Author Topic: Publishers declaring war on scanlations  (Read 3510 times)

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Offline @random

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Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« on: June 28, 2010, 08:10:44 pm »
Any thoughts on how this'll affect the community once they get serious?

http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2010/06/customer-is-wrong-or-how-dare-you-want.html
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Offline BlackjackGabbiani

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Re: Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2010, 03:09:45 am »
They seem to think that this is an issue of official releases not being up to quality, and I think that for a lot of series that's a thing of the past.

Something that I think would help is to *licence more series*. There's a reason Pokemon Special's scanslations went on for so long--because Viz dropped the title after volume 7 years ago and only recently picked it back up. People wanted more, but it took them forever to realize that.

And that's just a title that was here and got delayed. A lot of series NEVER come out over here (I'm looking at you, Saint Young Men. Screw potential controversy--it's hilarious), and frankly we have no other recourse. I for one WOULD buy if I could.

Offline The_Geek

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Re: Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2010, 11:57:14 am »
Relate it all to this picture:
http://guildmedia.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/thepiratebaycartoon-small.png
Really? Copyrights have their upsides, but it's going to be a sad day when I can't read manga chapters as they come out...
I DO buy a bunch of my manga (For the record) but I don't think it's right to completely cap off the online stuff.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2010, 12:00:10 pm by The_Geek »
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Offline Banshee

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Re: Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2010, 08:05:10 pm »
Wow, that was quite the article!  The author sounded a little mad (or maybe just passionate), but I think I get the gist of what they are saying.   

Personally I’m someone that, though I spends hours on the internet each day I much prefer books, and DVDs, over scanlations or downloads.  I have only used either in rare instances when someone suggested I just ‘had to see’ something.  I can’t say that I feel all that comfortable about it when I do it.   I mean the artist goes though a lot of work and then to have someone take it without paying would be beyond frustrating.

That said I believe that the internet is being greatly underused.  I do use the internet a lot to help me select the items I buy and what I should be looking for.   Previewing what is out there or coming out soon, and such is invaluable to me in helping find what I want.  I think that just cracking down on illegal sites will just make them go underground and harder to find and fight.  Give people an official source (a good one!) and I believe that most people will go there.  Sorry to say, many people are short on time (or just lazy :D) and large centralized sites will be easier. 

As the article pointed out, I believe the industry is being rather short sighted in it’s acceptance of the new technologies out there.  The internet isn’t going anywhere any time soon.   There are so many ways they could benefit from it to better find out what people want, introduce them to new things, and such.   There will always be people who try to get things for nothing, but most willing pay if given a reasonable way that gets them what they want.

Offline @random

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Re: Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2010, 02:33:19 pm »
Wow, that was quite the article!  The author sounded a little mad (or maybe just passionate), but I think I get the gist of what they are saying.   

Personally I’m someone that, though I spends hours on the internet each day I much prefer books, and DVDs, over scanlations or downloads.  I have only used either in rare instances when someone suggested I just ‘had to see’ something.  I can’t say that I feel all that comfortable about it when I do it.   I mean the artist goes though a lot of work and then to have someone take it without paying would be beyond frustrating.

That said I believe that the internet is being greatly underused.  I do use the internet a lot to help me select the items I buy and what I should be looking for.   Previewing what is out there or coming out soon, and such is invaluable to me in helping find what I want.  I think that just cracking down on illegal sites will just make them go underground and harder to find and fight.  Give people an official source (a good one!) and I believe that most people will go there.  Sorry to say, many people are short on time (or just lazy :D) and large centralized sites will be easier. 

As the article pointed out, I believe the industry is being rather short sighted in it’s acceptance of the new technologies out there.  The internet isn’t going anywhere any time soon.   There are so many ways they could benefit from it to better find out what people want, introduce them to new things, and such.   There will always be people who try to get things for nothing, but most willing pay if given a reasonable way that gets them what they want.


Mostly passionate, I think. While he posts reviews of chapters or episodes coming out in scanlation/fansub format, he'll later post reviews of the latest volume or DVD he's bought of the same series.

(I'm a strange animal on this score, myself. I like to watch or read series in progress, but will usually buy completed sets I loved. Even then, though, I'll frequently go to lower-grade online sources when discussing or revisiting old favorites because it makes it easier to find a particular scene or point out that scene to others without making them look for nonexistent page numbers or difficult-to-skip-to time frames. And I often keep fansubs/scanlations of some series I've bought because they're more compact, more portable, or have better translation quality.)

