Though at the same time, what does this actually mean? I mean, there's been a war on piracy on nearly all formats - games, music, film - for some time. And yet personally I haven't felt much significant change. Does anyone agree with me, or am I just being blind?
Somewhere along the line, the point of scanlations was lost and was no longer about sharing a series that wasn't available in English. It was just to get stuff out to be popular and licenses be damned.
Doesn't help that the fanbase also feels entitled to get everything asap and for free. Having a series licensed is treated like it's a bad thing because they now have to pay to read something that wasn't free to begin with.
They forget that someone had to buy that big volume of Jump or the tankoubon in Japan and that's how the publishers and mangaka make their money.
I still see many sites hosting Ichigo 100% long after it's been licensed and we'd stopped distribution years ago. And big name titles such as Bleach and Naruto are still blatantly advertised when they are released by the current generation of scanlators, despite being licensed and well into the releases by the publishers.
Can't stop the internet I guess, but they're welcome to try.
I see why they need to protect their IPs, but some times I wonder the usefulness. A good example is Project Diva. PD is never going to be released in America, so why would Sega take the time to pull down Miku's real life performace off YouTube? Manga that will never see the light of day in the US, I don't think is harming their sales much. In fact, you can say that it increases their sales. Thats because, someone is buying the raw manga to scan.
If the manga does come out in the US (Haruhi for example), then their sales will boost as they already have fans of the series. In this respect, I think they are losing potential sales. If the anime industry would crack down on fansubs, they could not see what is popular. Scanlations do the same thing for manga. See: Churuya....Nyoro~n
This is different than anime. Anime looks the same if you torrent it or buy it. Manga, on the other hand, gives you a better experience in a physical copy than on a monitor. I think most people agree with it, and thats why book publishers are not whining as much as other media.
Bottom line: Publishers need to choose better manga to translate and release. Then would they not have this problem. Example: Where the hell is K-On Yen?
But if the manga is published in your area and STILL you pirate, then you are the worst kind of lame pirate in the history of pirating. Really, unless you don't have money to eat, you can afford a manga. And if you don't have money to eat, manga should be the least of your problems.
That's why publishers don't seem to listen to fans anymore. A good example is Haruhi. When the anime came out fans were rabib all over the net for it. It should have been a MASSIVE seller when it came out in the US. But those "Fans" didn't bother buying the DVD's and whatnot and it wasn't a massive seller. After a few hundred times of this happening the publishers just don't care what the fans want anymore because the people who call themselves fans don't help support them.
This is true for scanlations and for Fansubs. I would like to see the anime side of thinks make some sort of alliance like this to attempt to bring down some fan sub sites. Or the sites that have nothing but rips from US releases of DVD which is just total BS.
Has the industry executives accurately estimated just how much revenue is lost to 'piracy' and how much revenue is generated due to renewed interest in the subject? And how do they expect to enforce such a bold endeavourer?
Holy shit dude, I remember your name from the Ichigo scanlations I read in college back in the day. They helped me relax while studying for exams. Thanks man!
US Manga Industry Motto: We don't burn books, we just prevent them from you seeing them altogether.
Only way I can see this sucking is if they decide to go ahead and target Japanese only manga as well. Hopefully they'll just stick to the ones they have licensed or plan to license in the near future.
Sure, some people who learned of this hobby through scanlations and fansubs eventually become paying consumers, but I'm pretty sure more people just keep pirating because, why start paying for something that was free for them to begin with?
It's this type of mentality the industry has to battle, and it's really hard to make people want to pay for something that they weren't paying for previously, even with the perks a physical copy of a book or DVD/BD may have.
I seem to remember gaining a reputation as a minor tyrant with the leechers back then and was sometimes abusive with them in the irc channel. ;)
If I'm reading this right, the JP companies will also try to work with the local governments when this happens.
Either way, we should take this as GOOD NEWS: It means that the world is watching. It means that they're starting to care.
And if they're starting to care, it's time for us to care, too!
If they're going after the online world, that means there might be plans to bring even more manga online, too. Free (With ad revenue), or at least at a very low price. The companies have a potentially huge market waiting to happen, and it's only a matter of time before a smart company decides to bring it all to the net, legally. Maybe even the publishers themselves could take the risk!
