ENTERTAINMENT / Hot Pot Column
Pfhhh, you call that a copyright violation?
By Steven Lin (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-06 11:22
What makes YouTube so popular? It is the website's content, such as
snippets from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, South Park, or any of the
latest television shows from around the world.
Though TV networks have asked YouTube to remove them, users keep
uploading more unauthorized video clips.
In China, some websites are doing much more than that. "Western
executives must be very jealous of the copyright situation here," a
Chinese Web 2.0 entrepreneur once told me. Posting copyrighted videos
online? Who cares.
The result of this laissez-faire approach to unauthorized uploads is to
popular culture-hungry Internet users what pirated disks was to Chinese
cinephiles a decade ago.
Nowadays, go to a Chinese video-sharing site, type in the name of your
favorite show, click on the search button, and voila! Every single
episode of the show will pop up on your screen faster than the fairy
godmother turned a pumpkin into a carriage for Cinderella.
Case in point: ouou.com. Here you can access new episodes of 24, Prison
Break, Heroes or any other series, one day after they air in the United
States.
What's more, there is no downloading (a process that belongs to the
BitTorrent/KaZaA age), no commercial breaks to bother you every few
minutes, and most importantly, no Babel-like situation where language or
cultural misunderstanding makes the global village a pitfall of perils.
It is all thanks to the effort made by volunteer translation groups.
These are fans who prepare Chinese subtitles as soon as they get the
video from the Internet. After Episode 1, Season 2 of Prison Break came
out in August 2006, the first Chinese subtitled version was finished and
uploaded in less than seven hours.
For shows that require in-depth knowledge of American culture, there are
footnotes with the subtitles. For example, footnotes on Studio 60 On the
Sunset Strip help Chinese audiences understand in-jokes about Hollywood
history and American politicians.
Here's one secret for high-quality translation: embedded English
subtitles for HDTV programs are recorded and sent to the translation
groups for reference, kind of like a secret agent that Chinese couch
potatoes have planted inside Hollywood.
The irony is, when official Chinese television stations present new
imported hit shows, people rarely take notice, partly because of the low
quality of translation, and partly because of the terrible dubbing. A
year ago, when CCTV screened Desperate Housewives, the ratings were
abysmally low. So low that Hollywood had better consider breaking into
the Albanian market.
Volunteer translation not only happens in China. On YouTube's "Most
Viewed" page, some Japanese cartoons come with English subtitles also the
work of volunteers. Fortune magazine said that if the official versions
of these Japanese anime are bought by American networks, grassroots
translation will cease operation immediately.
That would be like guerrillas dispersing when the uniformed troops march
in, wouldn't it?
To comment or contribute, e-mail hopot@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 03/06/2007 page20)
Top Entertaiment News
� Radcliffe to reprise Harry Potter role
� Viacom boss wants to mend ties with Cruise
� Travolta donates money to tornado victims
� Britney attempted suicide - report
� Latest "Idol" sex scandal may be short-lived
Today's Top News
� We'll be flexible with yuan: bank chief
� Wen targets balanced growth
� PLA rebuffs criticism of budget
� Secession talk is a dangerous step
� Premier: Economy growth to slow down to 8%
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Learn Chinese, Chinese Mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet
No comments:
Post a Comment