Anime Debates

[Venka]

On Otaku Experience there is currently a debate going on betwee a friend and myself. You an feel free to add your views or your two-cents to the discussion. Just please indecate if you are Pro, Against,or Nutral. Also if you don't wish for your post to be added let me know


This month’s debate is MSTing Anime. Harmless Fun or Plagiarism.





First off what is MST. MST aka MiSTing is a form of role play where you make comments during your favorite show. This action has been adapted from a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000 which was about a man who lives in a satellite with two robots and are forced to watch crappy movies. As they do so they heckel the movies.


Venka: Harmless Fun

I'm sure many readers have had moments where they have watched an anime with friends and while doing so made commentary through out the show such as saying: He has a bad case of red paint. But how legal are these practices? It is not much different then fanfiction. You have a story, and a colorful cast of characters. However to MST some choose to write down the script of the anime they are mocking. This can confuse this practice with plagiarism. Much like a fanfic one need only to write a disclaimer explaining that they do not own the dialogue and state which company the original dialogue came from. Also if you use characters from other animes as riffers then use a disclaimer with them as well. No one likes the disclaimer but its better then getting a nasty letter saying you are spreading around stolen property.

Ironstar: Plagiarism.

MSTing is a form of entertainment that steals the work of the people at the dub companies. True you write out the script yourself but the dialogue is still not yours. What MSTs do is they give people license to steal written work. One need only to copy and paste the script to a word document and erase all the stuff you have added on. Dub companies lose money this way because if the people own a copy of the script there would be fewer sales of the anime itself.

[Pennyroyal Tea]

I don't care

[maria]

ditto. I'm too lazy to think up an intelligent reply