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Scanlation: Distributed Manga
IronicGrin writes "Just alerting you to a story I wrote for SFGate.com about the emergence of manga as a cultural and commercial force in the U.S.; in addition to discussing the fact that manga has begun to appear on national bestseller lists (volumes of Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin both cracked the USA Today Top 150), I also discuss scanlation communities--that is to say, distributed groups that use the Internet to translate and distribute as-yet unlicensed manga works--comparing this form of culture hacking to other open source development efforts. Do you think the comparison is apt? How many of you guys read manga (as opposed to watch anime), anyway?"
While I belive in purchasing the works when they come out in the US. I do download and read manga. For the most part is purdy good, translations are purdy good and the work is done reasonably well.
I enjoy reading the manga after watching the anime myself, that way you get the little nuances and side stories in the manga that arent in the anime.
snowulf.com
While there is a certain 'labor of love' comparison between scanlation and open source programming, and both involve alot of volunteer folks working on their own, that's about where the similarity ends. Open source is original work, and often it's an original idea. Scanlation is scanning in someone else's product and translating it. I think at one point translations were considered original work, but even if that were still the case, all of the artwork is still the publisher's property. Open Office is open source programming. Microsoft Office with a crack and a hacked translation into a new language is, while a labor of love, still outright theft. Anyways, where did I save that latest Trigun manga...
It is true that in both cases people contribute their talent and labor to a collaborative project. But unlike open source software, you are building off of and distributing someone else's work without their permission. That is illegal, and is exactly what SCO is claiming happens in OSS but it doesn't.
Not being able to read unlicensed work from other countries is a drag, and I don't particularly blame you for breaking the law when no-one is getting hurt. But it concidering how much FUD and confusion is already being spread by opponents of OSS, it really doesn't help for well-meaning people to muddy the waters with analogies like this.
This will likely go against the slashdot majority dogma, but scanlations have all the copyright issues inherent in fansubs. After all, they do disribute copyrighted work. There are on the other hand comminities that translate manga and release translations of it; i.e. a traslated script without actual manga images.
You can buy japanese manga and with translations you can read it. Yes it's a little less convenient, but at least authors get paid for their work.
...I'm not particularly excited about these "Scanlation Communities". It's just yet another example of the Internet doing what it does best: forming small, highly optimized communities devoted to one thing, like the workers at DP proofreading public domain texts or the people at archive.org committed to putting new materials into circulation. Just because it's anime/manga/Japanmiation doesn't make it particularly special, but I'm sure it's just useful as anything else. This is what the 'Net is for.
Actually the shows/books aren't free to trade to begin with. There are international agreements on intellectual property and stealing Japanese works is just as wrong as stealing American. The only legeal difference is that US licensees may be better positioned to enforce the agreement.
From the moral standpoint, some believe that it's ok to distribute a fansubbed work until it's licensed in US, since this is the only way for people to access it (it isn't true - you can buy Japanese DVD/VHS and find scripts online for most of them). Once the shopw is licensed, the moral reationale is gone and distribution of fansubs becomes you plain vanialla piracy.
The author should think in the posibility of publish their works under free licenses like creative commons. The use of this kind licenses on these publications could make easier to know the new works of unknown authors, so this would make a more dinamic market. This is a new place to bring the filosophy of the free software. So why not?
Fandom: The Barbarians at the Gate
- or -
Yes, I still like Ranma 1/2
(blantantly stolen without permission from here)
It is an unfortunate fact about fandom, whether it be gaming fandom, anime fandom, or Linux fandom that it goes through stages:
1. Stage One: A small group of people discover something that they like and think is fun and interesting. They form clubs based on it, talk to each other about references from it and generally enjoy themselves. Often, they will be persecuted by people who don't get it, "You're into that?!? How can you be into that?!?!" they'll sneer as they pass you in the street, at school or at work. This is also the evangelism phase, you try to convince people to become involved in the thing you are into. "The more the merrier" is what you think at this stage. In some ways, this is the best stage of fandom. There is a lot you have to do by yourself and normally a dearth of commercial support, but it is exciting.
