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INTEREST: World Copyright Watchdog Publishes Piece on Manga Piracy

I'm baffled by the logic of some people. So, reading scans and scanlations of manga the companies and artists have no intention of releasing here or have stopped printing entirely somehow hurts their economy? They lose money because we're not buying the raw Japanese manga that we had no intention or way of buying anyway? And the international industry is hurt by us reading manga online that they, again, have no intention of bringing over or have completely stopped printing? Hokay then.

Here's how I see it: If a manga is currently running and is available here, cut that shit out. Otherwise, there should be no issue. Same with anime--seriously, look at how many shows aren't being licensed and likely never will be.

They want us to stop so badly? Maybe they should actually friggin' LICENSE STUFF FOR OFFICIAL DUBBING.

Apparently Petrified Jello has deleted his post, well I am not deleting mine.

So you fully expect the average manga to sell over 2 million copies a volume? Yes, Shueisha makes a ton of money from One Piece, but that's the best selling manga in Japan, and one of the most successful manga of all times. Shogakakun has lost massive amounts of money over the last decade. Is it efficient? Not really, but the answer isn't to pirate everything, and not pay the artist anything.

I don't understand what your even arguing against, it's not like Jackie actually pays Oda any money, hell Jackie doesn't even pay anyone who works for him, his tricked a bunch of people to do all the work for him for free. All Jackie pays for is the cost of the
servers.

Apparently Petrified Jello has deleted his post, well I am not deleting mine.

Rampant manga piracy is making it increasingly difficult for manga artists (mangaka) to earn a living from their work.

Charred Knight wrote:

Apparently Petrified Jello has deleted his post, well I am not deleting mine.

I deleted my post because I wasn't confident the point would be understood. Having read your post, the lack of confidence was justified.

I don't know how many people actually read the WIPO report, but if they had, there should be concerned with this passage:

Quote:

Rampant manga piracy is making it increasingly difficult for manga artists (mangaka) to earn a living from their work.

Piracy isn't making this difficult. Those who publish manga are making this difficult. When a market demands a reasonably priced, digital format, this is not a cue for publishers to create 40 websites and charge $5.99 for a copy of a single volume.

This is evident when One Piece is one of the most pirated manga on the planet yet the artist clearly makes a comfortable living and the publisher makes a comfortable return.

This is not the fault of piracy. This is the expectation of a market which demands a quality product for their money.

As for the rest of the "struggling manga" artists, a tip: quit ripping off successful formulas, design your own, and tell compelling stories.

Those attributes will sell themselves, just as they do with every other entertainment media.

Just because someone likes something doesn't mean they have to own it. It's about time publishers/distributors come to this realization and compromise.

Otherwise, we'll continue to see more WIPO articles written on piracy, which I believe are published thanks to a significant grant from those who are "suffering".

Instant worldwide global release of manga may be feasible, if people may be willing to pay the same prices as the Japanese: about 500 yen for each magazine issue + costs for translation and global distribution medium.

You mean except the people who run giant scanlation aggregator sites and profit very nicely from the advertising they sell.

But here's the problem you take one extraordinary example (the most popular manga in the world) and claim that's all the proof you need. Yes, there are other factors, but you act like piracy isn't one, let alone a major factor.

People buy what they like. They don't buy what they dislike, if they can avoid it.

BassKuroi wrote:

The world is changing, this kind of discourse can't and won't be taken seriously anymore. Copyright, as we knew it (and this kind of institutions try to enforce) are under question. Sharing is not pirating. Amateur translation is not pirating. Pirating is going on a boat and rob, steal and kill, as the primitive accumulation of capital was taken care of.

I whole heartily agree, mangaka are selfish for wanting to eat food, they can easily scrounge up food by sifting through their neighbors garbage. Why should I help these people?

Oh wait no, you're not actually putting out solutions your just saying that you shouldn't have to pay for manga.

You try to justify yourself by making claims like "living in a new age" where such things as paying for entertainment is obsolete. The major piracy websites would go bankrupt within months if they where forced to pay for royalties.

Princess_Irene wrote:

The difference is that libraries pay for their e-collections, thus giving the publishers and authors revenue. Scanslations monetarily benefit no one.

You mean except the people who run giant scanlation aggregator sites and profit very nicely from the advertising they sell.

Sharing is when you give someone else access to something you own.

It is called "copyright" for a reason; the entity that holds it controls the right to create copies. If the "sharer" as you might call them was never granted the right to make a copy of a manga they may indeed own, they cannot share that copy as they had no ownership rights to that copy.

You can call it "sharing" as much as you want, but it will not change the fact that it is illegal, whereas true sharing is not.

You mean except the people who run giant scanlation aggregator sites and profit very nicely from the advertising they sell.

I don't know anything about those sites. The only annoying advertising-loaded I knew is ANN.

Hypotetical case: I own a PC, a scanner and a magazine (which I must destroy in order to scan it properly). I have a blog and and a connection to internet, and I pay for it. Where's the "not sharing" here?

PetrifiedJello wrote:

People buy what they like. They don't buy what they dislike, if they can avoid it.

Not always. Out of all my fans (many who love manga/anime), only ONE other person, besides me, actually BUYS any of it.

I wonder how many anti-copyright crusaders we'd have if it were the IT industry being dismantled bit by bit. If you could somehow pirate the work that middle-class IT workers do, I bet this would be an entirely different story.

enurtsol wrote:

Instant worldwide global release of manga may be feasible, if people may be willing to pay the same prices as the Japanese: about 500 yen for each magazine issue + costs for translation and global distribution medium.

Apparently not, since... well let's just do an exercise:
In September of 2010 (easiest found spot) the #263 selling graphic novel (ie. not the "top seller", not "bottom raker", something in the middle) was "Gakuen Alice #13" (also, not a #1, not a final volume, just a random book in the series).

You make very good points, but I was talking about the phonebook-size anthology magazines