Stealing is stealing

[kudasaru]

I was reading on Anime News Network about piracy and scanlations and all that crap and it got me thinking about some things in relation to the anime/manga industry. There are some people who like to get on their high horse and moralize about how people who are stealing from the industry are ruining it and doing Something Very Bad. I'm not saying

Comments

[ecentromatic]

It's not exactly an academic source, but...

[kudasaru]

This is more what I was talking about. I think manga artists, as long as they are producing publishable work, do okay, but animators? Yeesh...

[erinfinnegan]

I think you're overlooking the role of editors and/or distribution channels and how it affects content.

Have you read Manga Zombie? It spotlights authors from a time before distribution channels, manga by "...people who'd have literally starved if they hadn't been paid for them that day."

I mean, the internet is our new awesome distribution channel, but it isn't perfect or the most profitable yet. It's useful to see how American artists like that Diesel Sweeties guy and Homestar Runner and Penny Arcade have turned their comics into full time jobs, before and after finding major distribution. Diesel Sweeties got newspaper syndication and sells adorable socks, for example.

It's my understanding that manga artists in Japan who are moderately successful are compensated a reasonable wage. Their work schedules are insane ( here's the discussion). The artist who's schedule that is may never have time to spend his money. But how much of that is Japanese work culture and how much is the capitalist system creating absurd working conditions

[kudasaru]

Oh, I definitely wasn't imagining a system where artists were flying solo, creating and selling directly to fans without any sort of assistance. There are very few cases in which that would work and not only would it be difficult from the artists perspective, it would be extremely annoying for the consumers as well. Editors are a necessity if you want to produce quality work. You'd also need to have some kind of structure for people to work in and you'd need some way for mediating feedback

[erinfinnegan]

If mainstream news finds a way to pay quality journalists more effectively, enough so that editors and fact checkers can be find work, I think that would be a fine distribution model, moreso than the iTunes store.

At the height of its distribution in 1971, Garo hit 80,000. Some good sources to read about Garo are the intro to Comics Underground Japan, this exhibition catalog from a current exhibit in NYC, and the samehat blog. I probably am overestimating its importance, admittedly, but it is interesting as an example of an alternative distribution channel that was respected by artists

[kudasaru]

Well, I was thinking of something more like MangaNovel where some things are free, some you'd pay a couple bucks per issue (and you could probably preview a few pages), but instead of most of that money going to Toshiba, most of that money would go to the artists and editors and maybe a small percentage would be contributed towards server costs. Then if people wanted a print copy, the artists could do it through a service like lulu.com (or if the thing became profitable enough, there could be a printing arm created specifically for it).

You could also run something like a magazine either based on genre or customizable by the user where people subscribe and get chapters as they come out that would be accessible online but also maybe sent through some app to their mobile phone.

[lordameth]

I assume you're already aware of this: Piracy conference at 'Deis

You should submit something to present!

[kudasaru]

I wonder if I could figure out a way to link p2p file sharing with butt!pirates.

(seriously though, this post was mostly me ranting maniacally out of my ass, it's like the tiniest germ of a thought colliding with other thoughts floating around my head.... not sure if I'd be able to produce anything even remotely academic-paper like out of it anytime soon)