This is me coming out of the woodwork to complain like a bitch.
Today's question: Do people who scan raw manga and distribute it really have the right to get their panties in a twist and slap watermarks all over it as though they own it or something? This seems to be a new trend, and while the purpose is supposedly to encourage people to buy manga rather than just reading it online, all it really does is make them look like a bunch of self-important twats, especially when they slap the things right over people's faces. Seriously, give it up. Your target market can't afford to buy every manga they read, even if they want to. People like making icons and stuff from those images too, something that becomes pretty much impossible when you put your pointless watermarks right over people's faces, and I suppose you're discouraging that as well? Get real. Somebody else will probably step up and make a new source for the raws you pointlessly ruined, at least I hope so.
I really don't think that just scanning something gives you any ownership over it. I don't understand why people are so possessive over images they really didn't have any part in creating. Sure, you might have ruined a book in transferring them to data, but so what? That was your choice, and then your choice to put it out where other people can download it. If you didn't do it, surely somebody else would have, especially if it's a popular series you're scanning. The main point here is that the creation of that image, which is what people might actually care about, has jack shit to do with you. All you did was make it easier for other people to access. What exactly about that gives you any sort of ownership?
Putting a watermark on something implies that you own it, and while you may own A COPY of the item in question, you do not own the image itself. Honestly, I don't even bother to put watermarks on any of my artwork, which I clearly DO own, even though my mom always tells me to because she thinks somebody will steal it or something. (I think I've gone through my reasoning that nobody would bother stealing my lame-ass artwork in the first place already.) This is because watermarks are hideous, and detract from the artwork. Why bother putting up something you want people to hopefully admire if you're just going to make it harder by putting some ugly letters on it? Unless you put it somewhere really conspicuous, it's meaningless, as someone can always edit it out. And if it's somewhere conspicuous, nobody will want to look at the image. So really, you lose either way. The only time I have ever used watermarks is when I was doing commissions on gaia and I had to show sample images before people finished paying me for them. Other than that, I absolutely refuse. But this is a rather different issue, and I digress.
Basically, this "let's put conspicuous watermarks on all our scans/scanlations/whatever" trend needs to die an early death. It doesn't do anything but annoy people and ruin images that could otherwise be used for icons, graphics, or what have you. (But not for coloring books because seriously that's STILL NOT WHAT MANGA IS FOR) If people have the desire and ability to buy manga, they will. If they can't, they can't, and you don't need to punish them for being poor. I would personally love to own more manga because it's much better to be able to flip through a physical book rather than click through pages, but what can I do. This is why I need a manga café, dammit. :[
I really don't think that just scanning something gives you any ownership over it. I don't understand why people are so possessive over images they really didn't have any part in creating. Sure, you might have ruined a book in transferring them to data, but so what? That was your choice, and then your choice to put it out where other people can download it. If you didn't do it, surely somebody else would have, especially if it's a popular series you're scanning. The main point here is that the creation of that image, which is what people might actually care about, has jack shit to do with you. All you did was make it easier for other people to access. What exactly about that gives you any sort of ownership?
Putting a watermark on something implies that you own it, and while you may own A COPY of the item in question, you do not own the image itself. Honestly, I don't even bother to put watermarks on any of my artwork, which I clearly DO own, even though my mom always tells me to because she thinks somebody will steal it or something. (I think I've gone through my reasoning that nobody would bother stealing my lame-ass artwork in the first place already.) This is because watermarks are hideous, and detract from the artwork. Why bother putting up something you want people to hopefully admire if you're just going to make it harder by putting some ugly letters on it? Unless you put it somewhere really conspicuous, it's meaningless, as someone can always edit it out. And if it's somewhere conspicuous, nobody will want to look at the image. So really, you lose either way. The only time I have ever used watermarks is when I was doing commissions on gaia and I had to show sample images before people finished paying me for them. Other than that, I absolutely refuse. But this is a rather different issue, and I digress.
Basically, this "let's put conspicuous watermarks on all our scans/scanlations/whatever" trend needs to die an early death. It doesn't do anything but annoy people and ruin images that could otherwise be used for icons, graphics, or what have you. (But not for coloring books because seriously that's STILL NOT WHAT MANGA IS FOR) If people have the desire and ability to buy manga, they will. If they can't, they can't, and you don't need to punish them for being poor. I would personally love to own more manga because it's much better to be able to flip through a physical book rather than click through pages, but what can I do. This is why I need a manga café, dammit. :[