2. Stage Two: Some charismatic people become interested in what you like, unfortunately, leading the people who were sneering at you to think, "Oh! He's into that? Oh, maybe I misjudged it then..." (You'll see why this is unfortunate soon enough.) More support becomes available, so you don't have to do everything yourself. Instead of third generation fan-subs, for instance, commercial tapes become available. Maybe not the ones you want, but still, maybe good in their own way.
3. Stage Three: This is the transitional phase, your hobby becomes well known enough that the mainstream media picks up on it, usually portraying it as a weird and evil sub-culture. Of course, this causes it to appeal to bored mainstreamers who want to appear cool by taking on the establishment (until they grow up to become corporate lawyers and/or investment bankers, natch.) These are the people who start showing up at your AD&D club meetings and when you suggest a game of Call of Cthuhlu for a change, mock you. They don't mock you because they know anything about CoC , but because "the name sounds goofy, man." You start feeling resentful as they try feeding your sixth level magic user to a gelatinous cube, and in my case you stop attending group meetings.
4. Stage Four: Congressmen start talking about the evils of the whatever-it-is that you like, of course making it more cool among mainstreamers . Although the thing you like is more readily available now from a variety of commercial sources, it has been rendered palatable for the mainstreamers . All the rough edges are sanded off, and you get accosted by people who don't know that you used to be really into the thing who try to tell you how cool their bland, pallid version of the thing you used to love is. The barbarians are at the gate! People are overunning your hobby with the same predjudices they had back when it wasn't cool. They accost you at conventions and say, "You are into that!?! How could you be into that?!? This new is so much cooler than that. I wouldn't be caught dead being into that." Note: As always, you are not trying to force your tastes on anyone. In fact, because the quality of people you are meeting has declined so much, you try to identify the bad ones and just "smile and nod" as they pass you by. You are just trying to "live and let live," but the mainstreamers only want to appear rebellious, even though by their very nature they are conformists. Because of this, they will seek you out and try to force conformity on you, basically forcing you to hide your interests within a hobby from them the same way you used to hide your interest in the hobby from them.
5. Stage Five: Everyone is into your hobby now... but it's become so palatable and mainstream that it isn't recognizable as the thing you used to love. You've since moved on to other things. Soon after this, it becomes uncool and people start dropping it. You still like the old things that got you into it in the first place, but you no longer mention it to
oh please, information doesn't want to be free, people want things FOR free. which isn't to say that what these people are doing is wrong, and that there aren't any communnities based around this. Information just happens to easy to "share" on the internet.
If you have actually looked into the genre, saying that you "hate this stuff" and are convinced it all "looks crappy," isn't sufficient. What about it is crappy? What is it that you hate that is common to ALL manga?
Saying "manga looks crappy" is like saying "comic books are for kids." There's no way that they are all alike or share a single esthetic; there's far more variety in Japanese mass-market comics -- in artstyle, storytelling techniques, intended audience -- than in the US product.
Unless you can lend some further depth to your remarks, you are simply a troll.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
"While scanlators operate somewhat outside legal boundaries -- the works they're republishing are copyrighted and proprietary, and there isn't a penny of licensing money exchanging hands -- their existence is tolerated by the commercial publishing houses because, frankly, scanlators play the invaluable role of identifying new titles that are hotly in demand."
Sounds like a justification, for every illegal form of trading to have come forward to this point. Where I will not fault, the folks for scanning and redistributing copyrighted material myself (..owing to glass house syndrome.) Theft is theft. Do BSA members, and all other software companies, learn which of thier titles are most popular, or are they robbed of revenues? Recording Industry? Visual Media Companies?
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
I'm all for culture jacking and sharing of entertainment. It bothers me that people like the RIAA and Jack Valenti of the MPAA are so fierce about preventing the spread of entertainment to other countries. The MPAA in particular has been rallying foreign governments to crack down on piracy of movies that aren't even being distributed commercially in those countries.
