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I don't keep up with this thread,
Silkmaze, but I was thrilled with your
"Javsubtitle" site discovery - what JAV fan who communicates through the language of imperialism would not love English subtitles?
When I noticed via its archives that the site has been around for half a year, I had the notion someone must have already referred to it on this thread; sure enough, a search revealed 5+-year and laconic
Akiba-Online Member
Spwan apparently started the ball rolling - here is Member
Tortex's response, from a couple of pages back:
http://www.akiba-online.com/showthread.php?t=12227&p=2268851&viewfull=1#post2268851
It appears the site has rounded up at least some of the subtitles from out there, instead of creating them from scratch (as
Fyfiul intends on doing, from his post above... I'll get to you in a moment, Fyfiul!), including Tortex's labor of love, the subtitles for SOE-339 (my rare experience with JAV subtitles. Tortex performed a beautiful job). As may be understood, Tortex conveyed his discomfort about his painstaking work being made available someplace else. He was polite about it, understanding the rip-off nature of the world we engage in.
Gentleman
Codegeek was the first to respond to Spwan's announcement (at bottom of Page 16, as of now), pointing out the rotten quality of the borrowed works of another translator, somebody named
"Spikespen." It looks like the
Javsubtitle site has amassed quite a collection by now, and I noticed my possession of two films (that their subtitle files service) featured on the site's first page (as of now):
MDYD-639 Rei Aoki Slave Mother-in-law
RBD-309 Woman President to the Point of Falling
I don't know how these .ASS subtitle files synchronize with the different versions of pilfered JAV that are out there, but it may interest some of you to note that these synced up well (at least at the very beginning, I didn't check into the movies) with the stream versions of what I had downloaded. (My copy of SOE-339 was also a stream, and it worked well with Tortex and
Desioner's masterpiece.) So I suppose these files are pretty compatible, even though they must have been created with the higher quality movie downloads.
Yet the reason why I was not compelled to watch further (at least not at this moment) was that the level of the English was pretty horrendous. It was like wading through Google translations. (Not that a rotten translation is worthless, at least we get some idea. Maybe.)
Okay, Fyfiul... if I may now turn to your post...
Congratulations, first of all, for opening your mouth for the first time in four-and-a-half years of
Akiba-Online membership. There has been a rash of silent old-timers coming out of the woodwork, and that's nice. I hope you will yak more.
Allow me to commend you on your lofty plan. (Although I won't be focusing on the question you raised, what type of payment plan.) I did balk when you mentioned a charge, but I can understand. Producing subtitled text must be very time-consuming, and as Tortex explained in a past post, what drags out the labor may not be the translating as much as the coding. Even the most diehard fan could lose interest, if there is no other incentive at play, to keep going.
But charging money opens up a can of worms, and even thieves like us need to have a code of honor. I feel very strongly that what
Zenra does (charging for their translations in the form of uncredited movies), as well as what the many sites that charge for their downloads (usually in the form of selling passwords) do is strictly unethical. They are profiting off others' copyrighted works, and that is tantamount to crookedness.
If you are to set off on such an enterprise, the only way you can justify a charge is to not make the movies available, as
Zenra does.
Javsubtitle has the right idea, by making available only the subtitle files, primarily .ASS.
Naturally, there are other avenues of collecting dough besides asking for direct payment, even though the amount of money made could amount to less - it's the backdoor method, which uploaders rely on to keep going, through the filehosters' payments, and (as another example), the cashlinks method, which
"Javsubtitle" has opted for, via stinkin'
Linkbucks.
On the production side, I see your English is indeed excellent, but the rare boo-boo from your post (which certainly is not fair to judge by, as most whip up the wording of their posts) could serve as a reminder for you to be absolutely diligent when you compose your words. The key is to check and check again, to make sure those T's are dotted and I's are crossed, or better yet, vice versa.
The downside is, what to do when someone takes your hard work and posts it elsewhere? Not much can be done about that, I'm afraid, unless we are dealing with a big corporation and their armies of lawyers (even then), and while most of us engage in taking things from the Internet, it may be a bitter pill to swallow when something is taken from us.
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