You have it nailed as far as previewing... with the virtual disappearance of brick-and-mortar anime rental, people who aren't affiliated with anime clubs are stuck with either Netflix (which is really good, but not always reliable for older or smaller titles) or going to the Internet. Take away the Internet, and people will stop buying because they're not going to blow $20 on one disc of a series, or $50-100 on the whole set, without knowing that it's good. (Or at least, without knowing it's not crap.)

The problem is in some ways better, some ways worse, for manga. Barnes and Noble and other retailers offer a good way to preview manga, but their heyday in the market seems to have passed. If it's not InuYasha or Naruto, good luck finding a copy. There's no Netflix-like business for manga, quite understandably given the much higher postage rates. And I would be surprised if more than 1 in 10 public libraries outside the Pacific NW even knows what a manga is, much less having the funds to buy any.

For anime, there are innovators out there in terms of online presentation, such as Funimation or Crunchyroll. But there's almost nothing for manga. By declaring war without offering an alternative, the publishers have set up a contest of wills that almost ensures they'll lose. Ask any parent of a toddler how well it works to take away a favorite toy and say "No! Bad!" without offering something else as an alternative. Now give the toddler the resources and willpower of a teenager or adult and band a bunch of them together into a community, and see how well that works.  :-\
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Offline Mister_manji

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Re: Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2010, 09:12:15 am »
the author, though I agree with him, spends an awful lot of time talking about honorifics in subtitles, and less on the actual reasons behind Anime/Manga companies behavior. Japan, for instance, has an enormous number of bookstores, and I can't help but wonder if their influence in some way prevents changes. Other industries might also have effects on this, similar to lobbyists in Congress.
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Offline kai-chan

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Re: Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2010, 09:29:56 pm »
Its because FUNimation started a war on the internet for copy right laws so the other anime based companies are following their lead.  But mostly all of that manga online are ones that will take YEARS to come over or not come over at all. Also alot of the sites take down licensed manga. I have over 450 different manga titles that I am reading online and not even 10% of that is lincensed. Also if I really like it and it becomes licensed I will purchase it. Such as Skip Beat. I am in the middle of buying. I would totally but 1/2 Prince also if it ever becomes licensed. But the thing is most of them WONT EVER come over! Also because of scans we got Axis Powers Hitalia to grow and become an anime.

Offline @random

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Re: Publishers declaring war on scanlations
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2010, 08:45:07 pm »
Ran across this today: Matt Thorn's piece on shoujo manga (http://www.matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/colloque/index.php) has what appear to be some prescient comments about this very battle.

Quote
For more than thirty years, the manga industry has been structured around a model that seemed unshakable. Magazine editors solicit work from manga artists for a modest page rate. The manga is then serialized in cheap magazines with few advertisements that are essentially sold at cost. Serials that prove unpopular are cut short. Those that prove even marginally popular are republished in paperbacks. Ten percent of the cover price of each copy sold is paid to the artist as royalties, and the rest of the profit goes to the publisher. The magazines, in other words, are extravagant advertisements for the paperbacks, which are the primary source of profit.

The quandary for publishers is that, in this digital age, Japanese consumers are no longer inclined to buy a large paper object that they will eventually discard anyway. Since the magazines themselves are not a direct source of profit, on the surface this would not seem to be a problem, but the fact is that these magazines are the pivot, the fulcrum, the center of gravity of the entire manga industry. The extinction of the printed magazine is inevitable: not a matter of “if” but “when.” The implications of its extinction are both devastating and exciting, but that is a subject for another talk...

One metamorphosis, though, never occurred, and that is the corporate metamorphosis in which women would take over editorial control of the magazines from stodgy, middle-aged men with outdated and sexist notions of who their readers are and what those readers want. I waited for that metamorphosis for fifteen years, and even tried to help bring it about by arguing for it in my writings and public lectures in Japan.

But the death of the magazine will render that metamorphosis moot. Even those who work in the giant manga publishing houses--Shueisha, Shogakukan, Kodansha--acknowledge that those corporations are dinosaurs, massive and slow, unable to turn quickly or adapt to sudden changes in environment. That is why the glass ceiling against which female employees bump their heads remains firmly in place, and that is why these publishers will follow the printed magazine to extinction...

But I think it is safe to say two things: one, the shōjo manga artists in that new world will not be answering to middle-aged men in neckties; and, two, those artists will show us new worlds of sequential art we have never dreamed of.
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