Fansub-History

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kakenuri
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:38 pm

Fansub-History

Post by kakenuri »

Hi there!

I'm searching for the 'roots' of fansubbing, because I'm currently writing an essay for university about it. Therefore I'm looking especially for the beginnings, like groups which are there for a very long time, first series subbed, first distribution ways and ppl who actually were there and can provide me with some detailed information, because my memory is not that good with the exact fact. I personally remember my first fansubs from around 1995-97 being realmedia or viv-format, very bad image, even worse sound, small image and distributed via IRC.

I'm also interested in links to old groups or to pages covering that issue.

The other thing I'm looking for are information on the legal actions ever put against fansubbing groups. I remember some FBI Actions around 2000-2002, where they took action in some dormitorys. But again I can't remember the excact year and what the result was.

I won't name persons if anyone might be afraid about this. Also I'm not from the USA and the essay won't be published in english or the Internet, so please be honest.

Your help would be very appreciated!

Thank you very much!

(And I'm sorry, if my english is too bad.)
suppy
Posts: 151
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:37 am
Location: A House of the Azath

Post by suppy »

don't worry about your english - it is much much much much better than alot of other folks I've read.

I don't know too much about it myself since I'm kind of new to the whole business, but I have friends who do - unfortunately they don't really visit this forum. I do know that in the very beginning it wasn't distributed via internet at all - it was distributed via VHS and snailmail. I have no clue how widespread this was though, but a better source for you might be to ask in the anime-reactor forum: http://forum.anime-reactor.net
kakenuri
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:38 pm

Post by kakenuri »

Thank you, I will try that too. ^__^
lamer_de
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:44 am

Post by lamer_de »

There was a pretty huge thread about that on animesuki, but most likely it got wiped when their forum crashed (but then, I didn't searched for it specifically, so maybe it's still there).

The real media/vivo files were not digital subs, but digitalised VHS subs. I think the general consensus was that nobody knows any more who did the first real digisub group was. Very old groups however are Elite-Fansubs (afaik they were involved in the creation of textsub at one point or another), Anime-Fansubs and HnK.

Legal actions: One person was fired because he used the MIT ressources to distro for just about every group, but unfortunately I forgot his nick. Should've been around end of 01/early 2002. There were various C&D letters from companies to fansubbing groups (Urban Vision vs. Animejunkies [Ninja Scroll TV], MediaFactory vs. Lunaranime [Kgne OVA], Funimation vs. Anime-Kraze and Shinsen [various Gonzo material]) and distribution sites (ADV vs. downloadanime.org), but no real action from the companies was ever taken (because the fansubbers always complied)

Your best bet is to either start a new thread on animesuki again or visit #animecentral on enterthegame and ask around there, because most of the fansubbers hanging out there are pretty old-school :P

CU,
lamer_de
DonGato
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Re: Fansub-History

Post by DonGato »

kakenuri wrote:I personally remember my first fansubs from around 1995-97 being realmedia or viv-format, very bad image, even worse sound, small image and distributed via IRC.
First fansubs where made for VHS and not distributed digitally.
I doubt someone knows or remembers when the first fansub saw the light.
Tharivol
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2005 10:10 am

Post by Tharivol »

I'm surprised, that you haven't seen yet (well, i think you've not ;) ) an article on Wikipedia about fansubs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fansub

IMHO, It's a well-maked source of information about both fansubs and history of them.
kakenuri
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:38 pm

Post by kakenuri »

I'd like to thank all of you for the information. I'll go and look around at the sources you named. Just some sidenotes to your posts:
First fansubs where made for VHS and not distributed digitally.
I doubt someone knows or remembers when the first fansub saw the light.
I know there were VHS-Subs before, but since my essay's situated in 'Computer Science and Society' I've got to concentrate on digital fansubbing. I'm sorry, I forgot to mention this ^_^;;
I'm surprised, that you haven't seen yet (well, i think you've not Wink ) an article on Wikipedia about fansubs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fansub

IMHO, It's a well-maked source of information about both fansubs and history of them.
Well, I haven't. Thank you ^_^;; When I search wikipedia, I usually don't get the english version, but the one in my native language ;) Also Wikipedia is not that much liked as a source of information for university essays here (because it's kind of unreliable that this information is actually correct), but since I'm kind of desperate, I'll try that too.

So thank you to everyone again :)
lamer_de
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:44 am

Post by lamer_de »

Also Wikipedia is not that much liked as a source of information for university essays here (because it's kind of unreliable that this information is actually correct), but since I'm kind of desperate, I'll try that too.
I somehow doubt that you'll find anything that withstands a scientific trial, like, let's say a paper or a thesis about fansubbing. I doubt they'll accept some forum posts as reliable source but dismiss Wikipedia :P

CU,
lamer_de
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