos (Japanese and Foreign), they must gain permission from the Japanese Government/Diet, the Japanese television networks, the Japanese movie companies and the Japanese websites to avoid the third party involvement. Lastly, the official releases of the shows and movies must be supported and not duplicated. Even Youtube, Facebook, Dailymotion, Niconico and other video websites are no safe havens for these illegal downloads of the programs and movies thereof. Any comments on this particular issue are welcome.

I, uh, link?

Frankly how would they even be able to enforce this law on foreign websites and persons outside their jurisdiction?

... are you talking about this?

https://www.epicdope.com/whats-all-t...me-shuts-down/

Because, yeah, technically they could go after illegal Toku streaming services if they wanted to.

But Tokunation needing to ask the Japanese Government to use pictures and officially uploaded trailers? Yeah, that’s a bit… unrealistic.

That said... I think it's a very big possibility that sites like Kissasian will be going soon, and it doesn't seem out of the question that torrents could as well. Even if they don't, it's not hard to see at least a few groups being scared off.

I don’t think it will happen although it very well could.

They're going after anime and manga stuff hard because yeah, that's huge in the west. But… Toku? It’s not even worth for Toei to release most stuff officially here, so it’s not like they’re losing money. Ultraman is safe since they release officially.

What I could see happening is certain sites like Kissasian and torrent sharing portals disappearing, although they will be back within days anyways. Subbing groups are mostly just blogs with links to said torrent portals so... safe?

It could go either way, personally I feel like we will feel no impact unless you’re someone who exclusively streams subbed content on Kissasian or something.

But hey, positive outlook – maybe Toei finally puts up Kamen Rider subbed on YouTube or something.

Everybody should embrace the true pirate way and use torrents. Arrrr. Those streaming sites have always sucked for a variety of reasons anyway!

I know this sounds stupid, But what if I was in the middle of using a torrent then all of sudden, get slapped with a fine or would I be safe.

Depending on where you live that can already happen.

I'll take Germany as an example since that's the only country I'm familiar with when it comes to this: Torrenting is illegal as you share the copyrighted content with others while you download it. There exist specialized lawyers who work with internet providers to get data on who used the torrent. Then they threaten to sue you if you don't pay a fee. What you then do is take a lawyer of your own who disputes this, a lower fee is settled upon and that’s it.

Thing is - the one licensing the content needs to authorize the law firms. So to make the most profit and to catch as many people as possible, law firms work with the big movie producers when huge Hollywood productions come out or something. Marvel movies and the such. Or big local productions the lawyers can easily get in contact with.

So for someone in Germany to get fined for torrenting Kamen Rider for example, you would first need lawyers who know Kamen Rider exists (insert Kamen Rider Zolda joke here), they would then need to negotiate with Toei and Toei would need to allow them to take legal action in their name. And then they would actually need to find the two-dozen people in Germany who actually torrent it. And on top of that - there would need to be someone in Germany who actually has a license for Kamen Rider someone living in Germany could infringe upon.

That's a lot of hoops to jump through; it's easier to target big productions everyone knows. The lawyers know what to target and they know there will be lots of people torrenting it.

Now, taking the context of the new Japanese laws into account - they're looking to take big streaming / torrent sites down. I highly doubt they would go after individuals using these services here.

Alright. I live in the UK so I don't know if that helps. If that were the case, I only ever torrent Rider since that's the only way to watch it. I never torrent movies or TV shows. I wonder how this would affect subs like OverTime though.

At worst their blogs where they post the links could be taken down. Or the platforms were they publish the torrents. That is if these new copyright laws even really target Toku, seems more like it’s an anime/manga thing.

I know the law would apply to it regardless, but I feel like there would need to be a serious intent behind hunting down websites that spread toku as opposed to anime and I don’t see that happening.

The Japanese industry isn’t really loosing much money, if not none, from the few percent of people around the globe watching Kamen Rider or Super Sentai. Anime and manga is a whole different dimension, money-wise.

