DreamsOfIshtar

Ishtar. <3 That is all.

As I stated above, just because you buy related merchandise doesn't guarantee you're 'supporting the work' -- you may be, but it's nowhere near actually buying what you watch, or more specifically, paying for what you consume. These arguments of 'I'd never buy it anyway, so my stealing it doesn't hurt anybody' are terribly naive. I have no intention of reiterating why. Sometimes I buy legit, sometimes I pirate. But when I pirate I know there's no legal justification. It's me and my personal morals -- as someone said above, sometimes we're 'cheap and lazy'. Fine. Just don't pretend you're not doing the wrong thing, that you're 'hurting nobody'. I hate to use a trite truism, but there really is no such thing as a free lunch -- just a lunch someone else pays for.

This doesn't really address the issue of the internet 'allowing' illegal downloading. 'Enabling' or, as sketchley put it, 'making it possible' is far more accurate. You might even say 'encouraging'. 'Because they can' and any chances of repercussion has nothing to do with being 'allowed'. We do it without permission; it's really that simple. Were the punishment more severe or likely, we might not, but it's still just as disallowed either way. I do not believe we deserve any sense of privilege simply from a fast internet connection and a little mutorrent competency. sketchley: thanks for that info. Tochiro is quick to remind me how underpaid most Japanese industry figures are -- be it the seiyuu, 'tarento' or producers. We had this same discussion regarding Hideaki Anno's supposed 'Eva Empire' -- people are too quick to believe that just because a franchise is popular that certain parties will be improportionately paid for it. From what I can tell, that's just not how it works in Japan. You can't really draw direct lines of income between the facets of a franchise -- a model Valkyrie, for example, might be only aesthetically linked to whatever Mikimoto or Kawamori created. Sure, there are probably some fees due for using said franchise, but I don't imagine much of the RRP of that model would see its way into any one pocket. And with that, we can probably lay to rest any such arguments of 'I pirate for great justice against the wicked overpaid fat Cats of [insert company here]!'

If no one buys the legit versions, then 'those people' really don't get squat...

Once-in-a-lifetime isn't a term I use lightly for events. A year ago I went to the world's biggest heavy metal* festival in Germany (way, way more money than Kanno-trip), and not even that was once-in-a-lifetime: I'll probably go back another year if the line-up calls me. This was different. You had singers who will likely never assemble again, the Warsaw Philharmonic -- but most importantly, you had the Woman herself calling the shots for 3 hours straight. Virtually no MC filler, and everything was specially-made for the night. Once-in-a-lifetime. I'll be honest: I wouldn't have done it for a raw Mac F/Macross 7 concert. The Kanno aspect was on a sort of unwritten checklist for me -- started with say, meeting Uematsu at a performance, then other anime/vgm composers. Kanno, to me, is the pinnacle of both. I've honestly no idea what will top that concert for me. Someone-I-keep-mentioning-here found a *spectacular* bootleg recording of the concert (we're talking quality almost up to par of an official release) that I can't stop listening to. And as he and I have both agreed, if there were a legit release of Tanabata Super-Sonic, 1) it'd be three discs of sheer Kanno love (and 3-cd live albums are rare enough as it is, never mind the nightmares of licensing) and 2) we'd pay a heck of a lot. But I have another justification for enjoying the bootleg of the concert: for me, it was too much to take in just once. I didn't even *hear* the brief Kiseki no Umi segment, and that final orchestral medley really, really deserves multiple listenings. While Tochiro is right to feel indignant that someone dared make a pirate recording, at least they're not selling it -- and since there's no plan to release an official, it's technically not biting into anyone else's pie. So ultimately, I am thankful someone did it and did it so well. (*my music tastes are as varied as the post mp3-age allows. I'd like to believe everyone's got their crazy spectrum of listening-goodness. )

And the next, final step of my Macross Lovin' dedication: I flew to Japan from Australia for a few days, so that I could go to the Macross-Frontier related Yoko Kanno concert with Tochiro in Saitama, and then registered on this forum to write a review for the benefit of those who couldn't get there. Sure, it was expensive, but I don't collect the toys...oh, sorry, models, which would certainly add up. I'll take a once-in-a-lifetime experience over material possessions anyday. That's just where I am in life now -- although I've never really been a collector, I'll forego all sorts of neat little goodies to add memories and stories to my life. Toys break, books get read, new models come out all the time. That's something that needs to be perpetuated, funded as such. I'd like to believe anyone who is willing to put in, say, 1000 US for Macross models/collectibles would trade that for the chance to attend a one-off concert instead.

