Japanese, U.S. Manga Publishers Unite To Fight Scanlations
Japanese, U.S. Manga Publishers Unite To Fight Scanlations
By Calvin Reid
Jun 08, 2010
An international coalition of Japanese and American-based manga publishers have joined together to combat what they call the “rampant and growing problem” of scanlations, the practice of posting scanned and translated editions of Japanese comics online without permission of the copyright holders. The group is threatening legal action against 30 scanlation sites.
The effort brings together the 36 member Japanese Digital Comic Association-which includes such major Japanese houses as Kodansha, Shogakukan and Shueisha-as well as manga publisher Square Enix, the Tuttle-Mori Agency and U.S.-based manga publishers Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Tokyopop and Yen Press, the manga/graphic novel imprint of the Hachette Book Group.
A spokesperson for the coalition said the effort shows that Japanese publishers-who license the majority of manga sold in the U.S.-are taking an aggressive interest in combating manga piracy outside of Japan as well as inside the country. The group charges that the former fan-driven practice of scanlating-begun in the 1970s to scan, translate and post manga online when it was difficult to find manga outside of Japan-has been transformed by “scanlation aggregators,” heavily trafficked, for-profit Web sites that host thousands of pirated manga editions and offer them for free to readers.
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.”
A spokesperson said that “we are left with no other alternative but to take aggressive action. It is our sincere hope that offending sites will take it upon themselves to immediately cease their activities. Where this is not the case, however, we will seek injunctive relief and statutory damages.” The group is also aggressively reporting violations to the “federal authorities, including the anti-piracy units of the Justice Department, local law enforcement agencies and FBI.” While the group has yet to file any lawsuits and has declined to name specific scanlators, sites such as MangaFox and OneManga have long been identified as major scanlation aggregators.
After several years of booming manga sales in the U.S. that drove the popularity of comics and graphic novels in the traditional book market, sales of manga in the U.S. have declined more than 30% from a high of $210 million in 2007 to $140 million in sales in 2009, according to pop culture news site ICv2.com. Many manga publishers and retailers who used to believe that scanlations actually attracted new readers, now blame the sales decline on the rise of giant for-profit scanlation sites that have allowed a new generation of fans to grow up reading manga for free online.
“Go back 2 years and track these sites and you’ll find an inverse relationship between the rise of traffic on these scanlation sites and the decline in U.S. manga sales,” said Kurt Hassler, publishing director of Yen Press and a former graphic novel and manga buyer for Borders Books and Music. Hassler points out that early fan-driven scanlation sites were aimed at making manga available overseas at a time when English translations of manga were rare. Indeed these fan scanlators would remove their online translations when the books were licensed for the English-language market.
That’s no longer the case, said Hassler. “These sites are run as businesses and include direct scans of licensed English-language manga editions. Some even include our copyright notices. We don’t want to have to do this but publishers are now focused on this problem.”
Of course, 2007 being the year the recession started has nothing to do with falling profits...right? And this has nothing to do with Kindle, Nook, iPad app wars and the censorship of small publishers and gay lit on it, right?
I have a long post about this in my fb and journals but this is basically how I feel:
I'm poor, so I tend to buy used books and that money never makes it to the publisher anyway. I have about 500 graphic novel books now that I own. I don't have stores nearby to browse and pick up a title because the cover looks interesting. I buy books either because I know the mangaka and love their work or because it's a series that I know and love. That's it.
I also ranted in my journal about how under-appreciated titles that are long and are cult hits will NEVER get licensed here because of the amount of money to print them and that they won't yield enough money. I don't think I will ever see Koori no Mamono no Monogatari in a US bookstore. I don't even know if they still have the Japanese books in print anymore.
If they want to stop the for-profit sites they need to offer up alternatives. I only go where I know I can read stuff. It's not like there is an internetlibrary for these books or an alternative near me. I just want to read it not own it. I buy the ones I want to own...when I have the funds. Which in this day and age is getting fewer and far between.
Update: It's everyone in the Japanese publishing market. The coalition is threatening legal action against thirty something of these scanlation sites, whose names were not revealed. The organization currently consists of the coalition’s members include Square Enix, Viz Media, TOKYOPOP, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency, Yen Press, and the members of the Digital Comic Association: Akane Shinsha, Akita Shoten, ASCII Media Works, East Press, Ichijinsha, Enterbrain, Okura Shuppan, Ohzora Shuppan, Gakken, Kadokawa Shoten, Gentosha Comics, Kodansha, Jitsugyo No Nihonsha, Shueisha, Junet, Shogakukan, Shogakukan Shueisha Production, Shodensha, Shonen Gahosha, Shinshokan, Shinchosha, Take Shobo, Tatsumi Shuppan, Tokuma Shoten, Nihon Bungeisha, Hakusensha, Fujimi Shobo, Fusosha, Futabasha, France Shoin, Bunkasha, Houbunsha, Magazine House, Media Factory, Leed sha, and Libre Shuppan.