Another side to consider here is the efficacy of the torrent/sub sites themselves. If someone like Toei is paying attention, then they should know that some if not most will remove their subs if the movie or series has received a licensed release. Zyuranger was the first Sentai to get an official release, and when that news was still new and shocking and fresh, it didn't take long for some to issue a statement that they would no longer offer Zyuranger subs since they can be obtained easier. A fact made even easier in the here and now thanks to streaming. Just a couple of hours ago, I noticed the Heisei Generations Forever Movie on TokuSHOUTsu on Pluto! No point in downloading that if you can find that on SHOUT Factory TV, Tubi, TokuSHOUTsu. Toei should realize the obvious answer is to release things over here and give the Western fandom a reason to not download. Problem is...Toei moves slowly. I'll admit their YT Channel was a step in the right direction on some levels, but I think it dropped the ball regarding what they will and will not sub (to say nothing about region-locking and pre-existing licenses). If Toei would just take a page from Tsuburaya's handbook, then they wouldn't even have a problem. With the Mill Creek deal in play, I have actively avoided doing any streaming or downloading of an Ultra Series or Ultra Movie. Don't get me wrong, as there are some definite things I want to see. It's just better to wait for those pretty little sets that I can get and keep for myself. Plus, you can redeem the code in those sets on Movie SPREE. In addition, some Ultra is also still on Crunchyroll and is slated to be on TokuSHOUTsu later in the year. Ultra sets by Mill Creek are also announced and tend to be released quickly. The Sentai sets trickled-out slowly, and the fabled Fiveman set was evidently canceled when Hasbro bought Power Rangers, killing the Toei-SHOUT!-Saban deal! Now SHOUT! deals with Toei and tries to accomplish what they can, with some admittedly positive results all things considering.

All that said, I'm left with the conclusion that Toei is partially responsible because they have an answer in front of them, but won't get down to it with the same speed and fervor as their competitors, "necessitating" what they may or may not view as "questionable" choices on the part of those who don't have easy options!

Something kinda nice I ran into while looking for R/B subs is that certain subbers like Genmcorp had done about half the series, but stopped halfway through because an official Mill Creek release was announced and they wanted to support that. Now, I mean, still kinda sucked for me because I'm in the UK and don't get to have Mill Creek's stuff; but I'm still glad for that as an overall thing!

Ideally people should, though unfortunately it's not quite a possibility for some people -- someone I know, for instance; she's got pretty awful internet so is only able to watch Toku through sites like Kissasian (as well as the Ultraman Z simulcast, at least). Not that she wants to but that's the only option she's got

Same situation seems to apply here as in Germany. To quote what we were told at university, torrenting was banned over university internet not because it was expressly illegal, but because the college didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to deal with the problem of a whole student body trying to torrent at once since it made them more of a target, especially if any of that content was *questionable*. They didn't want to be liable, basically. And the one time I know of they did catch someone torrenting, they just kinda asked them not to.

I hope kissasian is left alone; I only use it because I hate torrenting. If sub groups would just upload to a streaming service there would be far less issues, but seriously; screw the japanese government for this. Same reason I want the DMCA gone. All they are doing is making people like me jump through hoops to do what I will always do. Another thing I will add is that sub groups who take down their subs when an offical release is avaliable are ones that I immediately take a dislike to; I will not pay for subs when they already exist for free. It serves no purpose other than creating more work for me to go find a site that hosts the subs and watch it there, possibly with me downloading the subs and distributing them as far and wide as possible just to keep them around

Please think about what you’re saying and how egoistic it comes across.

Subbing groups do this work for free. They are in no way required to make watching their work easier for you.

The content they work with is a property that belongs to a big corporation and in the best case scenario only we're treading in a grey area by watching it, legally speaking.

Subs getting removed when official releases are available is great. When there is an opportunity to support the official release we as a fandom should do that. Yes, not everyone has access to stuff like the Mill Creek Ultraman releases. In that case you have to live with looking for the subs yourself.

I agree that it is easy to be annoyed. I was when the R/B subs stopped, because I’m in the part of "the west" that isn’t the USA so whenever something gets released "in the west" I’m screwed. But for the greater good, the chance of obtaining Toku legally on home media or through streaming services, we should accept the situation and be adults about it.

And honestly it’s getting better and better. Ultraman on YouTube is huge, eventually Toei will realize they too can generate free money by uploading currently airing Sentai and Rider-stuff to YouTube and playing ads throughout.

Normally I'm against ads (thanks to YouTube) but seeing all the inappropriate ads I get when watching toku on some websites, I wouldn't mind if they blared ads through the episode.

Especially if said ads are commercials for their DX toys.

I personally use Ublock origin; so if they upload everything to youtube, I will watch it as long as I have a way to bypass the adverts, advertisements are the worst. If I wanted commercials stuffed down my throat 24/7 I would turn on the TV. I digress though; if you think that comes off as egotistical, I don't think you and I will agree on much, given I am very against paying for things in general.

If, like, two minutes of commercials for figuarts every half hour is the price I have to pay for watching Ultraman simply and easily every week, and knowing the subbers are getting at least some compensation for their work, I'm willing to pay that price for not just me, but a whole bunch of people.

YouTube’s own commercials are more important I think, because they are actually getting paid for those. Sure, their own toy advertisements within the videos might get people interested in their products, but just for revenue letting the YouTube advertisements play throughout the video support Tsuburaya directly.

I have uBlock on as well, I hate pop-ups and stuff, but for YouTube it is disabled, if I like watching content creators they deserve to get paid for it. If I’m watching stuff that isn’t directly tied to the creator I can always skip ads manually.