Ensuring that your new dvd player is region-free used to be the highest priority when shopping -- here in Australia, we're locked to Pal, which used to be almost like a prison sentence (hey, we are a nation of ex-crims, maybe it's appropriate!), but local releases of anime and asian cinema in general are nowadays fairly abundant. And failing that, there is torrenting, etc. Interesting point -- salesmen are no longer allowed to tell you if a player is region-free. At best, you might be able to wheedle out a few hints if they're feeling friendly. The last player I bought was region-locked by default but a simple code entered upon setting up unlocked it. Naturally the big issue right now is Bluray region locking, because Pal bluray releases are...well, deplorable in comparison to NTSC. I just keep an eye on various sites that test for region-free releases.

Uhm, what money? If you're pirating, there is -no- money going back into anything. And if you're buying those knock-off Hong Kong jobs (and I know precisely the sorts, since I have more than a few myself), then that money is going into hands just as greedy as the 'companies', as you put it. Download anime yourself -- fine, if you're going to feel like you're making a stand against overpriced anime. But to buy bootlegs? You're just trading one gouger for another, since the makers of bootlegs don't pay *anything* and sell their goods to you. Also, 'helping someone pay their bills'? Are you that myopic that you don't realise even the legitimate companies do just that? They have employees, who rely directly on the money said companies make. You'd be well advised to read my posts so far to ascertain my own standpoint before replying -- I pirate as well, so please don't think I'm taking some sort of moral high ground.

Hi there. Maybe what you said about Bri and you writing the same is true, but I am not sure he would have written what you wrote. Looks like a fairly different attitude towards doing things legally to me.

...lively yet interesting. As opposed to...lively yet boring?...hm. Okay. To respond, likely for the last time myself: Sentence 1: yes. Sentence 2: yes. Sentence 3: no. You're relying on motivation. On 'would', not on 'should'. Person A would have bought it but didn't, and Person B had no intention of buying, and didn't -- this doesn't mean anything other than the fact that two copies of whatever it is were not purchased that could have been. Any copy not purchased but acquired is stolen. Is revenue lost. Whether they're kids who'd almost certainly (and let's not play with absolutes here) not acquire said anime if it HAD to be purchased, whether they're people who can or would purchase it but for whatever reason don't -- same outcome. One more unit not sold. The person putting on the internet IS acting illegally -- as is anyone accepting it knowing it's a stolen good. Thank you as well. Your views are surprisingly sympathetic for these 'kids', as though they are somehow victims of the easy system we Gen Xers might have put in place, or that they're entitled to torrents as the 'new television'. Surprising, since you separate yourself from them and so likely are older, and remember when this wasn't the case. I only wish I could less cynical or realistic about the situation, and accept that anyone with a net connection and a bit of torrent know-how deserves for free what the makers themselves deem to be worth at least something. I am also done.

Then they definitely don't count for any of the market share and I'm sorry what was your point again?

I made it up to episode 7 of Macross 7. (7/7, there's one for you to ponder, Tochiro!). Admittedly, I think that's all I ever had on vhs/vcd, but it really didn't grab me. I could get the rest and just don't feel the need to. The same applied to Robotech, actually -- that was always secondary to Transformers to me of a Saturday morning (hey, I was young!). In fact, no Macross series other than the original (which I've only recently marathoned) has demanded my viewing as a compelling experience. And this is okay, because it's aaaaall about the music. I mean, it's great in context, but it's definitely good enough to stand on its own. Okay, next step for how far I've gone for Macross Lovin'... Endured the English dub of Macross II multiple times and never once fast-forwarded/skipped the intro because 'Hush of two Million Years' is awesome.

There are some precedences to what you're saying, the most notable to me would be the Kiseki situation. Without getting into too many details, they went from being a fansubbing group (and fairly grey/illegal distribution of unlicensed work in the West, of which there was a heck of a lot in the 90s) to a legitimate company and then, I believe, some sort of demise no one seemed to notice. This backs up your suggestion that pirates (as I call myself and others who sometimes use sites like, I dunno, that bay place dot org) are actually capable of positive effects on the market. I didn't deny that. But they simply cannot be considered part of the market share *until* they cross the line from thief-of-product to legal-distributor-of-product. Support for sites like crunchyroll try to encourage that shift, not perpetuate the situation of production-->theft. I'm fairly sure I haven't seen many tasteful ads on the prominent torrent sites... An unexpected bonus is only unexpected once -- because having noticed it, one is going to try to promote it in the future. The magnitude of which is not really the issue, though, and I'm the first to say that Japan could do with a good kick up the butt regarding global releases instead of just making things for Japanese and relying on foreign distributors to do the rest of the work (be it simply releasing or, far less to my liking, localisation). 'People who would have bought a legitimate copy but haven't because they were able to download it' = 'The kids that download anime but who would never consider spending a penny on it' because if they were not, in any way, 'able to download it' they would have to go to a 'local shop [that] carried every anime in existence' -- if they wanted to watch said anime. You're working under the assumption that ''The kids that download anime but who would never consider spending a penny on it' only watch anime because it's free. That they'd never touch the legit market if there were no illegitimate sources. I think that's...well, my head's shaking again.