Didn't Libre use the scanlators and their readers to bring down BeBeautiful?
By Calvin Reid
Jun 08, 2010
An international coalition of Japanese and American-based manga publishers have joined together to combat what they call the “rampant and growing problem” of scanlations, the practice of posting scanned and translated editions of Japanese comics online without permission of the copyright holders. The group is threatening legal action against 30 scanlation sites.
The effort brings together the 36 member Japanese Digital Comic Association-which includes such major Japanese houses as Kodansha, Shogakukan and Shueisha-as well as manga publisher Square Enix, the Tuttle-Mori Agency and U.S.-based manga publishers Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Tokyopop and Yen Press, the manga/graphic novel imprint of the Hachette Book Group.
A spokesperson for the coalition said the effort shows that Japanese publishers-who license the majority of manga sold in the U.S.-are taking an aggressive interest in combating manga piracy outside of Japan as well as inside the country. The group charges that the former fan-driven practice of scanlating-begun in the 1970s to scan, translate and post manga online when it was difficult to find manga outside of Japan-has been transformed by “scanlation aggregators,” heavily trafficked, for-profit Web sites that host thousands of pirated manga editions and offer them for free to readers.
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.”
A spokesperson said that “we are left with no other alternative but to take aggressive action. It is our sincere hope that offending sites will take it upon themselves to immediately cease their activities. Where this is not the case, however, we will seek injunctive relief and statutory damages.” The group is also aggressively reporting violations to the “federal authorities, including the anti-piracy units of the Justice Department, local law enforcement agencies and FBI.” While the group has yet to file any lawsuits and has declined to name specific scanlators, sites such as MangaFox and OneManga have long been identified as major scanlation aggregators.
After several years of booming manga sales in the U.S. that drove the popularity of comics and graphic novels in the traditional book market, sales of manga in the U.S. have declined more than 30% from a high of $210 million in 2007 to $140 million in sales in 2009, according to pop culture news site ICv2.com. Many manga publishers and retailers who used to believe that scanlations actually attracted new readers, now blame the sales decline on the rise of giant for-profit scanlation sites that have allowed a new generation of fans to grow up reading manga for free online.
“Go back 2 years and track these sites and you’ll find an inverse relationship between the rise of traffic on these scanlation sites and the decline in U.S. manga sales,” said Kurt Hassler, publishing director of Yen Press and a former graphic novel and manga buyer for Borders Books and Music. Hassler points out that early fan-driven scanlation sites were aimed at making manga available overseas at a time when English translations of manga were rare. Indeed these fan scanlators would remove their online translations when the books were licensed for the English-language market.
That’s no longer the case, said Hassler. “These sites are run as businesses and include direct scans of licensed English-language manga editions. Some even include our copyright notices. We don’t want to have to do this but publishers are now focused on this problem.”
Of course, 2007 being the year the recession started has nothing to do with falling profits...right? And this has nothing to do with Kindle, Nook, iPad app wars and the censorship of small publishers and gay lit on it, right?
I have a long post about this in my fb and journals but this is basically how I feel:
I'm poor, so I tend to buy used books and that money never makes it to the publisher anyway. I have about 500 graphic novel books now that I own. I don't have stores nearby to browse and pick up a title because the cover looks interesting. I buy books either because I know the mangaka and love their work or because it's a series that I know and love. That's it.
I also ranted in my journal about how under-appreciated titles that are long and are cult hits will NEVER get licensed here because of the amount of money to print them and that they won't yield enough money. I don't think I will ever see Koori no Mamono no Monogatari in a US bookstore. I don't even know if they still have the Japanese books in print anymore.
If they want to stop the for-profit sites they need to offer up alternatives. I only go where I know I can read stuff. It's not like there is an internetlibrary for these books or an alternative near me. I just want to read it not own it. I buy the ones I want to own...when I have the funds. Which in this day and age is getting fewer and far between.
Update: It's everyone in the Japanese publishing market. The coalition is threatening legal action against thirty something of these scanlation sites, whose names were not revealed. The organization currently consists of the coalition’s members include Square Enix, Viz Media, TOKYOPOP, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency, Yen Press, and the members of the Digital Comic Association: Akane Shinsha, Akita Shoten, ASCII Media Works, East Press, Ichijinsha, Enterbrain, Okura Shuppan, Ohzora Shuppan, Gakken, Kadokawa Shoten, Gentosha Comics, Kodansha, Jitsugyo No Nihonsha, Shueisha, Junet, Shogakukan, Shogakukan Shueisha Production, Shodensha, Shonen Gahosha, Shinshokan, Shinchosha, Take Shobo, Tatsumi Shuppan, Tokuma Shoten, Nihon Bungeisha, Hakusensha, Fujimi Shobo, Fusosha, Futabasha, France Shoin, Bunkasha, Houbunsha, Magazine House, Media Factory, Leed sha, and Libre Shuppan.
Didn't Libre use the scanlators and their readers to bring down BeBeautiful?