Happy second anniversary to With S2.

Once again, the lovely admins of With S2 have asked if I could post up a notice for the occasion, which also clarifies the group’s policy (and yes, sub releases have resumed):

(Jan. 10, 2008)

Regarding our newest policy (details here):

We do feel bad that we have to take such a strong stance, and halting subs was really our last resort. We’ve been fighting some major issues (including legal), and sites like mysoju.com & Aznv.tv/en/ are definitely not helping the matter.

We’ve done all we could for over a year — constant asking, pleading, and sending out very sincere messages to no avail — but these people really know how to test our patience and limits. It’s bad enough that our very sincere pleas were ignored completely. But what makes us sad is that after every pleading message that we send out, an additional streaming episode is added. So, after the year-long battle, we feel helpless and stressed out.

As you know, the problem is that since WITH S2 is quite active and somewhat well-known in the fansubbing world, we’ve become an easy target by people going after fansubbers. Every step we take is being watched closely by huge stations and licensed holders alike. Obviously, all this unwanted attention from streaming sites (which do profit from our hard work with ads and traffic to their sites) does not help our shaky situation.

I think it is known that WITH S2 members are passionate about kdramas and our goal is to share such passion with others. We are doing this for the fans — so nothing is more painful than watching our work misused — and our supporters give us the motivation to endure all the stress and hard work. We wouldn’t spend three, four, or more hours each day running Withs2 and enduring the endless stress if we didn’t think that you guys are worth it. The same goes for all our precious members who devote as much time and effort to fansubbing.

Running WITH S2 is a second full-time job, and considering that everything we do in fansubbing is non-profit, it does take tons of dedication and motivation. It definitely helps to know that there are those who are supportive of us so we can continue our subbing work with ease of mind.

Lastly: As Jan 10, 2008 is our second anniversary (yes, we’ve been doing this officially for 2 years), we hope that 2008 will be a good year for us, that all issues can be resolved and that we can continue to focus on our main goal: fansubbing. With that said, we will be lifting the halt of subs for the time being and will resume our releases *slowly* to celebrate this joyful occasion. Please join us in our celebration and please continue to support and protect us.

cheers,

the admins of WITH S2 (on behalf of WITH S2)

P.S.: Regarding megaupload/sendspace links — uploading raw videos for direct download will aid those who can’t use CB or torrents, and help mitigate the need for streaming sites. At Soompi.com, the first post of a drama thread will usually have direct links to all the dramas that WithS2 subs.

Other sites are listed at http://nhatkyviet.com/category//korean-tv-series/

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The admins of the fansubbing group WITH S2 asked if I could post up a notice of their recent decision to stop subtitle releases temporarily, and I thought I’d also take the chance to explain the stance a bit. It’s quite frustrating to see people who don’t understand the situation just jump to the conclusion that WITH S2 doesn’t have a good reason for their actions. Trust me, it does.

I’m a member of the group, but I’m not speaking FOR the admins, just expressing what I hope clears up possible confusion. (Read: Please don’t email me to protest/complain/rant!)

The group’s announcement:

We have warned everyone repeatedly on the issue of hardsubbing & streaming our subs.

We sincerely appreciate everyone’s efforts to spread the drama love, but we’re growing increasingly frustrated, not to mention worried, over our repeatedly ignored requests not to upload our material to Veoh, Youtube and other streaming sites.

Perhaps you guys aren’t aware of the problems facing WITH S2, but the flagrant disregard for our requests puts us in an increasingly vulnerable position as a fansubbing group. We don’t want to be shut down (which is something we are in constant threat of) and if our rules are not honored, we may well be.

Therefore we once again make this request:
Please do NOT harsub & upload any of our subtitles to streaming sites.
If people do not comply, we will be forced to stop releasing our subtitles
for ALL our current projects until the request is met, full stop.

We regret that we have to take such a drastic stance, but our requests have gone ignored for the past year. There’s not much more we can do to protect ourselves and to continue bringing these dramas to fans, but we believe that taking these precautions now will keep us operational for the long run. And we hope to keep bringing these dramas to English-speaking fans for a long time. Please help us by abiding by our rules.

A more detailed explanation for the decision, and why uploading is unwelcome >>

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(Random) SONG OF THE DAY

Portrait – “I Thought About You.” Korean jazz. No, I mean like real jazz.
[ zShare download ]

 
I like seeing how other people translate, for a few reasons. For one, it helps me improve my own translations, seeing how others express a phrase, plus I’m curious at how I’d do things differently. Lily over at the now-defunct jlandsubs.com used to write posts analyzing her translations, comparing hers to other translations of the same thing, and I found them endlessly fascinating. Looking back at all the things I’ve worked on, I figured I’d give it a try as well.

(Unfortunately, it was easier for Lily because j-dramas often are subbed by multiple groups, while kdramas aren’t, so I don’t have much to compare against. If I analyze translations in the future, I’m thinking of comparing some of my summary work with translations other people have done, unless there are objections — I absolutely don’t mean to put the other work down; I only want something to compare with, to illustrate my point. If anyone doesn’t like the idea, let me know and I’ll reconsider. So for this post, I’m just going to pick at my own past translations — what I liked, what I didn’t like, what I’d do differently now.)

 
So. That’s why I’ve been skimming through some GOONG episodes, now that it’s airing on cable channel IATV (Imaginasian), and I have to say the series has got one of the better subtitles I’ve seen. (I didn’t work on Goong, although I have already seen the series prior to this.) In contrast, I really disliked the translations of Que Sera Sera that I saw (Edit: yikes, I mean to clarify, the QSS translations I saw on television — I have nothing against D-Fansubs work. Sorry if that confused anyone; I honestly didn’t think it would read that way). And although AZN’s version of Fantasy Couple was fine, they drove me nuts with their abuse… of ellipses… at the end… and beginning… of every… single… sentence…

Closer analysis of drama translations >>

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Clearly I’m a kdrama addict, and if you’re here, you probably are too. So you might want to hop over and check out Popseoul’s new fansubbing-related post to see how badly your addiction measures up.

For me, a large part of my kdrama addiction interest relates to fansubbing, which is a curious thing. Despite the time I spend on it, even I can’t quite explain the motivation. All I can say is, there are a lot of dedicated and hardworking people who somehow feel the same compelling desire to participate, despite the lack of returns for their efforts. I think most of us would continue to do so regardless of being thanked or praised — after all, it’s not something one does for the glory. Most of us are pseudonymous anyway, so aside from a simple online nickname, the work doesn’t bring us fame or anything extraordinary. But it’s nice to be recognized once in a while. Thanks Popseoul!

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Now that With S2 has just released the rest of Dal Ja’s Spring to finish our 30th project (30 kdramas! In just over a year!), I had a few thoughts on fansubbing as a whole… The more I fansub and translate, the more I’ve gotten comfortable recognizing wordplay in Korean, which I always get a little kick out of. I like wordplay of all sorts, and I think people enjoy understanding them, because it gives you a deeper appreciation into the language of a drama, for instance, rather than merely the plot. I’ve also seen a couple of comments noting interest in some of my Korean language explanations, which made me realize if I get a kick out of little details, other people probably would too.

SONG OF THE DAY

Uhm Jung Hwa – Eternity (bossa mix) [ zShare download ]

[Read more →]

Filed under: Drama Reactions & Reviews by javabeans - 42 Comments →