I'll avoid the Pythonesque-elation of How Far I Didn't Go and start small, as requested by Tochiro. I'd drive with the windows down singing 'Totsugeki Love Heart' far too loudly in a country that thinks Kylie Minogue is an artistic genius.

The greyness of right and wrong is more than ancient, and entirely too convoluted to expore here. In the example of the Korean grocery store owner (highly amusing!), I'd say the fault lay purely with Disney for not, if you'll pardon the crudity, protecting their assets. That's a fairly clean-cut case to me -- the legal idea of theft is far stronger than the moral. She might have been immoral but she still acted well within the envelope of widely-accepted law. Now if the shoe were on the other foot, and Disney stole her idea because she wasn't canny enough to protect it, of course we'd feel a bit more indignant -- and morally so. We'd sympathise with her, I'd hope, but ultimately accept that if Disney acted legally, that's all there is to it. In the Virgin case, the legality wasn't really under fire; it was a defamation of the girl's character, and a pretty darn savage one at that. That's what she 'won'. That it could all have been prevented with some watermarking etc. was about as irrelevant as her not putting the picture up in the first place. It all came down to what was done with it, not that something was done with it. And that's an interesting legal/moral intersection in itself, since 'defamation of character' is far more morally reprehensible than legal, in terms of ownership, etc. The rule of thumb is that if you take something that you are expected to pay for by the owners/sellers, you are stealing. Legally you might not be (as you've shown), but I think it'd take an unusually amoral person to do it without any idea that it is theft at some level. I may be slightly idealistic there, but I'm not so naive as to think that'd stop many people from making a buck or ten million. Which is another point people seem to struggle with: if you're not selling your stolen goods, maybe they're not really stolen. Sorry, they are -- you're just not putting yourself on any significant radars and the sharks have bigger fish to catch there. Because most of us will agree that in terms of theft, personal use is less reprehensible than turning a profit. Whether that's legal or moral or some typical mix thereof I leave up to you, the jury.

Oh, the regional constrictions of HULU are much-lamented by me and mine. Sometimes I can't even stream exclusive online content (such as behind-the-scenes featurettes) because of these locks, and that's just frustrating. I think a significant step towards countering piracy is global streaming, on-demand as it were, *with* the option for downloading at high, reliable speed for a very small fee (or a subscription). I know these things are coming, and I for one anticipate it. Piracy stopped being 'fun' the most it became so easy. Now it's just torrent this show, grab that album. Ho hum. Nowhere near as exciting as a shiny new dvd or bluray set. But the backlash of this sort of thinking is that we can blame the lawmakers for our breaking the law, and I don't necessarily think it's that simple either. If the moral and legal ideas of theft are being confused, I'd attribute that to an inevitable falling-back on the former and far-from-embarrassing ignorance on the latter. I do think the fact that professionals are having a hard time 'playing together' means we laymen don't stand much of a chance in understanding and rationalising the legal ideas of theft at a digital level. So it falls back to logic: you take something that isn't yours that others pay for, that is supposed to be paid for, that feels like theft. That is certainly a moral conclusion, but it doesn't have anything to do with 'wrong' or right', because there's no judgment there regarding whether the theft is either. It's just a case of saying it is theft. I'm hesitant to call that a purely moral idea.

Eugimon: I looked into that Virgin/Flickr situation and am shocked I either didn't hear about it or have forgotten. Talk about underhanded. That poor girl. At a more callous level, you could say it's a lesson to the rest of us not to go distributing that which is precious to us (i.e. photos of ourselves) even on sites that usually require some sort of 'knowledge' to access specific photos. I've no issue with confusing moral/legal, as my former posts have made fairly clear. I'd also like to believe that most anime companies/distributors are fairly thorough with their licensing practices. I profess sufficient ignorance on the topic to sit back and listen, but I am curious: if the internet is global (given), are there global licensing laws? Fairly sure there aren't yet, but wouldn't that be an inevitability? And wouldn't the increasing usage of the internet to distribute the media (legally or otherwise) only expedite that process? Bri: I'm sorry but you just make me shake my head. Cynical and realist is fair enough, but that's not what I'm getting from you -- at least not without that provincial angle to remove some of the effective bite from either. I'm completely open to correction from someone better informed/educated, but I don't believe pirates are considered part of the market share, simply because they do not incur profits. They're a calculated, accepted loss -- they don't hold 'market power', they undermine it. They can influence market trends, absolutely, but if pirates held real market power, distributors would acknowledge them as something more than a threat, as a viable portion of their revenue...and maybe that's not so far off either. To date, I've never heard of a demographics study for any given product saying something to the tune of '...and illegal acquisition accounts for x% of our market share'. Again, keep in mind I play both sides, so feel free to not extract moral/legal polarities from what I've said. That I believe stealing is wrong doesn't stop me -- refer to my previous example of the magnitude of laws we break.

