Piracy and Anti-Piracy Stuff

So... Well, if you use NU, you're probably used to browsing through pirated content... I mean, 95% of the novels linked on NU are unofficial translations after all, which are technically speaking piracy. So well, I think most people here have a loose view on what is okay and what is not okay to pirate... Though most people here still try to support the translators and visit their website and stuff, which is sweet~

At the same time, we don't really support the original author usually... Even though the translators often times link us to the original source site, and tell people to buy the official release once available, and even commonly drop the fantranslation once an official translation appears... Even then, not many readers here do anything to support the original author... That's just how things are I guess, it's not good, but it's not really something that bothers me much tbh, I'm just used to things being like this I guess.

So uhn... Well, I was very surprised when I started becoming more active in another community that is very very heavily against piracy... To a point that just feels extremely unreasonable to me. Which is kinda weird if you think about it, I mean... They're just against piracy, that isn't wrong per se, they just wanna support the official authors and stuff, so it should be fine... It should, but to me, it isn't, to me it is unreasonable.

I'm talking about r/digimon specifically, before we go any further, I kinda need to quote a small tidbit of the subreddit rules:

And those were pretty much all rules regarding piracy that the subreddit had. After I had some clashes with the mods and almost got banned (more on that below) though, they added some clarifications to the FAQ (God, I wish they had told me this before, I literally only found they updated the FAQ with this today because I felt like writing this Blog Post)

So uhn... What bothers me at those rulings? Well, lots of things.

First, the FAQ is actually very hard to find on mobile, and I browse reddit 90% of the time on mobile, so... Well, that's not a good start. But at least it's easy on PC.

Then there is the fact the rules are excessively vague on the piracy issue. I get that they don't have a big character limit on them, but there is certainly enough room to put more details on it than "no illegal content."

Then there is also the fact that after I received my first warning (more on that below), I actually made a lot of questions and a few requests and was basically met with radio silence... At least until I got my 2nd warning. And it really pissed me off, like... Geez, I'm asking questions exactly to know what I can and can't say. If you don't want me to break the rules, then clarify the rulings to me instead of just sending warnings! >.<

And then there is also the fact that the rules on the FAQ seem... Too harsh to me. Like, I'm totally fine with not linking nor mentioning the names of pirate sites, it's how I handle things here on NUF too after all. I'm actually the kind of person that reports things when I see links to pirate sites.

But uhn... No hinting at illegal streaming sites? No mentioning emulation at all? Not even talking about unofficial games? It's just... Uhn... Geez, wth?

Like uhn... Here are some things that gave me warnings:

1. When someone was talking about Digimon Tri, I mentioned that I pirated the content instead of watching it on Crunchyroll because Crunchyroll was lagging to me.
2. When someone asked how to play the old Digimon Games, I linked to EPSXE's official website and linked to the Pete's plugins for it. Then I explained how to do basic set up and explained that you'd need to either use HLE or pirate a Bios for it... And for the games themselves, either buy some old copy on Ebay or something, or pirate them.

Those two were kinda back to back, so I got one warning for both, and was told that I shouldn't be mentioning piracy... I was weirded out, but was like... "Well, fine, your subreddit, your rules."

So then I started doing stuff like...

1. When someone asked for ways to watch old shows, I mentioned that there was no legal way to obtain them subbed, and that dubs were basically available on DVDs that they'd probably need to buy from amazon or whatever.
2. When someone was asking if it was worth it to buy a Wonderswam to buy some of the old crappy Ryo games, I was like, "Don't you think it would be better to just download an emulator instead of buy the Wonderswam? I think they use HLE, so you don't need to worry about having a BIOS and stuff." Because well, HLE is legal, and emulators are legal as well, so... I can't see any issue with those.

At that point I got another warning because I was hinting at piracy with my "No legal way to obtain" posts... Which well, I'm guilty as charged, but what am I supposed to tell people? That they should buy some old censored crappy dubs that won't even support the original author anyways because they can only buy from resellers and what not?

