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Hey, Answerman! - Merry Holidaymas

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Maybe to understand my query a little better, a smattering of info on what was INSIDE this yaoi is in order. To put things bluntly: the first 20 pages featured bondage, full-on penis shots, insertions by toys which I really don't want to go into detail about, and acts that could only be summarized as rape.

Wha, what, wait? How is that not hentai? I'd expect that to have been for 18+ only in Japan, even before Bill 156, let alone in the U.S.

a smattering of info on what was INSIDE this yaoi is in order. To put things bluntly: the first 20 pages featured bondage, full-on penis shots, insertions by toys which I really don't want to go into detail about, and acts that could only be summarized as rape. Not to be prudish, but I was under the assumption that this mass-market bookstore was more or less adamant in their filtering of what went on their shelves without shrink wrap.

I absolutely think that the internet and it's widespread adoption of piracy has raised a generation of morally insensitive thieves, for exactly the same reasons you mentioned. It's scary to think about, but soon we're going to have a whole crop of kids who will literally have no concept of the idea of going to a store and buying a CD or a DVD.

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I absolutely think that the internet and it's widespread adoption of piracy has raised a generation of morally insensitive thieves, for exactly the same reasons you mentioned. It's scary to think about, but soon we're going to have a whole crop of kids who will literally have no concept of the idea of going to a store and buying a CD or a DVD.

I absolutely think that the free public library and its widespread adoption of lending CDs and DVDs to kids has raised a generation of morally insensitive borrowers. It's scary to think about, but soon we're going to have a whole crop of kids who will literally have no concept of the idea of going to a store and buying a CD or a DVD.

Perhaps all the internet did was turn it from a regulated, government-approved, consecutive group of people experiencing something for free into an unregulated, unapproved, simultaneous horde experiencing something for free...

The desire to experience art and culture for free isn't all that new, it's just the ease of obtaining it that has gone off the charts.

Except millions of people didn't steal DVDs from a library. With a library you return the DVDs after you finish watching them. With Fansubs and scanlations you burn them to a DVD or CD-RW.

Well remember, assuming that the kids aren't just burning the DVDs they borrow, the library did originally pay for their copies of the DVDs which is more than what a fansub watcher can say.

Charred Knight wrote:

Except millions of people didn't steal DVDs from a library. With a library you return the DVDs after you finish watching them. With Fansubs and scanlations you burn them to a DVD or CD-RW.

Hmm... that almost sounds like you're okay with it if the person watching the fansub or reading the scanlation doesn't burn off a copy onto a fixed medium for re-use later. I believe that Brian was disapproving of the mere act of reading unpaid-for content, whether the kid makes a permanent copy or not; to wit, his indignation (rightfully so) of kids reading manga in bookstores without buying them. I'm not sure that by not making a "hard copy" of something that you watch/read for free that it makes it morally more acceptable... (although it's certainly less legally prosecutable)

And I bet there are a lot of teens who know how to burn copies of CDs and DVDs that they check out of the library before they return them...

I am one of those rare and dying breeds: I am a collector. I buy my anime for one reason and one reason only: To display on my shelves. I am no blind buyer, and I watch nearly all of my anime before purchase, generally with fansubs. Not the most ethical thing to do, but I figure my $100 monthly anime budget is better than pure piracy.
I have different rules for manga. I don't read scanlations. If it is licensed, I wait and buy it. If it is not licensed, I hunt down a raw and translate it myself. Not that I am any good at translation, but I trust my own before some random dude on the intertubes (with fansubs, you can at least hear the Japanese and figure out if it was translated right. With scanlations, they could make stuff up and you'd never know).

But I wouldn't give up on the young'uns quite yet. Sure, they might be pirates now, but how many of us have changed from the stupid teens we once were? At some point they will grow up and start paying with money. And while we wait for this, Crunchy can convert some of them to streaming, much like iTunes converted a generation of music pirates. Or something.

Anyway, (my) Best anime of 2010:
Angel Beats
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st
House of Five Leaves

The first scene is of a stark naked 14 year-old boy who was raped by his adoptive father.

Hmm.. so if the person that created the fansub paid for the original copy of the anime he used, or the scanlator paid for the original copy of the manga before translating it, it would be okay? I'm sure you'll agree, no, not really; the major difference is that only one person at a time can watch a library copy (consecutive), while a near infinite number can watch a fansub on the internet at one time (simultaneously). That, plus the library has government approval, while the fansubber certainly does not.

My point was, I'm not sure that raising a generation of "morally insensitive thieves" necessarily began with the internet. By the early 90's, teens had access to VCRs which could could copy any movie or TV show from broadcast TV or premium movie channels, so it could be watched over and over again; CD players with tape decks that would allow them to spool off copies of their friend's CDs onto cassettes, to listen to over and over again; and dual cassette decks with high-speed dubbing to make copies of other cassettes. The only thing that's really happened in 20 years is that copies are now easier, faster, and perfect; and you don't even have to know a friend or get a library card to get the original content; you can get it from the internet.

But that doesn't mean that a teen with limited disposable income wanting to get something for free, and using technology to get it, suddenly began with the internet. How many teens of the 90's who spooled off their friend's Nirvana CDs onto cassette or taped X-Files off TV rather than buying pre-recorded VHS tapes have grown into "morally insensitive thieves"? Maybe that's where it started.

I mean, the ship for stopping the creation of "morally insensitive thieves" might have sailed two decades ago...

Jaymie wrote:

The first scene is of a stark naked 14 year-old boy who was raped by his adoptive father.

Um, isn't that called incest? Rape is something completely different...

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I absolutely think that the internet and it's widespread adoption of piracy has raised a generation of morally insensitive thieves, for exactly the same reasons you mentioned.

I absolutely think that the free public library and its widespread adoption of lending CDs and DVDs to kids has raised a generation of morally insensitive borrowers.