Forum - View topicPR: Multi-National Manga Anti-Piracy Coalition Formed
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Precisely. There is an echo chamber effect where people who watch scanlations on the big bootleg manga viewing sites hang out in forums where people talk about what is on these sites, and pass around talking points that rationalize what a great thing it is for the industry to have such "popularity". And since they have to periodically visit ANN to copy the series information, its not surprising that they come into the forums here and repeat those talking points when the market destruction that results from their activities is raised. But a lot of the talking points involve laying claim to the history of small scanlation circles, while ignoring how different the manga viewing sites with millions of views are from the way that groups scanlating unlicensed manga's operated. |
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Dragoon91786
Posts: 4 Location: Lake Oswego, Oregon, USA |
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Alright, I've got to get my two cents in on this one.
The problem with these industries comes down to their ability to properly understand their markets. In a time of economic crisis, people are going to go to greater extremes to have fun and thus reduce their stresses. I honestly think a great deal of the music, movies, and software piracy done by older adults (i.e. those capable of holding jobs) has to do with two things. I'm actually using Leo Laportes arguments on this one. I don't remember when, but it was one of the first episodes of TWIT (This Week in Tech) their weekly Podcast. I think it was back in 2005 approximately. Laporte talked about in an information rich society, people demand ease of access, to tremendous quantities of materials, for a reasonable price. Hence itunes. These publishing companies are making a huge mistake. I for instance am a firm believer that ease of access helps promote materials. For instance, for those things we really like, we are willing to pay top dollar for, but for crap, we aren't willing to pay anything. That's why you see a lot of theaters now days being crashed by video cam wielding individuals who then post it online. What possible benefit could a "pirate" have for posting a vid on a torrent website? As a philosopher, this has constantly got me thinking. My generation, Generation Y, and those younger, are very intolerant against greed. I think it's one of those backlashes from our societal upbringing. We see our parents generations as being the "keeping up with the Jones" types. Again, that's not really an explanation. The fact as I see them, come down to a technological revolution. Those companies who have not been able to take advantage, or really understand the market, are annihilated. Only by monopolistic controls have they been able to stay afloat. I think if the markets were more competitive, things would be a lot better, but more specifically, American markets for Japanese publications are generally screwed. Manga is a Japanese export. It's not something native to the US and the world. American Otaku culture, has become an extension of the end millennium geek/nerd explosion counter-counter culture. We are the system. But, that being said, companies who do not understand that their monopolistic practices, and bad service to their American fanbase, will only result in us doing what we think is "fare". I know a lot of convention haunting otaku's like myself, who follow a set standards about sub and scanlations. We look at this like television. In the late 70's and early 80's, due to the Betamax/VHS, television companies were furious and tried to pile on massive lawsuits against people for recording their shows. What the courts and congress eventually ruled was that it was the right of the individual to make personal copies of television and other such things. Manga is a little different as it is a print media, but, here's the thing. The internet has enabled these companies to maintain a huge profit (the costs of paper media is vastly more expensive than digital production), and these companies have not realized that Lulu.com and other web publishers are gaining a lot of success because people are tired of the current publishing industry. MaximumPC releases all of their magazines online in .pdf, yet we still buy subscriptions when we have the cash...why? I remember making an email suggestions ages ago to MaximumPC suggesting they should start digital publications. Ironic they took that beyond digital and went to free distribution. But they aren't out of business, and are more popular than ever. It's all about embracing these conditions of the market. If you want to fight piracy, figure out why people pirate. Those who just don't want to pay and have no bones about stealing when they could get it legally, or those who are too poor to afford it (again, lowing the cost of entry into a product market will increase sales...i.e. lower the price, more people will buy...lower costs of production and you can lower the price and maintain the same profit) will find ways to steal it one way or another. The reason filesharing really got started was that people like myself wanted access to hard to find materials that we couldn't find under normal conditions. And don't put the whole "well you can check it out from your library" bit. A library has value to a society, but, it has limited use. What happens when all the books are checked out? Also, it doesn't help for the manga being released only in Japan, when it is released. Again, take the advice that Apple gave the recording and movie industry...let us use our modeling price plan, and then you will make more money. You aren't going to make these sales one way or another. You are asking too much for the media, and people just won't buy it. That's really it. People just aren't going to buy it, so what they are seeing is the results from artificially inflated sales. People who really like series, have a moral prerogative to buy the series. I know I do. As do many others. The stuff that's crap...we wouldn't buy in either case, but, again, find a reasonable model so we can figure that out for ourselves. All I'm saying is that the arguments for taking these sites down is fine from a copyright perspective, but from a practicality standpoint, they need to realize that it won't be helping them any by burning their fan base's bridges. Instead of cracking down, why not make it easier? When itunes came out, many people switched from pirating to legitimate purchasing. Heck, napster was originally an "illegal" file sharing site, now it is a legal company which sells "licensed content". Just get a database in many different languages, hire a bunch of translators and some artists to fix the text and sell it in a database like everyone else, for a subscription rate, depending on what services you are going to provide, and we will buy. Or, if that doesn't work for their pricing model, make manga cheap. Like, $0.50 or $0.99 per chapter. In some ways that's a lot of money for people like myself who are out of work, which is why I think they'd get a lot more sales by a subscription method. My point is that when you delete people's content without replacing it with a comparable "legal" replacement, people will just find other ways to do what they want. So, perhaps these "scanlation" sites will be down. So, they will just move to torrent, like all the fansubs do. No one is going to get paid. I remember when ADV came out with their digital sales model (before they went down and mine crapped out....I think the zero customer service was a lot of the problem), I went straight to it, along with a ton of other people. We had full access to their catalog. It was awesome! But, here's the thing. Do like apple, or amazon kindle. Find a comparable service and provide it for a very reasonable price. If you don't, people will just find another way. We are here for the service. A lot of people, I think, would like to have access to this stuff, but they can't. It's just Japanese business culture. They don't get it. If they did, we wouldn't be having this conversation, because a comparable replacement would be available. They simply have a set way of doing things, won't change, and want as much money as possible, and know that a monopoly will allow them to do that. Which explains why the music industry, movie industry, and many other industries in the US tanked. Young people are disgusted and are fighting back by not buying, not going to the movies, and finding other means to get what they want. A law suit isn't going to change that. Ask Steve Jobs and the RIAA and MPAA. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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That wall of words to end up telling the companies to do what they are already doing? Genius, Genius I tells you! Crunchyroll and Bitway Announce Digital Manga Initiative Square Enix Plans E-Manga Store in N. America, France (Updated) Manga Aggregator to Close as OpenManga Plans Launch (Updated) Viz Posts English Version of Ikki Mag Online (Updated) Yen Press to Move Yen Plus Manga Magazine Online (Updated) |
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Farix
 Posts: 152 |
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Isn't there a policy against necroing posts?
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