Manga Companies Form Anti-Piracy Coalition
Posted by admin on Friday Dec 3, 2010 Under narutoMost fans of Japanese media, like anime and manga, are aware of the illegal distribution of anime through fansubs. However, not all fans are aware of the rampant piracy effecting the sale of manga, or Japanese comics, in North America. Manga translations, called "scanlations," have been available online for years, but recently the manga industry has been taking financial hits because of it. And now these illegal scans aren’t just available through personal computers, but also as applications on smartphones. Not willing to take it quietly, it was announced June 8, 2010, that American manga publishers (VIZ Media, Tokyopop, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency and Yen Press) have teamed up with the 36 members of Japan’s Digital Comic Association to form an anti-piracy coalition.Anime Cosplay Costumes
The Manga Anti-Piracy Coalition is made up of dozens of manga publishers from both North America and Japan. The coalition states that it will begin taking "aggressive action" towards the manga pirates and host sites, seeking legal action against these groups. Already, 30 websites have been targeted for legal action.
Seeing the manga industry take action against the scanlation pirates will be emboldening to some manga fans, as they don’t want to see their part of the comic industry suffer too greatly. But many will be wondering what other changes the manga industry will be taking on, if anything new occurs.
While the creation of illegal smartphone and iPad applications can be seen as appalling, many manga fans will be curious as to when they will see a similar legal application for reading their favorite manga on this device. And of course, manga fans want to know when more of their favorite manga will be available Cosplay Shop online, for free. North American manga companies like Tokyopop offer the first chapter of many of their manga titles for free. VIZ Media has taken it further by offering full series for free on their SigIKKI and Shonen Sunday websites with manga like Vocaloid Cosplay and Cross Game.
The North American and Japanese manga companies are attacking one side of the issue by going after the manga pirates. However, many fans are still waiting for these same companies to come from the other side and get manga to the fans online.