frm HWZ...very good writing to this saga.....
Although this might not be absolutely relevant to the Odex saga, I
think the anime culture in Japan itself affects the attitudes of
the anime and manga industry towards copyrights.
As pointed out earlier, within the the anime and manga scene in
Japan, there are cosplayers and doujins writers. The same copyright
laws that apply to fansubs apply to the participants of these
classes of people as well. But this class of people (who are fans
of this anime culture) feed the passion and interests of the fans,
the very consumers who pay good money into this anime and manga
industry.
The industry feeds off these cosplayers and doujin writers, and
even go so faras to acknowledge and accept their presence - seen
through allowing their participation, printing and sale of these
doujins at manga fairs. To say nay to the fansubbers is to say nay
as well to these classes of people, and therefore the industry
players are wary not to exercise their rights absolutely to the
extent to kill off the very fans feeding their consumers.
To those in the know of the culture in Japan, these anime and manga
fans (otakus) are usually ostracised for their hobby. If you go for
karaoke with you Japanese boss, picking a popular pop song might
win you a raised eyebrow but picking an anime theme song kill your
career. It is like dirty hobby, in the eyes of the general public.
Shutting down on the fans who through cosplaying, fansubbing and
doujins win more fans over to the "dark side" is itself commercial
suicide.
But outside Japan, the attitudes towards anime and manga is
different. Maybe some people will feel it is childish to still read
"comics" and to watch "cartoons". Maybe some people will feel the
hentai or ero-games that are part and parcel of the culture is
distasteful and lewd. But because the fanbase outside of Japan is
so much smaller, likewise the negative attitudes towards the fans
are not as established or apparent. To this end, perhaps the
industry players may wish to enforce their copyrights, but the
question is to what end?
The way the industry works, as far as I know, is that the animation
companies profit through sales of licences for exclusive
distribution, licencing to television networks and use of their
works for advertisements. Where they are involved in sales of
media, it is usually within Japan itself and rarely overseas. The
same goes for manga; overseas sales usually only involve an
overseas distributor buying over the copyrights, translating the
manga and selling it. The reason is basically that Japan has the
highest concentration of Japanese speaking people in the world and
these industry players in Japan are only producing goods for the
Japanese speaking people. For everywhere else, they sell their
licence. So the question they have to ask themselves in enforcing
their copyrights overseas is "What benefit does it bring to
me?"
Fansubs, just like doujins and cosplayers, feed the hobbyist and
create an overseas culture for the goods these Japanese animating
companies are selling. Because they are interested in selling
licences for distribution, that the fact that there is fan base for
distribution promotes their licence. They are not selling the
medium (DVDs/VCDs) themselves to these overseas fans, they are only
selling the licences. It is for the distributors who purchase these
licences to worry about the fansubbers and downloaders. Thus, these
distributors have the shortend of the stick.
But why do people still buy when they can download? In part the
otaku culture is beyond just watching animes and knowing stuff
about it. It is a serious hobby. Just like collecting stamps, it is
not enough to just own a photocopy of a rare stamp. It is not
enough to own a computer graphic of a scan of a rare stamp. You
must own that stamp.
Likewise, otakus in Japan pour money for limited edition DVDs that
can cost several times more than the regular versions. People spend
thousands of yens on toy figurines that do nothing but collect
dust. And this culture is contagious enough to affect overseas
fans. To bring the point back to our little island, Odex if it is
failed in anything is the failure to promote this otaku culture in
Singapore. It has not produced quality DVDs, take part in fairs and
promote limited edition or special edition goods. Heck, they don't
even do a good job at subbing.
But I digress. The point I am trying to make is this: anime and
manga is not music, movies or computer games. It is a fantasy world
promoted and sustained by the fans through imitation in various
forms of the work they support. It is as likely that the industry
players would kill off fansubs as they would kill off they doujin
writers and the cosplayers. We're talking about a different
industry from Hollywood, it's a different kettle of fish.
http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=1704654&page=5
