Firstly, I will say that I do not understand the whole thing with "you can only change regions 4 times on the computer". WTF is the point? WHY? I better not get into that, otherwise I'd be ranting for a day. I would firstly like to respond to this quote:
Companies own the rights to a huge amount of shows, but choose to only make them available to the citizens of the USA. We who live in the rest of the world, we cannot watch a thing.
From my understanding of how licensing works (since I actually tried to look up these information to see if Wuxia could be licensed and talked to a few people who did this as a job), companies usually buy licenses to have certain Anime dubbed/streamed in a set country. For example, they will buy the license for US, and it may cost $8,000 per episode (this is just a guess). Licensing for multiple countries is bound to cost a lot more, so many companies may not choose to buy the license for more than one country. And because they don't have the license, they literally can't allow people from another country to view the video. At least, that's my understanding of how it works.
So it's all about money?
But I can't blame the licensing companies though, because it does cost quite a lot of money to license (separate from dubbing costs!), then the dubbing cost on its own can be up to $25,000 just to produce one episode - I phoned up Bang Zoom! Entertainment to ask about it a year ago. The cost goes to the entire adapting/scripting, voice acting, editing and putting it together, music compositions and so on. Although I don't know how much profit companies are making, I know I'd be bankrupt if I even did 1 episode. So, they rely on DVD sales, selling to TV Stations and other merchandise sales to make money.
If anyone's to be blamed, it would be those who are selling the license. I think it's unfair for them to go license per country. It should be license per language! So companies can get licenses for the English language and be allowed to show it in English speaking countries.
What's sadder is that I've wanted Wuxia series to be licensed for the longest time, and I hate the fact that they are such awesome things that NOBODY IN THE WORLD KNOWS ABOUT! Series that I know many Anime fans would love, because of its similarities, yet nobody even heard of them. When you mention it to people, they just give you this blank face, thinking... WTF is Wuxia? Well, they are really cool shows that are action-packed, magical, with great story and character development. But since people never heard of it, most are too afraid to step out of their comfort zones to try. Yes, it's sad! And when I asked, the reason why people don't license them is because they can't make much money off them. The audience would be too old (like 17-25 years old) and wouldn't be interested to buy toys. Pffftd, yeah right! I'd pay $200 for a Yu'er figure (image below).
So I've kind of went off on a tangent, excuse me. My point is, the whole licensing process can cost a lot and because of that, it can limit certain countries. I'm not a fan of that, believe me. I think everyone in the world should be allowed to watch. I hate that my friends from let's say, GERMANY can never see the videos! Maybe this is the reason why there are so many fansubs and pirated versions out there, because people are just sick of that.
Sometimes, I feel that money ruins everything. Because of money, so many things can't happen! I do wonder what life would be if money didn't exist (we'd probably be exchanging pigs). But, I do hope that companies can find a way to get around the whole money issue so they can license for shows in all countries. Sometimes, I just wish we were free to upload anything we want on youtube and not worry about copyright, because seriously, who is getting hurt? I don't believe anyone is! It almost makes me wish "licensing" never existed, people made shows and not worry about money, that all countries could equally enjoy something. But, as long as money exist, I know that will never happen.
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