And that's why we need to give feedback on this: Because the companies are listening, and we're their market. After taking them down a notch, they need to convince us that they can provide the same stuff (Or even better stuff!) than the scanlators.
Otherwise, their efforts will truly be for naught.
I have hated that the people at my school wear I love anime and manga shirts when they all steal it from streaming sites and scan sites. If I ask one of the supposed fans at my school how they read something like Sundome, they would answer with some random scan site. Their reason for not paying is because they can get it for free.
If they can do this for manga, I surely hope they can start something with anime and TV shows in general.
I buy manga faithfully. But I read scans too.
-Scans killing the industry- true
-Some people use scans due to unavailability in the states- true
-Unavailability in the states relates to supply and demand- true
-OR, they simply aren't available in america, and if they aren't available in the states, then they won't be losing money (from america, anyway) by scans...
-Demand won't increase if people are getting their fix for free- true
-If demand never increases b/c of scans, then they might eventually diminish- true
-There are those out there who read scans that won't purchase a manga after they read, there are those out there who would...
Okay, I'm done listing facts. Scans are bad for the industry, but I personally wouldn't read online because honestly, I think it sucks. I want a BOOK, with paper. It just sucks.
If scanlations are entirely banished, they'll come after the libraries and used book stores next. If that were to happen, it might go the way of video games, where if you buy it new or pre-order, you get some kind of extra. That's the only way I think they can get their sales numbers up.
The main reason I watch fansubs is basically because I'd rather not wait 10months for a domestic release if it even gets one and don't care much for dubbing.
I'm sure licensing issue are a problem, but Cruchyroll seems to have something going for it.
If they truly want to bring in more bucks, they have to realize that publishing in hard copy is mostly dead and that merchandise is where they will really get all their money. Shoot, a number of companies already know this.
Do I read 'em? Yes, but only manga that I can't get otherwise. Manga such as YKK, Iihoto, and the like are not and never will be released legit here in the States. You can't steal merchandise that isn't in the store.
On a related note, I still hate hobotaku. Buy the damn books. It's 6 to 10 dollars. Get off the floor of the f&*@ing bookstore. Either go back to your mommy's van, or get a job so you can buy the books. Otherwise, you are directly killing the industry.
My fiancee does buy Bleach when it comes out, despite having read the scanlations ahead of time. We've also bought good shows we've seen online, like Spice and Wolf. But still, the second season isn't out in licensed format, so we ended up getting fansubs.
There's no way to compete. Plus, not enough gets released here, because it's a fiscal risk. It's a risk because not enough people will buy anything. So nothing new comes out. So nobody buys anything. And so on. It goes in circles.
Now for the ones that are licensed, I do buy the books as long as they are NOT censored or edited from the Japanese version. I will not pay for Dance in the Vampire Bund because they censored it. I also will not wait x months or years for a company to finally get around to publishing a manga, you sit on the title I won't buy it. In a day of publishing on demand there is no reason to take months or weeks. The books should be out in days on a print on demand ordering system. steal the fan translation and publish the damn book already, they have no copyright to it anyway.
The best solution, get Google to stop listing them first when typing in manga. If stupid kids can't find it on Google or whatever search engine they won't know to read it online. That is the #1 problem. Joe Stupid kids watches Bleach on TV, wants to read the "comic book" goes to the internet and searches for bleach comic and guess what, the first sites are READ FREE. Who's at fault? Google! Now I love Google, I have an android phone and everything but the search system does screw up like this and can hurt normal businesses if they are not listed first. As everyone has said, the websites will just go to another country are open up there and continue to make money. They have to be delisted to stop kids from using them. Kids are 90+% of their target audience, that and girls who want boy on boy love, yes you!
Then I read the article properly and I think that this is probably a good thing. The way I see it, if publishers are scared that people will just read scans anyway and that they won't profit, they'll just not bother localizing the manga in the first place. Let's face it, manga is a bit of niche in the west and we're lucky to get as much as we do, imo.
Don't get me wrong I still buy my mangas when I can afford it, but until then I like to read them when it's fresh.
>Buy Manga when it comes out
>Donate it to library for others to read
Of course, something that isn't available over here is another story. So I plan to just leave envelopes full of yen at various publishing companies when I go to Japan. Then I will cure cancer and bring peace to the middle east.

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