What are the legalities behind fansubbing? This section pertains to information regarding licensed works and their legality. ANBU is a fan subtitling group, not endorsed or affiliated to any company or author. As a result, ANBU is subject to various laws and restrictions imposed by several International and U.S. Codes. Furthermore, ANBU respects the wishes and license of American companies. This is why ANBU has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to licensed materials. All such materials must cease distribution as soon as the license has been made official and public. Fansubs in themselves are illegal, testing our luck when a work has been licensed in our country is asking for trouble.
Many emails come to us saying that, "I am not in the United States, so send us the fansubs." This is not possible. As several members of our fansub group reside in the United States, as well as our web server - we are subject to the laws of the country we reside in. Furthermore, as our website is hosted in the United States, it can be seen as facilitating and encouraging such distribution, and we would be held fully responsible.
If you enjoy our fansubs, and would like to continue to see us produce more, you would not ask us to participate in any endeavor that would endanger any of our staff and cause any litigation to occur as a result of our free service to the community.
In a more detailed note, we will outline several of the laws regarding this topic for your perusal.
17 USC Title 17 (U.S. Copyright Code) 17.1.106 (paraphrased): The owner of a copyright has the exclusive right to do and authorize the following: 1) Reproduce the work in copies 2) Prepare derivative works
"...the fair use of a copyrighted work, (...) for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."
This means that only the owner/creator has the right to reproduce (copy or distribute) any of their works. It also includes ‘derivative’ works which means, anything made from the original is also covered under this. Essentially this means that Fansubs, which are a derivative of the original work, cannot be distributed without the exclusive consent of the copyright owner. Derivative works can also include screenshots, movie clips, and music videos using the works.
Many people try to state that fansubbing is included under ‘fair use’, however it is very specific as to what constitutes ‘fair use’ and translations are not.
Berne Convention Article 2 - Literary and Artistic Works Covered 2.1 The expression "literary and artistic works" shall include every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression, such as books, pamphlets and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of the same nature; dramatic or dramatico-musical works; choreographic works and entertainments in dumb show; musical compositions with or without words; cinematographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to cinematography; works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving and lithography; photographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to photography; works of applied art; illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science.
2.6 The works mentioned in this article shall enjoy protection in all countries of the Union. This protection shall operate for the benefit of the author and his successors in title.
This essentially states that the work of an author in any nation who signed the convention, is protected in every nation under the convention. See below for an entire list of nations included in the convention where these laws apply.
Berne Convention Article 8 - Translation 8.0 Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this Convention shall enjoy the exclusive right of making and of authorizing the translation of their works throughout the term of protection of their rights in the original works.
Translating the works themselves is an exclusive right of the copyright owner. However recent law suggests that the actual translation of dialogue isn’t necessarily illegal, the joining of the translation to the video/audio is. This is still unconfirmed however.
Berne Convention Article 9 - Reproduction 9.1 Authors of literary and artistic works protected by this Convention shall have the exclusive right of authorizing the reproduction of these works, in any manner or form. 9.3 Any sound or visual recording shall be considered as a reproduction for the purposes of this Convention.
Copying and or distributing such works are illegal. This means raws are illegal. Sending it to your friends is illegal.
Berne Convention Article 12 - Right of Adaptation 12.0 Authors of literary or artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing adaptations, arrangements and other alterations of their works.
Many people believe that by changing the original work, means it’s a completely different work. This is wrong.
Berne Convention Article 14 - Cinematographic Rights 14.1 Authors of literary or artistic works shall have the exclusive right of authorizing: [i] the cinematographic adaptation and reproduction of these works, and the distribution of the works thus adapted or reproduced; [ii] the public performance and communication to the public by wire of the works thus adapted or reproduced. 14.2 The adaptation into any other artistic form of a cinematographic production derived from literary or artistic works shall, without prejudice to the authorization of the author of the cinematographic production, remain subject to the authorization of the authors of the original works.
This states that they control the rights to public display.
Berne Convention Article 16 - Seizure of Infringing Works 16.1 Infringing copies of a work shall be liable to seizure in any country of the Union where the work enjoys legal protection.
Many people try to argue that without an actual company in the country of which the illegal act is taking place, that nothing can happen, however this clause proves this wrong.
Does the Berne Convention apply to my country? As of September 2004, the following states/countries are covered under the Berne Convention: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, ierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. What is ANBU or ANBUDOM? Is there a difference?
YES!! Often times people get confused by our names. The fansub group's name is ANBU, not ANBUDOM. So what does DOM mean at the end of it? DOM stands for Download Only Members. We use this acronym to designate locations or channels meant primarily for leechers. Thats why when you go into irc you go into ANBUDOM because you are a leecher, this website is a method of faciliating releases and information to you as well, which is why its primarily for download only members (considering you dont upload to this site it is correct).