Two points. 1) Your dissection of the example, to me, just proves what a poor example it was in the first place. Record contracts, etc. are *not* anime licenses. If you really wanted to make Bri's example work, you'd say something like 'so my friend is playing an anime on a projection screen and I'm leaning over the fence with my camcorder...' or '...so I plugged my drive into the output slot and then let my other neighbour do the same, and he did the same...' ad infinitum. 2) Fairly sure it wasn't Australia -- I'd like to believe I'd have heard of that. Verizon's an American telecommunications service (we have Telstra, Optus, a few other biggies), but if you're going to 'steal' a picture from Photobucket etc., that hardly matters. More pertinent to this is something I've recently had to implement: watermarking. As I said before, it's easy to forget that your little facebook or whatever is connected to the rest of the net, but the concept of IP on those sorts of sites is dodgy at best. Watermarking can be obtrusive but it's nowhere near as potentially obtrusive as someone using your picture for their own purposes -- be it a drawing, design, or whatever. I don't watermark everything, but sometimes it's really worth it. 2b) Is there a video equivalent of watermarking? It's a whole different thing. I've watched boots with advertisements of the bootleggers all over them. Sure, it's obtrusive but if that's how you get to see the movie/anime, that's what you put up with. As much as I appreciate the sheer ease with which we're sharing/distributing media right now, I'm almost equally excited to see what defences and countermeasures might arise. I definitely don't fear that reaper -- it's been a fun ride, but I can see the wear and tear on the rollercoaster and some of us haven't realised we're still in it...

You'll have to forgive me for not being as thorough in my responses as sketchley -- I'm not going to go through point-by-point. At most, I'll be brainfarting... Bri, I think there's a word for your attitude and I'm the first to admit I really don't like it when my friend uses this word. I think your attitude towards downloading is provincial. I want to back up sketchley's point that downloading media without paying for what generally has a pricetag of some nature is stealing -- 'freeriding' is a synonym, nothing more. Your example of recording a neighbour's free concert is fine if you look at it from a very selfish perspective: just your neighbour, the band, you. But to put this into perspective, you have to imagine your friend has thousands if not tens of thousands of neighbours all standing there with their recorders and their happy whee-look-what-we're-getting-for-free grins. Also, the quality of said recording would be almost certainly inferior to a professionally-recorded album, live or studio. So comparing 'recording a band playing next door' with downloading anime/movies/etc which has absolutely no loss of quality is too easily dismissed. Edit of sorts: vifam7 probably said this better and more succinctly. Ignore the grouch on the porch ranting at the kids, if you will.... On Tochiro's ugly little scale, I'm definitely middle-of-the-ground -- which is where I like to be on most subjects. Gotta keep the options open. I've already said I'm a dirty pirate, and have zero moral issues with it. But that's me being selfish too: how can my little acquisitions be bringing down the entire anime industry? There have been enough advertising campaigns trying to convince me otherwise. My favourite is one that poses a number of hypothetical situations: you wouldn't steal a movie. You wouldn't steal a handbag. You wouldn't steal a car. And then the punchline of sorts: DOWNLOADING IS STEALING....well, got news for you. I totally would steal a car if I could do it with mutorrent and a half-assed DSL connection. I'd probably have it stolen within 5 seconds of getting it by some sap with a better connection, but hey. There's another issue at play here too: all of those things mentioned in the anti-piracy ad are physical, limited (extended, if you're sad enough to have done a little metaphysics). Digital property can be duplicated effortlessly, losslessly...infinitely. And this makes 'theft' so much harder for some people to understand, particularly those who have themselves never produced anything they've thought saleable. iTunes and the like are noble, and they've helped bridge some of the gap, but they're not remedies: they're band-aids. But I think it's been that way since even before the 'net: companies know not every single copy of their product will be sold at RRP, all nice and clean. So you rely on the ignorance/goodwill/laziness of General Consumers and prepare for some measure of loss to we who are a bit more canny. And sometimes you switch sides (I'm middle of the ground, remember?) and fork out for something simply because it's there, because you want it, and maybe because you've got the money available because you stole something else... The most important thing, I believe, is to keep perspective -- the internet is simultaneously global and personal. Anything can go 'viral', most things won't. And sure, we're all infinitesimal, but it's that 'all' that makes things difficult to sweep aside. There's a deeper argument to which Tochiro would groove regarding the absence of repercussion/consequence and Generation Y, but I'll leave it there. EDIT to reply to Bri: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_BitTorrent have fun. Torrents themselves might not be illegal, but what they enable certainly is. It's a tired defence and I'm quite sick of it. We steal. There's no prettying this up. None. Anyone who might be old enough to drive here probably breaks the law every time they get behind the wheel. Most of my friends (being the arty types) get stoned now and then. My parents occasionally drive when they've had too much to drink. There are a plethora of laws people break because they're not socially abhorrent -- but they're still laws, and we're still breaking them.

