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      Turner Classic Movies Airs a Film With ‘Pirated’ Subtitles

      news.movim.eu / TorrentFreak · Thursday, 6 July, 2023 - 10:50 · 3 minutes

    karagarga For millions of people around the world, subtitles are the only way to enjoy media in foreign languages. For the deaf and hard of hearing, they are absolutely essential.

    Nowadays, most large streaming platforms and broadcasters are aware of the importance of offering a range of subtitle options to their viewers.

    On pirate sites, the situation is no different. There’s a decades-long tradition of fansubbing which sees volunteers work together to supply homebrew subtitles to the masses. In many cases, these volunteers beat official channels, especially for non-mainstream content.

    There are licensed and official sources for subtitles, but every now and then, we see fan-made subtitles appear on legal platforms. This is exactly what happened a few days ago, in a rare encounter between two of the largest cinephile platforms.

    TCM Meets Karagarga

    As part of its programming, Turner Classic Movies ( TCM ) recently broadcast the 1970 Spanish drama film “El Jardín de las Delicias,” also known as “The Garden of Delights” in English. The film is widely regarded as a top classic, which TCM viewers expect to see on the “ national treasure “.

    What viewers didn’t expect to see, however, were ‘pirated’ subtitles and a reference to a BitTorrent tracker during the credits roll.

    “Subtitles: Supersoft and Scalisto for KG,” an inserted subtitles credits line reads, as spotted by movie archivist ‘Jon’ on Twitter.

    subtitles TCM

    To the average viewer, this might not ring any bells. However, those in the know immediately recognize these as fansubs. Quite interesting ones too, considering the “KG” reference.

    Invaluable Film Archive

    KG stands for Karagarga , an illustrious BitTorrent tracker that’s been around for more than 18 years. Becoming a member of the private community isn’t easy but those inside gain access to a wealth of film obscurities.

    The site focuses on archiving rare classic and cult movies, as well as other film-related content. Blockbusters and other popular Hollywood releases can’t be found on the site as uploading them is strictly forbidden.

    This policy has helped the tracker to stay off the radar, as far as that’s possible. This allowed the community of tens of thousands of film fans to build an irreplaceable archive of the world cinema. This isn’t an exaggeration, the site has unique copies of films that are simply not available elsewhere.

    While the tracker operates without permission from rightsholders, filmmakers, cinema researchers, and cinephiles have recognized the important role it plays to safeguard film history. Or as the National Post put it a few years ago;

    “Movies of unflagging historical merit are otherwise lost to changes in technology and time every year: film prints are damaged or lost, musty VHS tapes aren’t upgraded, DVDs fall out of print without reissue, back catalogs never make the transition to digital.

    “But should even a single copy of the film exist, however tenuously, it can survive on Karagarga: one person uploads a rarity and dozens more continue to share.”

    Source?

    The subtitles that appeared on Turner Classic Movies were made for a Karagarga release, too but weren’t necessarily sourced through the site. The fansubs may be available through other subtitle repositories as well.

    TorrentFreak contacted TCM to find out if the company has any idea how the subtitles ended up on the official broadcast, but the company didn’t immediately reply. The problem may lie with a third party, as the Criterion streaming service reportedly shows the same subtitles.

    The source and whatever reason these subtitles appeared on the official TCM broadcast is irrelevant. The true cinephiles will appreciate the mention.

    Of course, this is not the first time that we have seen ‘pirated’ subtitles appear on legitimate platforms. Sky, for example, displayed unofficial subs on a Chernobyl episode and Netflix also had similar issues on several occasions in the past.

    From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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      Iconic Fansubbing Site Legendas.tv Shuts Down Voluntarily

      news.movim.eu / TorrentFreak · Wednesday, 18 January, 2023 - 09:32 · 3 minutes

    legendas Every day, millions of people enjoy fan-made subtitles. These files help foreigners to better understand English entertainment and provide the hearing impaired with a way to comprehend audio.

    These subtitles are often used in combination with pirated films or TV shows, a thorn in the side of entertainment industry companies, who see this as a threat to their business.

    This was also the case with Legendas.tv, a Brazilian fansubbing community founded in 2006. For many Brazilians, Legendas (Portuguese for ‘subtitles’) was their first introduction to characters such as Jack Bauer , Michael Scofield and Hiro Nakamura .

    Legal Issues Came Early

    The site, which relied on a team of contributors, soon gained a steady user base. With its presence growing, the concerns of major entertainment industry companies increased as well.

