01. Big Copyright and Big Mosaic Era
In July 2020, the founder of the well-known anime video site "DidiBili" was rumored to have been arrested, because the site had been stealing copyright for many years and obtaining huge profits through advertising after drainage.
In August of the same year, another heavyweight news leaked out on the Internet: the Japanese cartoon Hanhua group was recruited.
Before that, a well-known Hanhua studio called Rat Painting Sinicization was also sued and had to cut off all the business of Hanhua, and as we all know, Rat Painting enjoys the name of a brother in the Sinicization circle of "One Piece".
Then there is the notice of "severely cracking down on short video infringement" seen in 2021, and the implementation of this policy also announces the great reshuffle of the short video industry, and the past operation mode of watching a movie in XX minutes or directly splitting the long video has come to an end.
These examples above all confirm one thing: the era of great copyright has arrived, and the A-houses can no longer swim in the paradise of film and television as in the past.
Of course, things seem to be getting worse. In addition to not being able to prostitute in vain, the A-houses are more concerned about spending money and not seeing the film, and only seeing the "mutilated" works. Japanese manga masterpieces such as "Giant" and "Demon Man" are not allowed to be introduced due to various factors.
As for those anime that can be released in China, such as "Assassin Wu Liuqi", "The Dragon Maid of the Kobayashi Family", "Blue Sea", etc., they have been "screen magic", such as holy light, dark shepherd, discoloration, deletion, image change, etc.
In view of this, the A-house people all cried out: It turns out that the genuine victim is myself.
What happens in such a situation? The answer, of course, is the repression of demand.
To paraphrase an old saying, today's young people are facing such a contradiction: the contradiction between the growing demand for film and television animation culture among young people and the backward supply capacity of formal platforms.
Of course, whether it is repression or contradiction, they will only eventually elevate the strong impulse of the A-House to ask for a masterpiece.
Under this, some shady businesses have also emerged, and those who have sharp eyes and dare to take risks have the opportunity to get rich.
02. The road to riches in pirated anime
PDD's reputation in today's Chinese Internet is not very good, but it is really easy to use, especially when it comes to finding pirates, you simply don't have to worry too much.
As long as you type in keywords such as "anime", the feedback is not a peripheral product such as handmade, but a bunch of "looking for movies" service stores, and the price of their cover logos will not be expensive, ranging from a few cents to a few dollars.
So do they really have material? Or is it just a gimmick to harvest leeks? At the risk of potentially losing a few bucks, I probed a few stores and discovered some secrets.
One is very efficient, almost all you have to do is window the store and say the name of the drama you want, and they will reply to you after a few seconds, and often they can bring surprises.
In addition to popular masterpieces such as "Giant", some niche but popular works can also be found here, including LEX's "Jobless Rebirth" that was removed by LEX on its own.
In addition, some of the dramas that have been reviewed in China, but the content and picture have been magically changed, the store can also help us find it, but the store is only "agent for the worker", and there is no in-depth understanding of the content, so it is impossible to know whether these pirated copies are the original version or the domestic magic version before consumption.
This matter is naturally more important, in the end, the price of the above-mentioned proxy service is not low at all.
Some of the more generous ones may be traded according to the price of the store cover, such as 2.8 yuan a piece, and even for 4 seasons of dramas such as "Giant", they will also offer a 2 free offer.
In short, the money for a breakfast is not running.
In fact, 5.6 yuan may let me eat dirt in a breakfast, but I can buy 4 seasons of high-definition and undeleted new fans, which is far more fragrant than opening a genuine member, I almost did not hold back and clicked on the payment.
Fortunately, common sense tells me that I must shop around before opening my pockets. For pirate stores, no matter how wonderful and shocking the masterpiece is, isn't it just a series of copied and pasted information? Why did they sell for 2.8 yuan?
I think in the beginning there was no "how much pirated movies should sell" in the world, but there was the first person to eat crabs, and then the stores with the same resources followed the trend for 2.8 yuan.
If you are willing to turn a few more pages of content, you can find some stores that can open 2 yuan a quarter, and the price drop of nearly 30%, which is already considered "vicious competition" in the conventional market.
But piracy is, after all, piracy, and its inner volume will only be worse for goods that have no morality or rule of law in themselves.
If you're willing to spend a little more time communicating, you won't even be able to spend a dollar (I mean $0.99) to get what you want.
This is Hosoda's latest masterpiece "Dragon and Freckled Princess", I heard that it has been confirmed to be introduced into the country, but so far I have not seen the news of the finalization, plus the reputation of the work is not satisfactory. I think that under the impact of piracy, the release of the time will definitely end in a dismal box office, right?
Isn't 1 dollar enough to be incense? The answer, of course, is no.
As long as you are willing to continue to work hard, such as searching in another way, such as replacing "anime" with a more universal "movie", you will be able to see a bigger surprise. For example, the cover of the store seen below is marked with 0.29 yuan, but the real payment will become 2.85 yuan of goods.
Don't look at its price as if it is the same as what you saw earlier, in fact, what is sold here is not a movie, but a whole set of resources, from Japan, South Korea, the United States, and even domestic film and television works, and even brings N games, N music, N materials, N e-books...
Among them, the more well-known ones (such as Miyazaki's works) also set up a separate folder for you to find, but there is an "outlier" in it, from Makoto Shinkai's "Children Chasing the Stars". It can be seen that the resource collectors really don't know much about the work, they are just collecting and peddling with a strong commercial purpose (of course, it also confirms that the animation of the brother is really Ghibli).
However, his spiritual quality of "only need to buy a drama in another house, you can buy the whole earth" is really worth applauding. It is also possible to glimpse the severity of the competition in the piracy market, and the truth of "heavenly reward for diligence" has also been the most extreme interpretation in the piracy market (really to shop around).
At this point, you may still have a doubt, the price is the price, running to PDD to open a pirate shop is really able to get customers?
The answer is true, and in my observation it is quite impressive. For example, the sales of a few stores that are priced for a few dollars can actually go to hundreds. And it is understood that these links will continue to be replaced (it is estimated that they have been removed from the platform, and the data will be cleared), which also means that it is easy for them to make money for a few big meals.
As for those stores that "package the whole world for you", their sales are tens of thousands, or even more than 100,000, and they feel that the net profit of a store is also worth a few years of salary of a social animal.
Of course, if you think that data can also be "brushed", then the "arrogance" seen below should not be fake, right?
Not long ago, I wanted to review the classic "Decisive Battle for the Forbidden Purple", but I was suffering from not being introduced by the regular platform, so I contacted the store, but the result was more exaggerated than the opening price.
When I thought that 13.99 was already the ceiling of the piracy industry, the next one actually threw out the price of 18.88 to destroy the three views, and under my repeated questioning (the store cover logo was 4.99 yuan), the store manager actually let me "get out".
Isn't this arrogant attitude of loving to buy or not buy the best interpretation of "not worrying about selling"?
03. Finally
Where there are people, there will be demand, and where there is demand, there will be a market. On the surface, the era of great copyright has arrived, and pirated content can no longer be exposed in bright places.
But under the night, piracy is still alive and moist, or because the opportunity to be exposed to the world is completely snuffed out, the pirate merchants who are good at walking at night can harvest the second spring of life?
As a content producer, I naturally understand the dangers of piracy. But sometimes you have a better solution than to seek solace in piracy?
I only hope that the dilemma of the genuine victims can be broken as soon as possible.