In late 2010, the server of YYeTs.com was down, but was revived a month later. Since then, YYeTs.com is said to be shut down due to copyright issues, which hangs over such websites like the Sword of Damocles.

"Providing subtitles without the copyright owners' approval and providing download links is infringement," said Chang Yachun, an attorney from the Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm.

In 2013, YYeTs.com was blacklisted by the Motion Picture Association of America over copyright issues.

Where to go

Since the establishment of these websites, they had long been operating in a grey area. According to China's Labor Contract Law, subtitles were in a grey area of a contract's "waiting effect" before the original creator and copyright owner's final approval.

The translation groups and websites were operating in this grey area and are at risk if the original owners disapprove of them. But when responding to the copyright issues, most groups and websites claim they are non-profit.

This is also why even though the translation from such websites is sometimes better than the official translation and it shows the market potential of such service, no venture investment has ever put money into this industry.

"While subtitle websites have branded themselves as non-profit, the money they make presents them with a dilemma: if the investment money comes in, they have to work out copyright issues and develop commercial operation patterns that will be resisted by their target clients who want free downloads," said a partner from Sequoia Capital.

Another concern is that even though the translators are doing it for fun, the server space is not free. Some big subtitle or download websites have online ads, add links to commercial businesses, or charge money for downloads.

Facing such an awkward situation, some groups have sought cooperation with video websites that own the legal copyright to foreign dramas as a "safe haven."

In late 2013, the video site iQIYI.com acquired the broadcasting rights to the popular South Korean TV drama My Love From the Star, later hiring Internet subtitle providers to participate in the translation. Industry watchers said this was a mutually beneficial opportunity for them under the current laws and regulations.

However, translators revealed that the payment for the translation was surprisingly low--less than 80 yuan ($13) for an episode. Normally there are five people working together to translate an episode, which means each person earns less than 20 yuan ($3.3). Considering the intensity of the work flow--the translation of one episode needed to be completed within three hours--this payment seems like a slap in the face.

Compared with that, the cooperation between YYeTs.com and some major video websites, including sohu.com in China, seems to be more optimistic. It is said most of the subtitles of the foreign dramas displayed on sohu.com are purchased from YYeTs.com. "Even though the website got shut down, the translators can continue the same job in this new way and now we can watch all the foreign dramas on these major websites for free," said Yu Xiao, a 25-year-old woman working in an advertisement company. As a big fan of foreign dramas, Yu said the closure of shooter.cn and YYeTs.com doesn't make a big difference for her.

Shen, the owner of shooter.cn, after announcing the closure of his website, started to pursue a career in the mobile phone game industry and declined to be interviewed.

In the aftermath of both Shen's site and YYeTs.com being shut down in November, some followers even listed the grassroots subtitle providers as one of the four significant translation waves that changed Chinese history, which include the monk Xuanzang and Kumarajiva translating Buddhist scriptures, the enlightenment thinker, educator and translator Yan Fu and the writer Lin Shu translating elements of Western culture in the early 20th century, and the Sanlian Joint Publishing Company and Shanghai Translation Publishing House translating modern Western social science texts after the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) .

"It seems like an overstatement, but who knows," said Zhou Qiang, a sophomore from Beijing-based Renmin University. "Even though the websites have been closed, I believe there are still many translators or fans that will share subtitles online, just in another form."

"It is illegal to put this content on a public website, so maybe now these groups will return to the situation of a decade ago," said Lu Zijing, Zhou's classmate. "But it delivered urgent information for us: We should learn English as well as possible and try not to rely on subtitle translations."

Email us at: yuanyuan@bjreview.com