    In 2009, legal pressure resulted in a temporary shutdown. Representing the major Hollywood studios, Brazil’s Antipirataria Association Cinema and Música (APCM) complained to the site’s hosting company Softlayer, which pulled the plug shortly after.

    legandas

    Legandas.tv’s downfall didn’t last for long. The site quickly switched to a new hosting company, from where it continued to serve subtitles. Meanwhile, sympathizers of the site went after the anti-piracy group. The hackers defaced APCM’s website which started to link to torrents.

    Avid Consumers

    Shortly after the crackdown, Legendas.tv team sent out a different message. While the entertainment companies were quick to brand them as pirates, Legendas argued that they were probably some of the most avid consumers.

    “We are those who purchase the latest technology products and subscribe to the best cable TV packages and the most powerful broadband plans. We voraciously consume culture. And even with all that, we don’t think it’s enough,” the Legendas team wrote at the time.

    The fansubbers argued that they simply wanted to consume content that wasn’t available legally around the world. At the time, many countries had to wait months before popular content became legally available, if it became available at all.

    Mission Complete

    Pirate sites and subtitle repositories have a history of meeting demand when availability is lacking. With the shortening of release windows and the rise of online streaming, the gap has started to close. Today, affordability is a bigger issue than availability. While there is still plenty of interest in subtitles, the Legendas team feels that it served its purpose.

    A few days ago Legendas.tv voluntarily shut down. In a message to its users, the site explains that times have changed. There are now many legal platforms making the latest content available, with subtitles included.

    “For many years Legendas.TV was one of the main repositories of Portuguese subtitles for a variety of content. Those were other times, the content was distributed in different ways and, after many years, the market took over with more and more accessible streaming services,” the translated note reads.

    legendas tv

    Funds Dried Up

    There are other factors that played into the shutdown decision as well. The team notes that the financial position was dire due to a decline in user contributions and issues that prevented it from having decent advertisements.

    The site was not being operated with a profit motive. However, the lack of funds made it harder to cover the costs. Three years ago, the operators threatened to shut the site down unless more people subscribed to their VIP plan. This extended the site’s life, but Legendas eventually made the decision to pull the plug.

    The voluntary shutdown is the end of an era but the site’s subtitle archive won’t simply vanish. According to the farewell message, the files will be made available to the public in some shape or form during the weeks to come.

    Other than that, Legendas’ journey has come to an end.

    From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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      Are Subtitles Illegal? Here’s What Court Says About Using Subtitles

      pubsub.dcentralisedmedia.com / FossBytes · Tuesday, 2 February, 2021 - 05:07 · 2 minutes

    Are subtitles illegal

    If you’re a movie buff, chances are you might have used subtitles to watch movies that are unavailable in your native language. The debate between subtitles and dubbed is eternal and never-ending. A lot depends upon users’ personal choices whether to watch a dubbed movie or add subtitles to movies and TV shows.

    There are several websites on the internet offering subtitles in multiple languages for movies and shows. Most of the subtitles available on such websites are fanmade or ripoff from copyrighted content. The process of generating subtitles by fans is called “fansubbing.”

    The term is quite popular amongst anime lovers. The role of a fansubber involves translation, subtitling, and distributing the subtitles. Since subtitles are not generally offered by the copyrighted content owners, they fall under the category of pirated content.

    If you’re wondering whether subtitles are illegal to use, we have provided you a answer to it.

    Are Subtitles Illegal? Apparently, Yes.

    According to a court order passed by the Amsterdam District Court in 2017, subtitles are illegal unless created and distributed after obtaining permission from the original content holder. Anyone generating subtitles without obtaining the required permission could be punished under copyright infringement, as per the court order.

    Similar legal barriers could be in place in other regions as well. Thus, subtitles are illegal and could land you behind bars, or you’ll need to pay a fine for using illegally generated subtitles.

    For a long time, fansubbers have received harsh criticism from anti-piracy groups and copyright content creators. BREIN, an anti-piracy group hailing from the Netherlands, has been at the forefront of the fight against fansubbers and subtitles. The group has forced several subtitles creators to shut down their shop.

    However, in 2017, a group called “Free Subtitles Foundation” (Stichting Laat Ondertitels Vrij – SLOV) decided to fight BREIN in the Netherland court against its campaign targeting fansubbers.

    Surprisingly, the court sided with BREIN and issued an order stating that subtitles are illegal if generated/circulated without permission from the original content creator.

    After the decision, BREIN director Tim Kuik said, “With this decision in hand it will be easier for BREIN to maintain its work against illegal subtitlers and against sites and services that collect illegal subtitles and add movies and TV shows from an illegal source.”

    Everything is not gloomy though, Netflix and Youtube encourage publically sourced subtitles to make it easy for deaf users and those who are keen on watching foreign language shows and movies.

    But, the order by the Dutch court very well means that subtitles are indeed illegal and it could have implications for fansubbers around the world.