Oh, look, it can do math. What it apparently can't do is figure that of that 7 billion, you can probably discount well over 90% as not giving a 'flying frak' about anime -- regardless of location. And then we can consider things like GDP, standards of living, wages...that'll knock out quite a few more. You're throwing numbers around with absolutely no experience or context -- you're a minor, as you yourself said, so I'll take that into very kind consideration regarding your ineptitude with data manipulation and relevant discourse. I try to be gentle with children but when they act all big and tough on the internet, I reckon the proberbial gloves can come off. We're all equals here, right? All just words on the screen. This is, by the way, entirely irrelevant for the most part, and it pains me to have to taint Tochiro's thread further...but I'm also courteous and believe in responding to people. That and my last post was, I believe, quite pertinent. To continue: while it is entirely possible Japanese software firms don't care much for Australia (why software firms are even relevant to a Macross board is beyond me, but hey, this is your ride, I'm just trying to find the brakes), they're equally unconcerned for the most part with America, regardless of how many millions of people you unfortunately call your countrymen. If you're not sure about this, check your latest Famitsu. Look at what's big in Japan on consoles. Then compare it to US sales and chart-toppers. The concern of Japanese software firms is irrelevant to population, but thumbs up for the effort. The real amusing thing here is it all hinges on Japan's lingering domesticity, which you clearly don't understand. But that's okay, you're all about America's domesticity and its...Mexicans, apparently. Mmmkay. 'When you ask most people of the English-speaking world the first thing that comes to mind when you say "Australia," the answer is likely "Kangaroo," "Koala," "Continent," or "G'day mate." ...Were you paying attention when I mentioned I'd spent five years in the US? I talked to...yknow, a LOT of people in that time, mostly on the East Coast. When they finally figured out (or had to be told) that I wasn't from England, most of them said first and foremost that they'd love to visit. They asked why I left. About the weather. The beaches. What the heck 'cricket' is. How hot are the girls?...that sort of thing. Only the obviously silly ones (amongst such a number I believe we can count you in this regard) asked about riding kangaroos. That you'd believe your statement tells me far, far more about you than anyone else. It's a big internet, my young friend. Start at 'Australia' in Wikipedia and go crazy from there. The only decent point you made about was about the large market share of the US regarding licensing and anime. This is pretty much true, but as Tochiro and others have also elucidated, the US is where a great deal of the torrenting/STEALING of anime goes on too. We Aussies have crap connections and the Japanese just don't go there. So I'm glad you're possibly proud of your big slice of the pie when it comes to releasing/purchasing anime -- just don't forget how few people actually pay for their mouthfuls of that pie. "There is no culture here. Just ignorance about the rest of the world. " If you're any indication, I won't argue that. Get some sleep.

Yeah, but where I live, bookshops actually go out of business because reading has become that antiquated -- and the bookshops we do have sell, let's see, Twilight, Twilight, sports' personalities biographies, Twilight, Harry Potter, and oh look, Twilight derivatives. *This* is why Tochiro left me (and the rest of the country) and I totally do not blame him. At the very best, a Book-Off here would be sort of like Kinokuniya for tightwads, which just means *more* "omg-it's-sokawaii-desu!" fans oogle-bubbling over the latest shounen/-jo sensation. Nthx, as they say on the internet.

