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Copyright and Scanlators

Japan Today has an article about a new move by a Japanese publisher to try to forestall the plauge of “illegal replicas”:

Shogakukan Inc, in a rare move as a Japanese publisher, has started to allow people in the United States to read English versions of ‘‘manga’’ comic stories on the Internet at the same time as it publishes the original printed versions in Japan. The quick distribution of the ‘‘authorized’’ English version is aimed at discouraging wrongdoers from making illegal replicas of Japanese comics mainly in the United States and Europe, the publishing house said.

If you don’t know what “scanlators” are, read the comments. They are enlightening. Especially this comment by Azrael:

Scanlators are fans doing translations on a voluntary basis, and as such they make the best translations they can. Their English phrasing makes sense, for one. Also the idiomatic expressions utilized as equivalents of those in Japanese come close more than enough. In summary, the Japanese companies neglected the overseas market and lost it. Perhaps they didn’t realize on time such a market existed, but that is hard to believe considering geisha, Fuji-san and manga are the prevalent image of Japan overseas.

I think the companies will need to find another approach if they want people to switch their manga-reading habits… but it’s a situation similar to that of movies and music. Movies for example – it’s incredible how fans extract the subs of a movie from the DVD and translate them to another language where no official subs are available just to share it. Worse even when there is no subs and the people type them themselves, then translate them. Translating manga is a WHOLE LOT of work. Why don’t these Japanese companies approach the scanlation staff and offer them a job? Their quality of translation is professional. If you can’t stop them, invite them to join you! I think that would make more sense. I admit though there is a very large crowd, it’d be impossible to hire them all. Anyway, it’s just an idea.

There has been a lively debate on the whole topic of copyright and intellectual property rights over at the Ludwig von Mises website. One place to start is this post on Boldrin and Levine’s book “Against Intellectual Monopoly” and the ensuing discussion.

I was so intrigued by these posts and the comments, that I bought the book. I started it but then the school term began…

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