    Via: TorrentFreak

    The post Are Subtitles Illegal? Here’s What Court Says About Using Subtitles appeared first on Fossbytes .

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      rC3 Call for Subtitlers

      percidae · pubsub.movim.eu / CCCEvent · Wednesday, 6 January, 2021 - 16:18 · 3 minutes

    English version below

    C3Subtitles?!

    Hat dich im Lockdown die Langeweile und die Sehnsucht nach Chaos Events gepackt? Sitzt du daheim und schaust sehnsüchtig die Talks vom rC3 und vergangenen Chaos Veranstaltungen?
    Bring ein bisschen Congress zu dir nach Hause, wie beim rC3, und bringe dich ein, die Qualität und Barrierefreiheit der CCC-Aufzeichnungen zu verbessern! Du kannst jederzeit von Zuhause aus an Untertiteln für die Recordings arbeiten. So lange oder kurz du möchtest!

    Wie geht das?
    Die Transkripte sind software-autogeneriert und werden von Dir in einem Etherpad verbessert. Aufgrund von Akzenten der Speaker und Fachvokabular ist das dringend notwendig.
    Danach folgt wieder ein automatisierter Schritt: Das Timing der Subtitles. Auch dieses Ergebnis wird von Dir geprüft. Danach sind die Untertitel fertig!

    Genauere Beschreibungen und Anleitungen findest Du im C3Subtitles Wiki . Den aktuellen Status der Untertitel findest du auf c3subtitles.de .

    Bei Fragen wende dich an die unten genannten Kontaktwege.

    Du brauchst Untertitel? Lass uns wissen, welche Talks dich interessieren!

    Was ist mit Untertiteln für andere Bühnen?

    Du gehörst zu einer Organisation / Erfa / Hackerspace (Chaos-West, WikiPaka, ChaosTrawler, Chaoszone, Sendezentrum, Bitwäscherei Zürich, c-base, hacc München, OIO, Chaosstudio Hamburg – und alle anderen) die auf Events (rc3 und andere) Videos recorded und veröffentlich hat?
    Du möchtest, dass diese barrierefreier zugänglich sind und ihr sie mit Untertiteln versehen könnt? Dann melde dich bei uns!
    Schreib uns an, am besten via Rocket-Chat in #subtitles oder auf einem anderen Weg, siehe unten.
    Was du dafür brauchst:

    • Eine Kontaktperson für uns
    • Eine Fahrplandatei (wenn die nicht exisitert finden wir trotzdem einen Weg)
    • Öffentlich zugängliche Video-Dateien
    • Motivation, um Barrierefreiheit selbst in die Hand zu nehmen

    (Spoiler: Wer schnell ist, bekommt für die Talks noch gute Trint-Transkripte! Noch haben wir Credits!)

    Übrigens: Untertitel haben auch den Vorteil, dass man damit Videos maschinendurchsuchbar macht! Such mal nach “war das perfekte Argument dabei..” ! Media kann das bereits: schau ab Minute 14 in media.ccc.de/v/rc3-11583-rc3_eroffnung .

    Kontakt:


    English Version:

    C3Subtitles?!

    Have you been hit by lockdown, you’re bored and you are craving for more chaos event feeling? Are you sitting at home and watching recorded Talks from rC3 and past Chaos events?
    Bring a little bit of rC3 to your home and help with improving quality and accessibility of the CCC recordings! You can work on the subtitles from the comfort of your home, as long or as short as you like to!

    How does this work?
    The transcripts are generated automatically by speech recognition software and improved and corrected by you. Since talks contain lots of domain-specific terms and may have speakers with heavy accents, this is very much necessary. The next step is again automated: aligning the subtitles to the audio. Again, the result of this process is verified by you. Afterwards, the subtitles are finished!

    For a more in-depth description and how-tos, take a look at c3subtitles Wiki. You can find the current status of any talk in our database on c3subtitles.de .

    If you have any questions, contact us via any of the channels below!

    You need subtitles? Let us know which talks you are interested in!

    What if I want subtitles for a different stage?

    You are part of an organisation / Erfa / Hackerspace (Chaos-West, WikiPaka, ChaosTrawler, Chaoszone, Sendezentrum, Bitwäscherei Zürich, c-base, hacc München, OIO, Chaosstudio – and all the others) which recorded and published videos during rC3?
    And you would like to improve accessability of your talks via subtitles.
    Send us a message via Rocket-Chat in #subtitles or another way, see below:
    What do you need:

    • A contact person for us,
    • A file containing a Fahrplan-File,
    • Publicly available videos, and
    • Motivation to take accessability into your own hands

    (Spoiler: the faster you are, the higher the chance for automatically generated transcripts by Trint – we still have credits!)