And the emulator one was also something I got warned for because... Well, apparently mentioning an emulation points people towards downloading pirated ISOs or something... Which pissed me off since I never mentioned anything about pirating ISOs in the comment that gave me the warning or whatever. I made sure to mention only stuff that is legal.

Pass a few more days and someone asks about the new Kizuna movie and asks if there is any way to watch it, and I tell the person there is none atm... Then they kinda reply about how they'd hope we get some way, legal or not, to watch it soon, and then I just reply with "Here's to hoping a fantranslation or an official stream happens soon! \(^^)/"

... And then I got warned for that too... Because I can't mention the existence of fantranslations apparently. And got told that next time I'd be banned.

... Even though the only way to watch subbed versions of the old animes is by fantranslations... Or how many of the games were never localized, so you can only play them in English via fantranslations... Or how most of the announcements of new things we get are also only in Japanese, so we only know what they are talking about because of fantranslations, like... Geez, it's a Japanese media franchise, fantranslations are deeply ingrained into the community and they're often times the only way to consume many of the things produced... What's the damn problem with mentioning their existence? It's not like they're a hidden secret or anything! >.<

Heck, even Crunchyroll was once a site for fantranslations... Or rather, it was a site that stole fantranslations without permission IIRC? And this isn't a secret either... And they just got enough money to go legal though, so all ended up well.

So... What came out of that? I gave up. I gave up on trying to follow their rules. I like following rules and stuff, but... Geez, this is just way too much, I can't even mention fantranslations? It's just so ridiculous, I mean... All the announcements we get in the Japanese websites are fantranslated to English by one of the mods' friends and then posted on the mods' website. This same person also makes fantranslations of the Digimon Novels and Drama CDs, some of them are even linked here on NU actually~

So well, what I do now is that whenever someone asks about watching old shows, I tell them in the thread to buy some old DVDs in Amazon to watch the crappy dubs, and then PM them my Torrent site of choice in order to help them download the subs of the animes... Because well, I dunno, I like helping people, I feel well doing it. And when the mods stop me from telling people about the very existence of fantranslations, I feel like I don't have many ways of helping them out... So I figured I'd just give them direct links to the pirate sites instead of trying to follow the rules, since I can't help them in any way in the "proper" way.

So well... I dunno, it feels counterproductive to me to go that harsh on the anti-piracy train? If all they did was trying to stop links and mentioning names of pirate websites like it's done here on NUF, then maybe people would try turning to the official sources when someone tells them "there is no legal way to obtain it I'm afraid." But when they are as harsh as they are and end up making me feel like I need to PM people the pirate websites to people if I wanna help them... They end up just providing a very easy access routes for other people to turn to piracy, due to their very excessively harsh policy.

Am I the one in the wrong for trying to help people watch old shows of Digimon with actual quality? I dunno, I don't think I am. I love supporting the authors whenever I can, but I have a really hard time understanding the hate of piracy of stuff that have no legal ways to be obtained anymore... But I can respect it to some extent... But when I can't mention the existence of piracy, nor can I even hint to it either? Then I just feel like they're being unreasonable.

I mean, geez, who will buy old DVDs on Amazon to watch some crappy dubs anyways? Just let people tell others about the reasonable ways of obtaining old stuff...

Dunno what else to say, feels like I'm going a bit in circles... This whole thing just stressed me I guess, it feels like I'm doing something wrong because I'm directly linking to pirate sites and breaking the subreddit rules too, but at the same time I feel like I'm doing something right and I just wanna help people obtain stuff they wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

It's just very stressful to me to deal with that. I don't like trying to find loopholes on rules or trying to tell people to do stuff I don't really agree with on PMs, because it's the best way I have available to help them... I mean, geez, I already feel bad enough by pirating the episodes of the new digimon anime instead of waiting the 1 week to watch them on Crunchyroll, and now I'm pointing people towards the same site I use to pirate those? I dunno, I feel bad about that, but I feel like my hands were forced and I don't have other ways of telling people how to obtain those old thingies.

*sighs* Oh well, I just wanted to put all those thoughts somewhere I guess.