That must make life quite miserable considering you need to pay for almost everything :lol

Jokes aside, I won’t tell you how to do things, but in my book the people who make things I enjoy deserve to get something for it in return. Ideally a universal currency to pay for the things they need aka cash money.

One thing on this:
Toei knows people watch rider illegaly, will they do something about it? maybe.
But if they do, who will buy the toys?
admittedly, the western fan base is small compared to the domestic one, but they have been working on expanding their market.
basically they have no reason to go after fansubbers until the series are available officilay, because they still earn money from it.

I'm looking for all the episodes Zyu (Beast) Ranger forward.

I have up to Hurri from shout and the rest from Mylasia region free NTSC.

I also have To Quger - Ryusoul on DVD

I'm trying to get 2006 and 2007 plus Shinken Ranger to Kyo on disk as well region free so I can bypass having to download them. My worry is 1975 - Jet Man.

Having gotten a bunch of Ranger shows on disk my issue would be the Rider shows.

Breaking News: Toei and TV Asahi has filed a case (the cease and desist order) against TV Nihon for copyright infringement. Maybe the other sites like Kissasian, Overtime Subs, TripleS Subs and other sites that have illegally upoload and download the Tokusatsu Series will be also charged with that kind of similar cases.

Slow down there, it's suspected the C&D is fake. Over-Time compared the C&D that TVN received to a proven fake sent to a Brazilian sub group, and the two are pretty much 1:1. Plus, you wouldn't send a C&D to a group, you would send it to an individual. The whole thing smells of being fake, right down to not even bothering to capitalize the two franchises that are being targeted.

Exactly. It's all a farce. A scare tactic.

I just saw the Over Time Subs website today and they said that they'll no longer download the Kamen Rider Series and Super Sentai Series to avoid facing the copyright infringement. The letter from Toei and TV Asahi to TV Nihon and oth er illegal/pirated subtitle websites are legitimate and legal, as what the page says.

lol this aged poorly. this is the wrong mindset to be in. it's not about whether or not it's fake - it's the fact that you cannot take any risks in a situation like this. if there's even a 1% chance it's real(which the peeps on Discord have confirmed it's looking to be), this can only go south.

Start archiving stuff while you can, folks.

according to their Discord Over Time will still upload to Nyaa. they just won't post Sentai/Kamen Rider stuffs on their website.

Time to grab a few flash drives then tomorrow.

Yep, thankfully. Honestly, nyaa is what I've been using for the past few years anyways, so...

This just really sucks if you're looking for older shows or batches.

So...Anyone got a Zero-One batch torrent, or do I have to do it one by one? :lol

They could possibly upload batches of previous subbed series to nyaa as well since I've seen them for anime at the very least. That said that's just me assuming it'd be possible.

This suuuucks... Even on the off chance that Toei did a simulcast for Rider and Sentai (as if, especially for Sentai considering Hasbro has western distribution rights), you just know that fans outside of America would be out of luck, left with no means of watching Toei's tokusatsu shows.

Welp, time to stock up.

A lot of hosting servers are surely going to get stressed in the upcoming days!

So, anyone perhaps have the time to seed some Ohranger subs for a homie? :lol

yeah...this is gonna be a problem. this content needs to be archived, and unfortunately direct downloads will never be available because they're such a pain in the ass to manage and keep up. torrents will only last as long as we give back.
I have really insane internet, so honestly what I'll do is seed as much kamen rider and sentai as I can.

It really is disappointing. I wouldn't be surprised to see a surge in people searching for subs, but just a cursory glace on Nyaa shows a ton of sentai subs with 0 seeds, making the download either painfully slow at best or impossible to finish at worst. I'm honestly afraid of what's going to happen.

Oh yeah, when I went grabbing a bunch of stuff a few weeks back, I ran into plenty of 0 seeds... It took a LOOONG time for some of those movies.

But maybe with renewed attention, people will come to help out.

Wow this whole shit show is gonna put a damper on my feelings towards kamen rider. As in I won't have feelings if I can't watch any of the shows subbed because I don't understand Japanese but if I did I wouldn't even be able to watch it raw.

I would chill guys, this is less severe for you as a viewer than you think. If the subbing groups don't use their websites to distribute their releases then they'll just so it elsewhere. I think we already have confirmation that Over-Time will do exactly that.

And even if not - IzuSubs for example only publishes the subtitles for Saber as a separate file, you need to get the RAW yourself and then merge them. I think that's clever, subtitles without the actual content attached is easy to share and you don't really publish someone elses property. The RAWs can be shared via known networks which lessens the chance of lawyers targeting subbing groups like they're doing now.

Or everything is back to normal within two weeks. What I'm saying is, subs won't go away. The people who make them just need to make sure they're safe.

Don't doomsay your hobby, I hardly believe we will miss out on anything.