    By the way: With subtitles you can make the video content machines searchable! Search for this query on media: “war das perfekte Argument dabei..” ! Media can already do that: Check 14 minutes in on media.ccc.de/v/rc3-11583-rc3_eroffnung .

    Contact:

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      rc3: Call for Subtitles

      Subtitles · pubsub.movim.eu / CCCEvent · Saturday, 12 December, 2020 - 00:44 · 1 minute

    English version below

    Hi, Du kennst die C3Subtitles vielleicht schon von den vergangenen Congressen. Auch für den rC3 werden wir Untertitel für die Talks erstellen! Vor allem Hörgeschädigte und Personen, die die Sprache des Talks nicht perfekt verstehen und sprechen freuen sich darüber, aber auch wenn das nicht zutrifft, haben Untertitel Potential: Stell dir vor, Dein Vater/Mitbewohnerin/Hamster saugt gerade die Wohnung, während Du ein Video genießen möchtest …

    Wenn Du dieses Jahr mithelfen möchtest, melde Dich als Engel und komm’ ins Subtitles Team! Wir werden ganz in Ruhe Untertitel für die aufgezeichneten Videos schreiben und in einem weiteren Schritt timen, du musst also keine schnellen Finger mitbringen. Alle Infos, wie das genau funktioniert und wie wir dezentral die Vorträge verteilen, damit nicht mehrere Engel gleichzeitig an einem Talk arbeiten, werden wir dir in Engel-Einführungsmeetings zeigen!

    Kontakt

    IRC: #subtitles on hackint.org
    Rocket Chat: Channel subtitles
    Twitter: @c3subtitles
    Wiki


    English Version:
    Hey you, maybe you already know C3Subtitles from previous chaos events. We will also create subtitles for this years rC3! Especially people who are hard of hearing and people that don’t understand and speak the language of the talk perfectly will profit from them. But if that doesn’t apply to you, it doesn’t mean the subtitles can’t be beneficial to you: Just imagine your dad/flatmate/hamster is vacuuming at the very moment you wanted to enjoy a video…

    If you want to participate in the subtitles team this year, just become an angel and join the team! We will create subtitles for the recorded videos and do the timing in a subsequent step, so you don’t have to have fast fingers. All the information how all of that is done and how we distribute the workload for the decentralized chaos experience will be shown in the subtitles angel introduction meetings…

    Contact Methods

    IRC: #subtitles on hackint.org
    Rocket Chat: Channel subtitles
    Twitter: @c3subtitles
    Wiki

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      Call for Subtitles

      percidae · pubsub.movim.eu / CCCEvent · Friday, 3 January, 2020 - 20:27 · 1 minute

    Hat dich die Post-Congress-Depression gepackt? Sitzt du daheim und schaust sehnsüchtig die Talks von zwischen den Jahren?
    Bring ein bisschen Congress zu dir nach Hause und bringe dich ein, die Qualität und Barrierefreiheit der CCC-Recordings zu verbessern! Du kannst jederzeit von Zuhause aus an Untertiteln für die Recordings arbeiten. So lange oder kurz du möchtest!

    Wie geht das?
    Die Transkripte sind software-autogeneriert und werden von Dir in einem Etherpad verbessert. Aufgrund von Akzenten der Speaker und Fachvokabular ist das dringend notwendig.
    Danach folgt wieder ein automatisierter Schritt: Das Timing der Subtitles. Auch dieses Ergebnis wird von Dir geprüft. Danach sind die Untertitel fertig!

    Genaurere Beschreibungen und Anleitungen findest Du unter c3subtitles Wiki .

    Bei Fragen wende dich an die unten genannten Kontaktwege.

    Du brauchst Untertitel? Lass uns wissen, welche Talks dich interessieren!

    IRC: #subtitles on hackint.org
    Rocket Chat: Channel subtitles
    Twitter: @c3subtitles


    English Version:

    Have you been hit by Post-Congress depression? Are you sitting at home and watching recorded Talks from between the years?
    Bring a little bit of Congress to your home and help with improving quality and accessibility of the CCC recordings! You can work on the subtitles from the comfort of your home, as long or as short as you like to!

    How does this work?
    The transcripts are generated automatically by speech recognition software and improved and corrected by you. Since talks contain lots of domain-specific terms and may have speakers with heavy accents, this is very much necessary. The next step is again automated: aligning the subtitles to the audio. Again, the result of this process is verified by you. Afterwards, the subtitles are finished!

    For a more in-depth description and how-tos, take a look at c3subtitles Wiki .

    If you have any questions, contact us via any of the channels below!

    You need subtitles? Let us know which talks you are interested in!

    IRC: #subtitles on hackint.org
    Rocket Chat: Channel subtitles
    Twitter: @c3subtitles