"Software in Australia is influenced by ONE thing and one thing only: the small market, which Australia's pretty much in for for everything, since it's an island nation no one cares about and is only remembered for Kangaroos and Koalas. No offense, I'm just being blunt here. " 'no one cares about' Australia except for, say, the 20 million+ people living here, and whoever is scattered around the world with any personal interest in any one of those 20 million+. 'No offense' nullified by the sheer idiocy of your hyperbole. I'm Australian, born and raised, and I've never seen a koala in the wild. I've also lived in the US for five years, so at least one of us has the experience to comment on other cultures beyond tired cliches. I find your bluntness far less offensive than your blithely-deployed ignorance. The rest of this thread has done Tochiro's post more than enough justice with its thoughtful, constructive debate. I'm sorry someone had to buck the trend. ---- I'm going to offer a combination of views from what I've read here by telling you mine: as I've said, I'm Australian with fairly extensive experience in the NTSC region -- I've had the superfast/unlimited cable of the US, and I'm wrestling with the so-so/limited DSL of Australia. That I have placed emphasis on these indicates one thing: I am a pirate and have been for about as long as I can remember. I have certain rules and limitations, but these are less moral than habitual: music and tv shows are free game to me; movies and games are generally not, unless they're really rare. I'll explain these in a bit. High school for me was all about hunting down very poor copies of VHS anime, sometimes so damaged the screen would go black-and-white while watching it. I had a disk drive for my super famicom; I traded pirated PC games, photocopied the manuals (back when they had copy protection of that sort), the whole deal. When the 'net came along, I happily waited half an hour to an hour for an mp2 from some Tokyochat Geocities site -- this was amazing. No longer did I have to trek into Chinatown to scour through those dodgy Song May anime and vg ost cds. Man, this was the future... But then a funny thing happened. Australia's internet clearly fell behind the rest of the 'Western' world. This, combined with my residual love for physical media (I am not above buying bootlegs to this day, but the cost of legit sets is fast dropping to meet bootleg sets halfway) meant that I was still paying for what others were getting for free. I'll admit it -- I got a bit elitist about my old piracy, about how much harder it used to be to steal things (and that's all it ever was, whether we were fans or not). My collection continued to be ruled by one thing: availability. To me, if the quality sufficed, a bootleg of an anime series sat next to a legit box (and they were still very rare back then). DVD used to be a lot more elitist too. I had one of the first in my circle of friends (carried the darn thing back from the US and promptly blew it out with twice the required power supply), and comparing it to the current situation of Bluray is not inaccurate. My first anime on DVD was Record of Lodoss Wars, and my God was it ever pretty compared to the VHS. At that very moment, I knew that I would pay for quality. Australia's internet is still pretty bad. I can torrent tv shows and music, but the quality of the former is poor compared to an official dvd set, and the latter only makes me wish I could hear it live. So that's what I do: I torrent and then purchase, or make effort to see the music live. I buy the merch. And here is where I feel anime is really, really struggling: for everything else pirated, there is some higher offering. Pirate a tv show, get the box, get extra features, higher quality. Pirate music, get into it, see it live. Pirate a movie (ugh, I so rarely do -- dvds are dead cheap these days for general movies), get it on Bluray if you really like it. Pirate a game and, well...I'll admit it. I just don't appreciate a game I've pirated as much as one I've browsed at the shop, thought about, then paid for, came home, read the manual...that whole ritual is something that has stuck with me since the days of Wing Commander and Monkey Island. Pirate anime and what do you get? A fairly clear .mkv with fansubs. You get the complete package. Of course, anime on Bluray is a whole other experience, but most people I know who happily pirate anime aren't that concerned with the quality. They just want their shows and they want them now. Some even have internet connections sufficient to torrent bluray-level material. This blows my mind, quite honestly. There must be some cost for higher quality in my opinion: you can youtube a show for free sometimes, but it looks pretty bad. Then you can torrent it if you've the patience. It's still not that great. But if you really love it and want to see it in all its glory, you acknowledge it's worth paying for and get that bluray set. Basically, I do justify my acquisitions by spending on what may be peripheral products -- higher quality versions, mooks and concerts, mostly. Oh, and if I see a cheaper anime box set, I'll definitely snatch it up -- it's just easier to buy it than wait a week+ to DL it. Also, they look good on my shelves. I have and love the Original Macross series in a box set. I'm pretty sure I have some Macross 7 running around on pirated VCD from my Hong Kong days. I had Macross II (dubbed) on VHS, the original Kiseki release I believe, but that's long gone so recently re-acquired it through a torrent and still have a soft spot for it. I'm not going into pricing discussions or region locking. The former is speculation at best, the latter is becoming less and less relevant again (thankfully). Steal all you want -- just remember the money has to come from somewhere. There needs to be a balance. By all means, don't allow yourself to be gouged by some of those ridiculous prices. How much is too much, Tochiro? Easy: more than you're willing to pay. Because it all comes down to what it's worth to you. And if no one is willing to pay the set price, that set price won't last forever. But you have to figure someone is, because there are still some crazy high prices for certain items out there. That or maybe the sellers just aren't that desperate. Neither of these really pertain to your query. I think some of the items you cited are far too niche to say they're driven by much of a market -- to me, they're not unlike the memorabilia you see in any number of gift shops at the mall. A signed poster of whoever, framed and shiny -- wtf? THAT MUCH?...same thing. Someone thinks someone else believes it's worth that much. So the price remains. Those living in Japan are used to paying 6-7000yen for a double dvd of a live concert. That sort of price would never fly in either Australia or the US, not as a general wide-spread release. But if that concert doesn't get a western release (for example, Sakamoto's 'Kazeyomi'), then I think it's better to fork out that higher price and get the real thing than simply download it. (exception: if you're really impatient and have a legit order placed. I am so very guilty of that one...) To a degree, the internet, as a disseminator of information, has made varying prices in different countries harder to maintain, but I still don't hesitate to pay 30-40% more than an American for the same game. It's just ingrained in me that new releases cost that much. Of course, now that the price of new PS3 games here has cleared a hundred AUS, I'm far, far more selective -- but I still buy the game if I really want it. Amazon won't ship games overseas for fairly obvious reasons. Thankfully this same policy has not touched other media, and I am constantly watching the exchange rate. I think habit and routine, the inertia of consumers, is a force not to be discounted when it comes to asking 'how much is too much?' ...Oh, and for those you STILL reading, here's a little reward: I've seen Macross Frontier, under much protest and after much procrastination, because Tochiro sent me the whole series in .avi format. [i believe he's collecting it on bluray now, but I've no intention of doing so (or of watching it again in a hurry, even if I did trek to Japan to hear the music live -- well, fine, that and everything else Kanno's done...). ] EDIT ADDED PS: I am extremely jealous of Japan's rental/resale model -- A local Book-Off would rock my world. Then again, it'd probably be full of crap...

