Fan-Generated Movie Subtitle Sites Targeted by Studios

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 2, 2009 - 11:34am.

Los Angeles - Several websites in Israel and France that provided user-created subtitle translations for movies and TV shows have been shut down recently, after legal threats from movie studios and other copyright industry concerns, TorrentFreak reported.

An Israeli anti-piracy group called ALIS aided law enforcement on raids against the operators of the websites "xvoom," "MYakuza" and "Donkey," which provided Hebrew subtitles for foreign films.

The ALIS reached settlements with the two former sites, which were shut down, while a court granted summary judgment against the operator of "Donkey," who failed to appear in court.

"A website that I have put 2.5 years of work into was closed," the owner of "MYakuza" wrote, according to TorrentFreak.

"Links to illegal films were never available on the website but I preferred not to destroy my life and decided to shut it down completely. They have more lawyers and money. We came out lucky."

Meanwhile, in France, Warner Bros. has sent cease and desist letters to subtitling sites including "Frigorifix," which decided to stop posting its "fansubs" online.

"Never, until now have we had threats from rights holders that are as real and immediate as the ones we received yesterday," the operators told TorrentFreak.

"Our names and addresses are listed with our registrar and web host, and we can not afford to undergo a judicial process."

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/cykwc (TorrentFreak)

Published in DMW Daily, March 2, 2009

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Comments

The rich rule over the poor

Submitted by We all together (not verified) on May 17, 2010 - 2:30pm.

"Our names and addresses are listed with our registrar and web host, and we can not afford to undergo a judicial process." This is the evil reality. Rich people license stuff so they can get more and MORE money. And they target translators because it's their work, yet they are too lazy to translate it to every language. People in Israel, Germany, China and Vietnam might not be able to understand the English subs and thus prefer subs in their own language. Why won't the so called 'official' translators also make subs for those kind of countries who might not be able to understand English very well?