All in all, we are ANBU, not ANBUDOM. DOM is for you leechers :) What are the steps involved in a release? (RAW, Translating, Editing, Styling, Typesetting, Timing, Encoding, QC/QA, Distro)
Many times we will notify the public of the current status of our projects or a certain release. This section is dedicated to the explaination of those terms, and the general process that is required to bring a release to you.
Obtain a RAW: A RAW is a source file that we use and distrobute to our staff to do the work, and eventually is the one we use to work with for a published release. The raws we use are provided inhouse meaning we obtain our own, and we do not share them with any other groups (exceptions being joint projects). These are RAW files, without translation usually recorded straight from someone living in japan. Translate the speech: Since most of you do not speak japanese, which is why you are here in the first place, we must translate the speech. This involves going through the RAW Source file several times, and translating every line of dialog, and often extras such as book titles, store names, and other miscellaneous signs and text within the series. This is a painstaking process and takes more time, dependant on the complexity of the dialog and the sheer quantity that a episode may have. Edit the translation: While our translators do a great job, in order to provide a higher quality release to you, we make sure that someone goes through the english translation to make sure it is gramatically sound, and makes sense. Editors also ensure that typos, and other errors in regards to the translation are erradicated. Styling: Styling involves choosing font family, font sizes, colors, effects, transitions, and often is involved in title creation, karaoke, and other aspects involved with the general appearance of the subtitles. Styling usually is only done once, at the very first episode and is copied for uniformity with the rest of the episodes. The only time it is changed is when a new Opening or Ending song is introduced. Typesetting: Typesetting involves breaking up the translation into pieces that are correct for each scene. It also includes correct placement on the screen and often times is done at the same time as timing, see below. These people often make sure that everything is readable, meaning they wont throw in 5 lines of text for you to read in 2 seconds. Timing: Timing involves making sure that things occur on queue, for the appropriate periods of time, and dissapear when they are supposed to. This is extremely important if you are to keep a hold of who says what and when. Timing is a lengthy process as it must be accurately done for every line of text. Encoding: After all this work is done, it must be put together by an encoder who takes the finalized time-set and ready to go subtitles and encodes them, essentially merging the subtitles with the original RAW to get a publishable file. Quality Assurance, Quality Check: These users get a RC (Release Candidate) version of the episode and go through to make sure that it is ready for release. They check for issues such as graphical artifacts, timing errors, typos, grammar, legibility, sound and video quality, and anything else that shouldnt be in a final release. Should they find a problem it will go back up the line of process to be fixed, and another release candidate is sent out to be checked once more. Distribution: Finally, once an episode is ready for release, it must be pre-distributed to the bots and servers so that when a release goes live, or official, we are capable of serving the majority of leechers needs. This requires dedicated people and hardware who are willing to expend time and resources to help get the file to you. This position is always lacking and there is never enough, so if you can help, please feel free to do so. Once all of this is done, it gets released and you guys leech like crazy! What is DIVX?
DIVX is a encoding codec used by ANBU for many of their releases. You must have the appropriate codec to watch our releases. You can get it at www.divx.com.
What is XVID?
XVID is also an encoding codec used by ANBU for many of their releases. Since XVID is an open source codec, there are many different kinds that you can get. You can visit http://www.divx-digest.com/software/xvid.html to choose your flavor.
What is CRC, Checksum, or SFV?
CRC stands for Cyclical Redunancy Check. It is generated from the original file and consists of a 9 digit string that can be used to check the final integrity of your downloaded file. There are many programs out there that do this for you. Checksum is an alternative name for this.
SFV stands for Simple File Validator and is used to check files if they became corrupt after transfer. It does this by doing a CRC (cyclic redundancy check). The poster generates this (text) file with a SFV-generator and the downloader checks it with a SFV-program to see if there are any problems. After the check it displays which files contain CRC-errors and therefore are corrupt. We suggest using WinSFV or QuickSFV, and for Linux/FreeBSD people CheckSFV What is Bittorrent?
Bittorrent is a P2P Sharing Application. To read more about it, visit this website: http://knightdesigns.net/bittorrent.php or read the except below.
Bittorrent was designed by Bram Cohen. Their [official website is here]. It is a P2P, or peer-to-peer program which allows for the distribution of files. Basically, there are three key parts to this system. First there is the serving end, where one client is the "seed" from which all other clients recieve the file from. And there is the client, of which recieves and also sends the file out to other clients. Finally, there is the Tracker. The tracker is a server which simply facilitates management of the transfers.You can download the client at the Official Bittorrent Website, OR use our recommended client the "ABC (Another Bittorrent Client)" at http://pingpong-abc.sourceforge.net/ 
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