Forum - View topicINTEREST: Manga, Light Novel Creators Claim Sales Increase After Piracy Site's Closure
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Connor Dino
Posts: 297 |
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I would caution anyone from making the blanket assumption that closing down piracy sites 100% equals increase in sales. While it makes sense why Japanese authors would further this narrative, the more exact truth can be seen in what is written at the end of this article: the accessibility of reading the material online legally, and the spreading of sites that allow this to occur.
While I am sure closing down piracy sites help, piracy has always been an accessibility problem. Give people an easy way of accessing the material and a majority will pay/support the legal option. A fact that those in the anime, manga, and LN world is seemingly starting to realize, as they are dragged kicking and screaming into the age of the internet. In the end, closing down piracy sites without replacing them with legal options would only serve to hurt the anime,manga, and LN world. I hope they continue to make sensible decisions regarding this industry and recognize that punitive measures aren't the only solution. |
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DmonHiro
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"more than doubled"
So.... 10 copies instead of 5? That statement is meaningless without hard numbers. |
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gacha
Posts: 74 |
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Sounds like an exercise in cheap PR.
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ZestyLime
Posts: 23 |
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There have been major studies that show piracy does not hurt the sale of media, so I'm hesitant to accept the claims of these authors. I'd like to see actual numbers.
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Pretty much. This is entirely pointless and feels really manufactured. I'm not saying that their publisher is making them say these things (although the timing is fairly suspicious - but I follow Gin Toriko on Twitter and she comes across as pretty genuine) but really this makes no sense without numbers or at least breakdowns that take into consideration other things that might factor into the raise. For example Kimi wo shinasenai... had a new volume not so long ago, and that comes with new, added publicity which might very well bring in new readers. A (legal) website also made the first volume of the manga available for free for a limited time so that probably didn't hurt either when it comes to generating interest. Also, what about physical sales? I've been seeing lot of mangaka complaining about people buying their works second-hand and that might have opened some eyes too. And then there's also the little fact that the new campaign promotes the legal digital alternatives - not only to piracy but also to paper. I really cannot stress enough how important this is, a lot of people are either barely aware that digital is an option, or just basically don't use it because they don't trust paying over the internet, don't feel comfortable with unfamiliar ways of interacting with the manga, or they're underage and don't have the means to buy stuff on the internet on their own, etc. And for the longest time publishers not just didn't promote digital access to manga but actually kept pushing physical, with extras, perks and whatnot, or the digital manga being released months(!) after the physical release (same what the entertainment industry is still doing with music). Thus there was little incentive for people to get into digital reading instead of buying manga second-hand or reading at cafés or just simply skipping buying the volumes and just following the story in the magazine. Actively promoting ways to read manga digitally and making people familiar and comfortable with this option counts a lot more, I think, than getting a pirate site closed down (that was, I think, mainly used by foreigners anyway). (Also... anyone who is internet-savvy enough to pirate these stuff already knows where to look for the newly spawned alternative websites so it's not like there's any incentive to go out and buy the stuff if you hadn't been doing it already. Just sayin'.) By the way, Kimi wo shinasenai... is a great manga, and everyone should read it. Last edited by SHD on Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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I have the feeling that editors asked severl mangaka this week to make some supportive statement for the "NO! Piracy & Illegal Website" campaign and this was all they could come up with. If they had hard numbers (like those of disc sales we see each week) to support their "increased sales due to closing a pirate website" claim then why would they need the mangaka to make a statement?
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Asterisk-CGY
 Posts: 398 |
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Hey, sometimes all it takes is pushing someone out of the comfort of their piracy to buy stuff.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2945 Location: Email for assistance only |
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The "NO! Piracy & Illegal Website" campaign only applies to publisher Shogakukan. I'd have to double check if all these manga creators/ light novel authors are published by them.
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5527 |
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No actual proof? Even if they showed increased PAYMENT, that could simply be a ploy by publishers to push their anti-piracy agenda.
I want to see volume of sales.
"Hey look, mangaka got more money!". I'm all for mangaka getting paid properly, but with zero hard evidence it's hard to believe, especially when basically every other study done on this has shown privacy has little to no effect. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2302 |
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Yeesh, the complete and utter disregard for factual analysis of piracy by the manga industry is kind've startling. These kinds of transparent misinformation campaigns no doubt do more harm than good...
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 421 |
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Honestly it's pretty sad how so many Western anime fans will defend pirating till they die. You are totally right. Just like the digital music sales boom after limewire was closed down. When you close down heavily known used pirating sites, yes other ones are going to crop up, but you will get a surprising amount of people who will switch to the legal option instead. Humans are creatures of habbit more than anything else, and sometimes forcing them to make another choice will lead them to buy it. Another argument that people love to use is accessibility and I 100% agree that if something is not available to you legally, go ahead and pirate. If you are not given the option to buy then go right ahead. However anyone who has used any sort of piraring site knows they dont just use it for things that are not available. Especially on Japanese sites, (which have been lagging behind on the digital age), still have the vast majority of manga available digitally and legally. But whatever, most people dont know creators personally who are affected by piracy and will continue to say how you can't believe them when they rejoice in increased sales. Must be a conspiracy. |
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GoldCrusader
Posts: 1021 |
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Harm to what? Pirates? |
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NeverConvex
Subscriber Posts: 2302 |
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No, to the credibility of the mangaka and publishers. The original article exhibits absolutely no analysis that links a decline in pirating to an increase in revenue for those two parties. It is painfully obvious that this kind of 'news' is a thinly veiled propaganda campaign, and that only the most credulous of readers would take it seriously.
It just seems counterproductive. If you want people to believe you when you claim that there's a strong link between piracy and your industry's success, and that 'combatting' it in whatever sense is very important, you've got to do more than just mass produce artificial and ridiculous anecdotes & strawmen. Misinformation campaigns pushed in obvious pursuit of ideology over careful analysis just undermine the credibility of the mangaka & publishers. |
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psiho66
Posts: 23 |
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Yea No without hard numbers and proof I ain't buying these statements, that being said I would understand them going after pirate sites that operate in Japan, where you can go and buy every manga or light novel you want when its released and for an affordable price. But if they go after overseas pirate manga and light novel sites, will only go and hurt the industry and shrink the fandom as a whole, because outside of Japan manga is 3 or 4 times more expensive and majority of fans can only buy a couple of manga vol. per month and thats if the series is legally licensed and translated at all. And you can't even read legally chapters on the days they are released, which becomes possible with pirate sites and fan translations. And don't get me started on Light Novels which most aren't licensed at all and even if they are almost all of the time the licensor is aways a good amount of volumes behind.
What needs to happen is there needs to be a legal manga and light novel (because light novel volumes get released most of the times only a couple of times per year) a couple streaming service like Crunchyroll where you can read manga chapters on release for like a 10 dollar price tag per month and light novel volumes 1 or 2 or even 3 weeks after its released (for a good translation of course and its different and far more difficult translating light novels compared to a manga) for an additional 2 or 3 or even 4 dollars on top of the 10 dollar monthly fee and as a consumer you get a chart of which manga or light novel and when each chapter of a manga or volume of a light novel is released and if there is a problem with the released of a manga chapter or a light novel you get notified. And after you finish reading the chapter/Light novel volume, you get advertised of the series you are reading if its legally available, for you to by the latest release of a series if you want. |
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HueyLion
 Posts: 885 |
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All these people who pirate off the illgal sites is just horrible. Show some respect for the hard work and effort these creators put into their work.
{Edit}:I removed the unneeded insult. ~ Psycho101 |
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