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INTEREST: Wall Street Journal Reports on Manga Piracy


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writerpatrick



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 679
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:26 pm Reply with quote
It's a move the publishers need to take. While TV shows are broadcast for "free" on TV, (for the most part) manga is only sold.

But it seems their approach is to go after the major distribution sites. What are they going to do when it's a bunch of individuals on IRC? It's not something that can be stopped, although they can keep it from being easy.

And don't law enforcement have better things to do right now than to waste time on copyright infringement? Cops are being laid off and prisoners for non-violent and non-sexual cases are being let out of prison because there just isn't enough money. There's going to come a point where the police just tell the copyright owners they're on their own.
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jtstellar



Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 94
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:35 pm Reply with quote
the same journal that failed at every analysis from predicting the 90s stock crash to the 08 housing bubble that cheer-led the way of all failed policies that caused the crash? no thanks and forgive me for not wasting time on reading any crap they put out. wasn't this the same newspaper that got taken over by rupert murdoch and lost a crap load of actual journalists?

and btw imagine if movie ticket prices were 50 dollars apiece.. the core issue is with pricing and structure and how you can make the same with less so consumers can afford it. it isn't that consumers are inherently antagonistic toward the very same companies that put out products that they enjoy.. it's simply that in some cases things are too expensive. it's not like the movie industry still can survive on 50 dollars a ticket if they somehow found a way to ban all the piracy.

at least some japanese companies are waking up and seeking solutions to lower their cost and ease distribution to increase the economy of scale by using sites like crunchyroll. as for these still old timer thinkers who just can't get beyond the economics 101 when even some of the dumbest have already learned and steered past them and are now looking for solutions that actually work, tell you what, an idiot's gripe isn't worth anybody's time.
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2175
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:37 pm Reply with quote
writerpatrick wrote:
And don't law enforcement have better things to do right now than to waste time on copyright infringement? Cops are being laid off and prisoners for non-violent and non-sexual cases are being let out of prison because there just isn't enough money. There's going to come a point where the police just tell the copyright owners they're on their own.


So the police should serve and protect everyone but copyright owners? That only sounds fair if none of the taxes they pay go towards policing.
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ZakuAce



Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 525
Location: SE Wisconsin
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:45 pm Reply with quote
It has been said time and again, the issue is how easy these sites are to use. Hell, I never got into fansubs of anime because I never wanted to deal with using torrents. It's about making it just a bit harder so people will switch to an easier, legal alternative.
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jtstellar



Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 94
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:57 pm Reply with quote
ZakuAce wrote:
It has been said time and again, the issue is how easy these sites are to use. Hell, I never got into fansubs of anime because I never wanted to deal with using torrents. It's about making it just a bit harder so people will switch to an easier, legal alternative.


and what is easier, what is not? a few years from now probably everything imaginable AND unimaginable will have been digitized.. in the digital world those with more research fund to spend and more effort invested will naturally have better products with more ease to use in the future. the market is clearly calling for an easier means of distribution and a lower cost from the companies.. the way to solve it is not by trying to lower everybody else's efficiency by inhibiting freeware's means of distribution. it's not going to work.
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nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:45 pm Reply with quote
ZakuAce wrote:
It's about making it just a bit harder so people will switch to an easier, legal alternative.


Of course...provided that the companies involved are fully willing to create and promote such an "easier, legal alternative" instead of moving towards change at what seems like a glacial pace.

"Carrot and stick" strategies are never going to be effective enough when you're stingy with the carrots.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14876
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:01 pm Reply with quote
Out of all the possible photos they have, the WSJ chose the scariest photo of a manga fan: Laughing




Anyways, scanlations serve "a ‘free’ way for a publisher to see what was viable to license and bring over." Till some websites started not taking off old scanlations of titles that are licensed and brought over. Worse, some websites put up scans of the official licenses instead. When that happens, it's no longer a "free way" but a competitor.

Companies definitely could help themselves by making it easier for consumers to obtain their products. Yet, consumers be mindful of the old business tenet: fast, high quality, cheap - pick any 2. At the end, you still "get what you pay for;" ya can only go so low till you get Made in China work. So, the companies make it easier, while at the same time, make it harder for other means (no reason ya can't do both).


Last edited by enurtsol on Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:16 pm; edited 1 time in total
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noobiesnack



Joined: 29 Sep 2009
Posts: 34
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:04 pm Reply with quote
ZakuAce wrote:
It has been said time and again, the issue is how easy these sites are to use. Hell, I never got into fansubs of anime because I never wanted to deal with using torrents. It's about making it just a bit harder so people will switch to an easier, legal alternative.

What legal alternative? outside of importing or buying hard copy, there really is not a place online, yet, that you can go and read manga legally.

