News

Anime Download Site blocks Asia

Derik DeVecchio, maintainer of the Anime Download web site, has cut access to all those accessing from an internet address registered to Asia. The change is attributed to the site's unexpected growth and increasing video quality, as well as the desire to not compete with legitimate business.

"When I first started the Anime Download Sit... I really wasn't too concerned about someone downloading these files to Japan, or that they might compete with people having genuine interest in the copyrights of these materials," DeVecchio said in a public statement. "It took forever to download these things even if you DID have a fast server and an extra Gigabyte of hard disk space. Who would go through that much trouble for such a novelty when you can rent the tape for two bucks and get 3 or 4 episodes at the same time?"

Since the files can now be downloaded in a shorter amount of time, DeVecchio's page has served the equivalent of 130 fansub tapes. He is retaining traditional fansub ethics in that the titles are pulled when domestic releases are made available. Since he started forbidding those with Asian-registered internet protocol addresses access to the files, he has only received two complains, one of which was from a tester for the site.

In an unrelated development, DeVecchio is suspending new uploads to the site due to technical problems on his end, namely the inability to compress MPEG files without the computer crashing. He hopes to have the problem fixed soon.