US, Japanese Publishers Unite Against Scan Sites
How many of you guys read manga? I guess majoritiy of the folks maximizes the Internet to its full potential – reading manga scans online, instead of purchasing the manga volumes when they become available. I have a whole stash of manga at home, but I sort of gave up reading because I lack the time, now that I am focusing on other stuff in Real Life – photography.figurine.anime.blogging? I guess it’s these 4 things.
Oh yeah, it seems that every major manga publisher has joined forces to fight against these scan sites hosting thousands of pirated titles.
According to a spokesperson, these sites are among the most heavily trafficked sites on the web attracting millions of visits each month while earning advertising revenues and even soliciting donations and sometimes charging for memberships. The group also charges that pirated manga is now beginning to turn up on smartphones and other wireless devices through the use of apps developed “solely to link to and republish the content of scanlations sites.”
The force is strong, membership roster has the thirty-six members of the Japan Digital Comic Association, Square Enix, VIZ Media, TokyoPOP, the Tuttle-Mori Agency, Yen Press, and Vertical, inc.
Is this the end of online manga scanlation sites? I don’t see these sites earning revenue from readers (not that I saw).. But then again, the manga takes a long time to get a English release, so by then fans would have switched to reading online – faster and free.
I used to buy my manga in stores, but I don’t read manga anymore. =/
Source: Publishers Weekly via ANN
lol. I can honestly say I buy manga. Just so happens I bought manga just yesterday. Main reason was cause no one scanlated the chapter but yeah, unless there’s some publisher that can translate and sell the copies fast enough, there’s not gonna be anyone reading their copies.
Besides, not many people have the patience to wait for Tankobon formats.
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considering the way crunchyroll.com has been licensing anime to come out in english subtitles in a simulcast, there are definitely better ways for companies to make money off of the world-wide demand.
and the scan sites or sites that post streamed anime videos do make a good amount of money from the ad revenue that you usually see plastered to the side or top of the site. the only time that’s not true is if it’s a website that requires a paid membership or there are absolutely no ads on the site.
and if you want to see the amount of money you can make, look at the Television industry and the newspaper/magazine industry. They are all primarily funded, literally, by ad revenue. All they have to do is adopt a similar model to the simulcast anime on crunchyroll or tv so you can provide free content, which is what everyone wants, but still make some money off it. Otherwise, you get absolutely nothing from pirating – aside from net neutrality and censoring issues.
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The problem is that publishers here take too long to translate and publish new manga. That is, if they even decide to release it here.
[Reply]
M Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Yeah.
Censorship is a big wall in blocking half the manga from being ported out of Japan.
[Reply]
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