Scanlation: Distributed Manga 347
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?"
I absolutely love it! (Score:4, Interesting)
BTW, if you happen across a little gem called Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, then go download it. It comes highly recommended ^_^.
Open source comparison...? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been interested in anime for many years- I helped found an anime club and am currently serving a local anime club (where I met my wife). We both enjoy both anime and manga. She lived in Japan for a year through the JET program (and I got to visit her ^_^), and she has developed a fair-sized (Japanese) manga collection. While I can't read Japanese, she often translates for me. I am just floored by the proliferation of available titles in English, though. The article was even more eye-opening in that respect.
I haven't looked into the manga side (scanlations) so much, but I have been quite interested in the fansub legalities and ethics. I tend to view them in a similar light. Technically, they are illegal- but take a look at the flourishing doujinshi market and other fan-led efforts in Japan. They are very different types of copyright violation, but are technically just as illegal (debatable, but generally thought of as illegal through copyright and trade law)... That's an aside, though, I guess... ^^;
At any rate, I view open source as very different for a number of reasons- open source is a legal response to a proprietary mindset via the GPL. The publishing industry is a different beast than the software industry. Scanlations, and fansubs, serve the purpose of the sharing of the culture/art, but are likely illegal, while open source promotes the legal sharing of software under a certain set of circumstances. Open source is "bought into" by all of the participants in the development from the creator on (barring silly SCO arguments)- that's one of the big differences right there. The author and/or copyright holder of the scanlation is not usually a participant in "the community." Are scanlations bad? I don't always think so, provided they hold to some general ethics, but I don't think they have the legitimacy that open source does. I don't know if the comparison is fair to open source. ^^
Scanning manga... (Score:4, Interesting)
1. The manga industry is being outsourced. I don't know much about this, but it might be a good idea to keep an eye on this issue.
2. Manga on the internet is often fan-translated. This is usually a good thing, as often the fans have more respect for a direct translation, rather than throwing out any cultural jokes that wouldn't apply overseas.
3. Try to get manga for a good price. Manga is sold at ridiculously inflated prices in the U.S., so if you can, try to get a better deal.
That being said, it's also a lot of fun to actually buy the manga. There's something quite charismatic about sitting on the bus with a thick little comic book.
Still, if one walks into a Borders or Barnes and Noble, they'll find a large section devoted to manga, so the good thing is it's becoming more available.
Oh, and I would like to second the honorable mention of Naruto. I'm currently reading it, and it's a really great series, both the anime and the manga. I highly suggest it.
Re:IP Theft != Open Source (Score:5, Interesting)
In my case, a friend actually bought the Japanese version of the manga from Japan, and since there is no English version I am translating it for him. I do not feel that this constitutes theft, as the original authors got paid for their work, and the original work is not being incorporated into new work. Unless Japanese counts as a form of 'encryption' under the DMCA, scripts should be fine.
Also, you should know better than to use the term 'theft' for copyright infringement on Slashdot
A Manga Introduction to the Japanese Economy? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I just don't get it... (Score:3, Interesting)
Samizdat (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I absolutely love it! (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that parallels the music industry these days: I can listen to tons of music (for free, of course) on the internet. And when I find something I really love, I can purchase that album and see the band live, something I never would have done without having heard the music beforehand.
I hope that's something that we'll see more of from here on out: people being able to peruse the massive amounts of media that the world's societies produce and put they're money into something they really enjoy, and not just a bunch of mass-marketed crap.
similar to video game translations (Score:3, Interesting)
This sounds similar in spirit to what emulator and video game fans have been doing for years, only the video game translations are legal.
In the post-Atari era (but before the PSX started making it big), an American-made video game was a rare and often horrible occurance. The only way the video games got translated for release over here was if the company thought that it would make a profit on the game and if it fit an "American" audience, which excluded almost all role-playing games.
Once emulation of the SNES became feasible, dedicated bi-lingual fans began translating the games by themselves or in teams and provided binary patches against the non-translated versions of the ROMs. This can't be compared in any way to open source, as another poster compared the translated manga, because almost none of the translators ever released any of the tools or documents that they used in the translation.
Video game translation is still a thriving community [zophar.net] today and is one of the best ways to experience some of the greatest games that never saw the light of day on these shores.
Re:Fandom: The Barbarians at the Gate (Score:3, Interesting)
I like manga as much as the next geek but it's just an entertainment medium used to sell other merchandise.
Re:Scanlations (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyway, within hours of the editing being announced, anime and manga message boards (and the email boxes of everyone related to Del Rey's manga division) were flooded with screaming and bitching and moaning about their treatment of the series. Within a week, they caved in and agreed to release the book unedited (but shrink-wrapped and with a warning sticker). The same sort of thing happened when Viz began editing the Dragonball manga so they could sell it in toy stores and whatnot (although it took several months for them to cave and reprint the books).
Re:Mainstream. (Score:3, Interesting)
My only problem is that girls who like manga generally annoy the shit out of me. In fact, they are surpassed on my anime shitlist only by guys who say "Kawaii," "Kiree" or "Oro."
Anime is generally a field full of annoyances and it's something everybody will eventually grow out of for that reason. I'm selling my dozens of anime DVDs on half.com...$10 a pop if you're interested...
Re:Fandom: The Barbarians at the Gate (Score:1, Interesting)
"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,"...
Can be paraphrased as
"Note: Of course I'M err YOU'RE not doing anything wrong. It's everyone else that sucks. I'M imean YOU'RE just mellow and cool but everyone else has a bug up their ass."
Fads move from edgy to mainstream to passe to retro like the tides. Sure it's a bummer to see someone you think is dorky lowering the intellectual property value of your fad neighborhood by moving in and putting his dork-assed car up on blocks in his yard right on manga-main-street. But what are you gonna do? You never could judge a book by it's cover, and you still can't. Trying to judge people based on if they are taking part in Fad X can be handy intellectual shorthand, but is ultimately inaccurate.
The writer becomes the thing he hates at the end of his post: making fun of Neon Genesis Evangelion fans. He might as well utter his own catch-phrase "You're into that?! How can you be into that?!"
The bleeding edge of culture is a moving target. Human nature is to be pleased when that target sweeps past your interest and you find yourself ahead of the curve for a bit. I guess it's also human nature to be dissapointed when culture moves on. But a grown up learns to cope, and realizes that his hobby is like any other that is worthwhile - pursued by cool people and suckers alike.