I'm going to continue with some less-than-glowing reports, not so much because I seem terribly suited for it, but mostly because I WAS THERE AND SOME OF YOU WEREN'T NYAH NAH I feel these are legitimate issues. Tochiro: they didn't start with 'Dance of Course' -- it was actually the Gregorian chanting of 'ESCAFLOWNE' that opened and ended the medley. This was a wicked and naughty trick by Kanno: I thought we were in a for FULL Esca medley...although you could argue that combining several quite diverse scores into one relatively seamless suite is a greater achievement. Before, I was wrong about one thing. We did get 'Kiseki No Umi'. Squished between 'ELM' and 'After, In The Dark'. Says it right there in the programme. Funny, I don't recall hearing Maaya's signature vocals...what? It was JUST the intro bars? As unlikely as it is that a DVD will surface (I thought the camera work was easily DVD level, but I have to concede that a lack of audience-camera and some dodgy shots of the orchestra don't bode well), I'd love to hear it again to see just how little 'Kiseki no Umi' was in there. It rolled into the very, very familiar opening to 'After, In The Dark' far too quickly (which ENDED far too quickly as well). In fact, I'd probably spend that heinous amount of money to fly over there JUST to hear it again and go 'OH COME ON, GIVE US THE WHOLE THING'. But it's entirely possible, as Tochiro pointed out (here or elsewhere), that there might have been rights issues in play. And that brings me to a second contention: certain songs got full length while others were barely a verse or two in the Super Special Medley a.k.a. oh-crap-we're-out-of-time-quick-mash-the-rest-together. This isn't that bad but something like 'Genesis of Aquarion' or 'Hemisphere' really deserves a full version. I really enjoyed what we DID get of Genesis, though, since it was for the most part the superior 'Space Bio Charge' choir/a capella version and not the decidedly mediocre (and yet award-winning) original. Making the orchestral medley an 'encore' was silly too. Of *course* there was going to be more orchestra work -- you don't fly the Warsaw Philharmonic out for one night just so that they can pick up the last third of an already truncated 'Yakusoku wa Iranai'. 'Moon' was encore enough, and we didn't even have to shout 'en-co-re' like raving lunatics for five minutes to get it. Speaking of drowned out, there were a few points where even the mighty Maaya was a bit overshadowed by the volume of the band. But Nakajima's 'VOICES' was, to me, flawless (and complete, thank God). Akino who? I, too, wanted more Maaya -- but I wanted 'Mameshiba', which is from the woefully underappreciated Arjuna (semi-okay anime, amazing OST: sound familiar, Kanno fans?). Having said that, Tochiro is again right in pointing out that Maaya's concert/dvd 'We Are Kazeyomi' provides the 'missing' Maaya songs and I fully plan to get my hands on it and custom-making an mp3 set for myself. 6300 yen is still a bit steep, though. Back to the concert: delightful lack of MC filler. Sure, we like it when the performers fall 'out of character' and chat to us, but when you've an oeuvre of Kanno's magnitude, you don't waste time with 'eeto' and uber-genki giggling. The medleys were a great idea, I just don't agree with some of the choices for compression and/or completion. Origa is better live. I mean, they were all up to scratch and then some, but seeing her live has increased my appreciation tenfold. And I don't even really like GITS: SAC. While you can see Kanno's magic touch pushing certain 'members' of The Seatbelts well beyond their usual offering (sadly, I'm looking at non-Kanno Maaya here), I've a feeling Origa's voice doesn't require that much of a nudge to be what it is. I certainly intend to find out. It was fun watching people try to wave their glo-sticks in time with Kanno's complex rhythms. And they weren't singing along unless told! Heck with that, I usually have to mime these songs or sing along while driving. Crowd that large, that loud, you can bet I'm going to roar 'Ikinokoritai!' (*snicker*). The sax solo at the end of 'Tank' was jaw-dropping. It's a neat tune anyway, everyone gets into it, but that ending was something else. Kanno definitely gave some of her less-prominent Seatbelts their moment to shine. I paid particular attention to the drummer, since I find it to be the least appreciated of the standard band roles...but how many people can move all four limbs not just independently but also complementary? A good drummer keeps the beat, but a great one makes it, ties things together. And the spotlight was definitely on the drums at least once. As you've probably figured out by now, Kanno isn't the only one who can fake-out. I've been a fan of hers since her Koei days, have heard 'Dance of Curse' live twice now (not sure how many people in the world can claim that) and chanted 'susume susume SMS' right along with everyone else (despite the lack of subtitles). In a way, though, my first post was pointing out what Tochiro clarified: going to that concert as anything less than a fan of her body of work would have produced disappointment. There wasn't enough of any one angle to tip the scales, which in my eyes was actually the beauty of it. Okay, I had my complaints, and wanted more Arjuna and Brain Power'd ('Warriors', 'Departure', 'Ark'...any of those...), but that's just me, out of HOW many people? It was Kanno's debut (in that singing robin kinda way) and we're lucky beyond belief that she got to make it pretty much on her terms. Right down to the silly but clearly enjoyable piano solo. Not that it took much work, but thanks to Tochiro for convincing me to get my butt up there for the event.

