cqvip:This study offers a critical analysis of "fan-subbing" from the perspective of copyright and translation right, which is conducted given that fan-subbing has greatly impacted my cross-cultural experience of entertainment. A fansub(short for fan-subtitled) is a new version of any foreign movie or TV series that has been translated from the original language by fans and subtitled into other languages. The reason fan-subbers do this is mostly that they want to support their favorite movies, TV series or animations, and to help them become popular worldwide. Putting subs on the top of or below a video itself is not illegal if one is doing this for his or her own entertainment, someone else has the exclusive right to sell and distribute that work, and the fan-subber is performing in a way not as a seller or a distributor. Thus, in many countries, writing subtitles for any movie, TV series, or other cultural products and spreading them to the public for free is considered a violation of copyright. Within Viki, there are benefits to becoming a fan-subber. These include not having to pay the ad removal fee, early access to some dramas, and more. Though some solutions have appeared in order to help handle the legal and ethical issues around fan-subbing, this has resulted in very few positive effects, against all expectations. The copyright law of many countries provides protections for normal works and specifies that copyright owners have the right to translate. Japanese companies have been continually protesting the indiscriminating translation of Japanese anime into Chinese, while the subtitle groups also bear the additional harm of being infringed by others while infringing on the copyright of others. In the copyright law of some countries, there is a right to translate.
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