If you're not selling your items in a certain area, does it really matter if there are pirated copies popping up in that area? It's not like it's cutting into your business if you're not even selling there.
Same goes for software, I say. If a company stubbornly refuses to release compatible software in other languages and devices, I'm all for people in those countries jacking up the software and making it work for them.
The only thing that's touchy with anime and other such things is that it COULD be slated for licensing and redistrubutors would be cutting into their revenue. In that case, I say nay.
But if a company says no to distribution in an area where there's demand, I'm all for consumers taking things into their own hands. Anime, software, and other forms of media are not expensive to reproduce. Technically, the "art" itself is non-existent - it's all just 1's and 0's on a computer disk or images pressed onto tape. Redistribution is harmless if it doesn't affect profits whatsoever while simultaneously spreading the art.
Companies who refuse to redistribute on their own while also refusing to allow others to redistribute in an area that does not cut into their profits are just being stingy. It's the equivalent of a kid refusing to let his little brother play with an action figure "just because," even though he's not playing with it either - it's just great entertainment gathering dust and not being sufficiently appreciated.
Now I'll probably be kidnapped by some secret military group controlled by big media, but I had to say my piece. Free the anime! Vive la revolucion!
Microsoft Office with a crack and a hacked translation into a new language is, while a labor of love, still outright theft.
Been listening to the boys from the RIAA again?
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS NOT THEFT!!!!
It's copyright infringement. That's different from theft. It has a different name too, so as not to confuse people.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
--
Evan "Artists? Being individualistic? Never!"
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
If you wish to sell Manga to the broadest, cross gender market, here's what you do:
Make it about young girls "developed" beyond their age. Girls will read it to empathise with the characters and/or fantasize about being them.
Boys will read it to look at their tits.
It works.
KFG
Anime, like any other consumable media, comes in three flavors:
1) Absolute shit served up with a marketing blitz
2) A valiant effort that self-destructs mid run (possibly because they ran out of money after the marketing blitz)
3) The overlooked gems.
I'm sure it'd be easy to make a similar list for any number of product areas:
Popular music, Reality TV, Feature Films, Websites, Taco Bell franchises, celebrity-sponsored hair care product lines, etc.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
While it probably isn't legal, no one is going to try to stop them (at least for unlicensed manga). Look at Doujinshi (fan manga). By all accounts it completely violates IP law, but mangaka never sue over doujinshi because it just creates more interest in their work. Granted, doujinshi has some original art and/or story, but serves the same purpose as scanslations do here. It creates interest. I would have never gotten into naruto without the scanslations, and now I've spent more money on it than is probably healthy. On second thought, maybe it's not such a good thing..
"I know you think in black and white"
Is it just me that sees the irony of this statement?
Like everything else, fansubbing groups are not black and white either. While there are groups who do respect licensing and US contracts, there are plenty of others who do not. And we're not just talking about AJ here (although, they're dead so can't release anymore), but there are others out there who do the same things. There are also cases where legit groups will leak releases (especially for series that got licensed before the last episode), etc. Aand since the pool of people who can actually do the fansubbing is reasonably limited, you see them moving between groups and projects pretty freely. Pretty much, fansubbing is a spectrum from those who are strict about licenses, to those who enjoy fansubbing licensed series to anger the companies.
The North American companies actually do try to "do" something about fansubbing groups. Last summer, Bandai contacted many groups about the fansubbing of Wolf's Rain, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Gundam Seed. All three were series that had previously been unannounced (except for maybe GitS), and Bandai squashed fansubbing of the series shortly after announcement. The same goes for Funimation and Full Metal Alchemist. The companies are well aware of the fansubbing community and are completely willing to use their lawyers.
As for the market, as anime and manga are becoming mainstream, there's less of a need for the translation services of fansubbing. Many North American companies have said that most new anime shows airing in Japan are licensed (usually in agreements before they even begin airing). Manga is pretty well marketed and pretty accessible at bookstores across the nation. The argument that "fansubbing creates more of a market" is much less valid now than it used to be, and many believe that the fansubbing community is a dinosaur that will soon be extinct.