June 17, 2009
Digital Biz Found in translation: China's volunteer online army
Dozens of subfans exist in China. They are voluntary and are translating a mix of media, from books and magazines to games, TV shows and movies. The translated products are for an audience whose primary means of accessing foreign entertainment is the Internet. CNN reports.
The members of these online translations groups participate out of a desire to improve their English. For many there is also a passionate interest in overseas content and a desire to make it accessible to other Chinese people.
Translation team members download TV shows through different methods: watching directly from a Web site or downloading from a translation group Web site. Clips can also be downloaded through BitTorrent -- file-sharing sites such as Xunlei. Through this method, groups post their "seeds" on these sites, and people can download them.
The translation teams acknowledge that what they are doing is less than legal and say they do worry that someday they may be forced to quit (so far there are no reports of a group being shut down).
"We are living in this grey zone," said Deping Wang, a former member of a team called 1000fr. "It is not legal, but at the same time, nobody can live without it. This is the dilemma."
Many international media companies are concerned the groups are eroding their potential profit margins in China by illegally making the content available for free. Some, however, see the translation groups' efforts as a conduit for cultivating a market that will be willing to buy content if it is allowed to be distributed through official avenues in the future.
Read full article.
Related articles on subfans:
-- Subfans - US TV series, uploaded onto video sharing sites right after their broadcast, are often translated into another language with subtitles within hours.
-- TF1 Vision: Yesterday on US TV, Today on TF1 Vision - In September 2007, French network TFI1, launched a special section on their website called TFI Vision, which enables French (only) viewers to purchase episodes of US TV series that aired just 24 hours before on American television.
-- Fansubbers Are Not Thieves, But Avid Consumers - Another prominent subbing community has closed its doors - and has launched a campaign to show the movie industry that they are not thieves, but avid consumers.
-- Anti-Piracy Action Closes Yet More Subfan Sites - Recent months have seen fresh efforts to silence sites that provide fan-created translations of movies and TV shows for their home countries. The latest targets for shutdown - Israel and France.
-- Subfans - Who are these people, who spend hours translating entire episodes for the benefit of others.
-- Subfans: the tools they use - Keskidi is a new tool for subfans - non US TV fans who translate entire episodes for the benefit of others - as well as anyone else who want their videos to reach an international audience.
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