If they want to make it harder so people switch to an easy legal alternative, you have to have that alternative FIRST. If they continue on the course they are going now, they are going to be doing Step K before they do step A and we will see another repeat of the past with what happened to music, games, and movies.
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Jaymie



Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:45 pm Reply with quote
Mangafox is so stupid. All they did was HIDE the series, and now most of the big ones are back up again. What, do they think that because the party van didn't arrive at their door in a month that they're safe?

The owner of Mangafox is going to be losing some eight digit dollars in the near future. Even if they're hiding in China, they'll be caught eventually.
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noobiesnack



Joined: 29 Sep 2009
Posts: 34
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:01 pm Reply with quote
Jaymie wrote:
Mangafox is so stupid. All they did was HIDE the series, and now most of the big ones are back up again. What, do they think that because the party van didn't arrive at their door in a month that they're safe?

The owner of Mangafox is going to be losing some eight digit dollars in the near future. Even if they're hiding in China, they'll be caught eventually.


so, you must be one of those that believe countries will make time for something like this. Especially a country as big and populated as China. I am sure they got more important things to do like keep their billions of people under control and stopping them from starting a civil war.

A lot of governments see entertainment as a last thing to worry about. If it is not affecting their national securities or people's rights (which can be questionable at times to who's rights) they don't care. I mean, we might see some government get involved at some point, but that's a long ways away and will be saved for a day when some politician has nothing better to do.

Also, I dont deny the fact that he may be caught EVENTUALLY. like maybe in 20 years.
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zeonozero



Joined: 01 Mar 2008
Posts: 85
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:12 pm Reply with quote
This is good. Finally a crackdown on pirating. If this was to continue, as we all can probably guess, the manga industry will continue to fall from lack of money being bought on the actual manga.
Scanlations are good as long as it is legal. Some of the older series and the most popular should be put out. But if a company bought the rights, then the site should take it off.
I have gone to those sites and some series will say it has been removed because the company ordered them too. That is good, even if i really wanted to read them.
Anyway, after all this saying, its good that this is being more tracked and monitored. Just hope that it does not fall short or people give up
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ZoboCamel



Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:28 pm Reply with quote
I'm just hoping that legal scanlations start soon. At the moment, the closest place I can legally get manga is around 85km (=55 miles or so, I think) away, and even there the prices are high due to everything having been imported from overseas.

In the case of legal scanlations, it'd be nice (albeit somewhat difficult) to acquire a large percentage of the available licenses, or at least allow scanlations to continue with unlicensed manga. I'm all for a way to actually acquire manga legally without spending three hours driving, though hopefully that wouldn't then make it impossible to read series that have no likelihood of being licensed.
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Daimao Raki



Joined: 03 Jul 2008
Posts: 593
Location: Dark Side of the Moon
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:42 pm Reply with quote
I'd like for legal manga sites to pop up. There are literally hundreds of manga series we have never seen that won't get brought over and I'd like to read some of them.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 4005
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 7:13 pm Reply with quote
I'd love for legal manga sites to start.
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Paploo



Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 1875
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 9:01 pm Reply with quote
They're already here.

noobiesnack wrote:

What legal alternative? outside of importing or buying hard copy, there really is not a place online, yet, that you can go and read manga legally.


Calling you on your mistake-

http://netcomics.com/
http://sigikki.com/ online manga anthology from VIZ
http://www.emanga.com/ numerous titles from Digital Manga's catalogue
http://www.shonensunday.com/top.shtml Same as SigIkki, but with Cross Game, Rinne and more
http://tokyopop.com/manga/read_tokyopop_titles/browse some previews for just about every current TP title, some full comics/manga
http://shonenjump.com/e/index.html Shonen Jump Japan's english language site w/some online manga
http://shonenjump.viz.com/ VIZ has an online ed. of Shonen Jump available to mangazine subscribers
http://flex-comix.jp/ in Japanese, but FLEX's manga is serialized online.
http://www.udonentertainment.com/previews/?c=5 UDON's online previws
There's also a growing selection of titles on Amazon's Kindle service, from Animate USA's offerings to Digital Manga titles to OEL titles from Seven Seas, and a really random selection of japanese-titles licensed just for kindle.

[cue streams of "but that's not good enough" posts]

There's probably more I'm forgetting, so I think we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of legit stuff. If you want to get real manga digitally [that pays the creators and respects their rights], the fake-sites have to die.

And then there's webcomics, which run the gamut from japanese webcomics you can find online to domestic webcomcis that appeal to manga fans. I trust everyone knows how to use google, or webcomics listings sites

[edit- wow, didn't mean for that to be so snarktastic, but anyhoo, bascially, there is a *lot* of titles being offered digitally in some form or nother, and fans seem to be blissfully ignorant about them because they're too busy reading scanlations or something. I think destroying the bigger sites'll be a good idea, as it'll make less competion for legit stuff, and drive fans to communites like ANN that like to spread the news about releases and legit stuff rather then hide it away or ignore it to benefit from fans ignorance like the scanlation aggregators seem to do]
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