Constantley i see on the internet countless of fan translations of mangas, animes , Japanese Movies and older Video Games. While the original Japanese Content Creator wont see a dime for his or her work. I dont know but i feel like None japanese people espcially Westerners who have the money* use Fan Translatiosn as an excuse for pirating/getting stuff for free.

 *(in fact most Western countries are richer than Japan)

Imagine if someone would make a fan translation of American movies or cartoons, like Frozen in Burmese for example. Disney would immediatley shut everything down and everyone would view it as piracy if you would say it in a forum, even if its translated in a Third World Language the original content wasnt made for.

Also i have noticed that Fan Translators act like little b#tches recentley. For example: a lot of the fan translations of older games are reproduced, the roms with the Fan Translations are put into a Reproduction SNES Cartridges for example. Like the original Clock Tower on SNES, these people do it to sell them on Ebay but they are using the Fan Translation instead of the original Japanese Rom. 

So guess what? These Fan Translaters are complaining, ''how these Reproducers are taking their work without permission and not giving credit to the original translator''**whine**whine.

 And i am thinking like: Well Duh, you prirate! You helped to make a copy of some one else entire work soley to be pirated. And there are people debating about that in forums and videos how wrong it is, instead debating the actuall wrong-doing that the original Japanese Creators wont see any penny from their work. If you fan translate you shouldnt be suprised if some else uses the same gray route for your work because both of you are meddling in the same place.

And Third: people are bitching about how Japanese Companys are taking down and claiming your videos on Youtube for various Japanese content. I mean why are you suprised? if they are the Number 1 targed for theft?

Creating a patch to a rom with a fan translation isn't piracy, unless the rom itself is also being distributed for free (or being sold without permission by the owner of the rom).

Taking a rom (with or without fan translation), putting it into a reproduction cart, and selling it without the permission of the creators of the original rom is piracy, though.

To use the analogy of Frozen in Burmese... if someone records a replacement audio track for Frozen, in Burmese, with the idea being that it gets played simultaneously with the video of Frozen (which would have the sound muted), and the audio is entirely reproduced rather than using the original audio, then it wouldn't be piracy. It becomes piracy when they distribute copies of Frozen with the replacement audio without permission from Disney.

Do you know why anime is big in the west now? Fansubs. I was there back then, trading VHS tapes on the internet because Japanese companies wouldn't bring over anything over except Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and some horribly butchered versions of a few other titles with supposed mass appeal. They said there was no interest in the west in anything else. I had to trade for tapes of Hana Yori Dango that were recorded from television. I had to look everywhere for someone subbing Kodocha.

Finally, finally, they realized that if so many people were bending over backwards to watch their product, maybe there was an audience after all.

Even then, most of the completely sucked with their distribution methods, expecting people to buy expensive tapes and discs without the benefit of television exposure. That's ridiculous, to be honest, and totally unlike how it works in Japan.

Also, before you make childish generalizations, remember that a lot of translators are very respectful of the source material and stop work when something is licensed in the west. The site where I read manga takes down anything immediately if anyone with rights to the content asks.

"*(in fact most Western countries are richer than Japan)" -- You've got to be kidding.

The main reason there are fansubs of Japanese films, dramas, and manga is that there are no officially translated versions in the west. In these cases, the creators are losing nothing at all because no one is going to buy a work they cannot understand. Instead, the fact that that people can get ahold of the material at all creates interest. We've seen this happen with anime.

Content that is licensed is a different story but, in some cases, the rights-holders seriously need to improve their distribution methods. Piracy is often a crime of convenience that can be prevented by making the official method more accessible.

You sound very angry for no reason OP.

If a game hasn't been localized or has had content changed or removed i can't blame people for making and using fan-translations. Hell Anime wouldn't have blown up like it has recent years if it wasn't for fan-translation.

Oh! You're the guy who called me out on my Dragon Quest 1 remake! No, it isn't piracy and the guys over at RPG Maker.net (the website creators) backed me so I'm still developing it. If anything, it may still be illegal to make a derivative work based on another company's IP, countless games have been patched, translated, remade in an engine, and it hasn't hurt or helped the industry. You can't measure it. If a company isn't going to translate the game anyway, I see no reason why you can't play a translated game where the fans took time, sometimes years on end to translate a game.

If the Japanese would give us more games that we want, there'd be no reason for translations but there's the issue of time and risk involved with localizing japanese games for a western audience. For example, Dragon Quest VII originally was undergoing a fan translation for 3DS but once Japan saw the demand for the game, they're bringing it over westward now. As for my game, it won't be sued because it isn't even big enough to catch the attention of Square Enix. Sure 83 subscribers and 110K page views is okay for a fan game but Square Enix isn't thinking about my little RPG Maker game.

So, as far as anime goes. It brings it popularity and helps them sell DVD's.

As far as games go, it's games that never will release in the west. So, no one loses and again awareness of the game will rise, wich can be beneficial to the develop/publisher for future titles.

So, i'm very thankful for fan translations.

First, I'm not sure why you think Japan is "poorer" than most of these countries you mention when they trail only China and the US in gdp.

Otherwise, I've never had a big problem with fan translations as, generally, these were region locked games that the developers never intended to release in the west. If someone wants to go through the effort of translating some old Japanese rpg and putting the rom on a cartridge that can bypass the region lock, then I see little wrong with it as there was never a cent heading their way for that game to begin with as they chose not to make the effort to translate and release abroad. If Japanese players wanted to do this with some west-only game I'd have no problem with it either.

Really, the only effect that these translations have had is to open the game up for more players, thus increasing its popularity and sometimes prompting the developers to make an official translation and release for their western fans. I do think it's not right to straight pirate it while they're still actively selling it and profiting from it, but it rather quickly becomes harmless, especially as they never would have seen a cent from the people using the translations to begin with.

btw, Disney (and other movies) are always translated and sold bootleg across the world. They try, but they can't shut it down, so it's lead them to translate their movies into many languages.

OP is almost right whether we like it or not ...

Under copyright law the CREATOR has exclusive right to it's derivative work!

Translation does not classify under piracy but under copyright infringement and that is why fan translators know that their liable for it so they often take down the translations as it gets licensed to english language territories ...

I do watch animes with subs(from fans), and I already played Mother 3 with the fan translation.Is it piracy?Tecnically, yea.Do I care?Not in the slightest.Plus, thats good for the creators, because it would create demand where ther could be none