Well, that 'concert' was disappointing. I've done a few fun things while here in Japan: saw that giant robot from some Gandamu (or whatever it is, my katakana might be off), caught some trains, watched a few cartoons at the cinema (that Musashi one was particularly good – spoiler alert: he wins the end-fight), and maybe best of all, played some of that Crackdown game on xbox360, even though I really don't like that system because, despite my best efforts, it won't play my blurays. Having said all that, I can't quite believe I wasted three hours of my life standing around watching about 15,000 sweaty, hyped-up Japanese go absolutely wild about a chick on stage (IN a chicken suit) banging silly tunes out on a piano and then singing a song. And that's not including the two hours spent lining up to buy a t-shirt that might not even fit me. I was TOLD I'd get to hear that awesome opening song from Macross F, or maybe the opening from that incredible masterpiece Records of Lodoss War, the tv series. Or maybe that Lithium Flower song. Any of these would have been fine. Honest. But no, I get to stand in the dark, nursing a headache as the aural equivalent of fifteen thousand nails dragging themselves down one giant blackboard screeches through my poor ears. Oh, and I had to stand the whole time because apparently getting a 'seat' at a concert means nothing. The. Whole. Time. Worst point: they wanted us to sing along to this choir song and put the lyrics up on the big screen. Yay, great. WITHOUT SUBTITLES. Absolutely inconsiderate. Then again, I didn't see too many other foreigners there, so I guess they were told beforehand that the really good songs wouldn't be played. Wish someone had warned me. Best point: no encore. I hate encores. They're so artificial and predictable. Although an encore OF those songs I do like would have been nice. The orchestra was good. Warsaw Philharmonic. Better in 'Avalon' but this (sadly) was a Kanno Yoko concert, not an Oshii/Kawai one. I saw 'Ghost in the Shell' clips on the big screen but all that meant was this weird Russian-looking chick was going to sing again. Or that emo-looking dude. But I digress. The orchestra was good, the rest was a complete let-down: confusing medleys and bloated ballads. And dancing chickens. I only went because a friend had a ticket and offered to pay, and I still feel faked out and cheated. To those of you who didn't make it, you didn't miss much. Thank God these 'Seatbelts' are not due to perform again until the 22nd Century.