Blog: Publish (Online) or Perish: The Bullet Manga and Comics Have To Bite (Or Else)

[GWOtaku]

Last week, news broke of a major alliance between Japanese and U.S. companies to shut down major manga scanlation websites. Today on the blog, Karl Olson considers how legitimate digital distribution could render piracy truly irrelevant--and possibly pose a challenge to publishers if they're not careful.


Recently, an alliance of Japanese and American manga publishers announced a crackdown on various manga scanlation sites. This news itself comes hot on the heels of some shocking revelations about said piracy sites. First off, some of them are so popular as to place in the top 1000 googled sites on the internet. Even more damningly, these sites are not only profitable, they are being run with an eye towards being sold off, and for no small amount of cash. This isn't the Crunchyroll model of going legit, but almost something like industry blackmail: pay up or put up with it.

There are fortunately two legitimate alternatives for the manga industry. The two major parties - the pirate sites and the publishers - are going to hate both.
Read more! (http://www.toonzone.net/blog/blogs/238/publish-online-or-parish-the-bullet-manga-and-comics-have-to-bite-or-else./)

[Shawn Hopkins]

It's a good column. Don't agree with all of it, but at least everything is thought out and well-stated.

There's no rule that says comic books have to be published on dead trees. This is just an eventuality and the first companies to go for it are going to have the advantage of a head start.

The big sadness is that most American comic creators, all but the biggest names like Millar, are going to get completely screwed on the deal. I doubt many of their royalty plans include any provision for digital content and they don't have a strong union like the Screenwriter's Guild of America to fight for it. Their existing content will be reprinted online and they'll get nothing or next to nothing.

I think Karl's Hulu for comics idea would be more convenient for the customers, but it's a lot more likely that each company will have its own Web site. Or at least the Web site will exist at the same time as the Hulu, like most TV channels do now. Companies like control.

Same reason I don't think "crowdsourcing" translations will work, they want to be able to control the message and they don't want a bunch of fans doing things like inserting a lot of extra curse words into a work the way some early Dragon Ball Z subbers did. That incident gave an impression about Dragon Ball and its "adultness" that still lingers to this day despite all of the official translations. They might also want to censor or rework something to target a specific audience, they don't want the original out there to dilute the brand.

And self-publishing online is something more indie comics creators should take advantage of. Colleen Doran, one of the more high profile victims of htmlcomics.com, a site recently shut down by authorities, was especially incensed because she already was offering her work in an online format through her Web site. There was no difference to the consumer except that if they viewed it at her site she got paid, if they stole it from htmlcomics.com she got screwed.

But I dont' think the big companies will go away. Big companies have more resources. They control a hundred years worth of intellectual property. A corporation can push a character to a level further than a single creator can, even with democratization of the Web. It'll still be indie versus corporate.

Finally, this is not the era of free comics. They're going to charge. Even ad-based models eventually come out of your wallet. The companies don't eat advertising costs, they pass them along to you by raising the costs of the name brand products the ads convince you to buy. You pay to be advertised to almost every time you buy something.

I don't know about merchandising being enough to support an indie, either. As a personal confession, I block all ads and scripts and I've never bought merchandise off any of the sites I frequent in my life. I feel bad about blocking ads and scripts, I'd like to give them the views, but I have to for security reasons.

One thing Karl didn't get to mention is that Penny Arcade also makes money through "advertorial" content, that is, comic strips that are just clever ads for games. That's something creators are going to have to go toward if people keep blocking ads in all media, they'll keep weaving it more inextricably into the content until you can't tell the difference anymore. That's something William Gibson predicted in his novel "Virtual Light" and it's well on its way.

[GWOtaku]

One thing I'd throw out there is that I think the industry's crackdown is, can be, and will be very potent. To me, Open Manga's existence is either a result of some people having the foresight to see the writing on the wall or a rushed reaction to last week's news. After all the project is a spin-off of what used to be a hosting site, and the news came out the same week as the industry alliance was announced. The timing was way too opportune to be a coincidence. At the very least, I think the site was definitely announced earlier than intended to avoid legal problems. At any rate, is it the sort of concept that probably would have been tried eventually by someone? I'd agree the answer is probably yes.

Meanwhile, when some aggregator websites went so far as to scan official books, that really was the rallying call for the industry to actually make a serious effort to assert its rights for a change. Piracy will never fully die and suppressing it may not be the magic bullet to improve the industry's situation, but destroying the aggregators will go a long way to forcing it underground. It also eliminates "competition" to legitimate alternatives that could come in the future. So yeah, I think the industry is protecting its business in both theory and practice.

I think publishers are more likely to offer their own digital services than they are to sign onto a project like Open Manga, though I could be proven wrong soon. Take online streaming for anime--it's supported by advertising, but the revenue from that is currently nowhere near enough to be a significant business on its own. There might be money in it in time, but it's not there today. So yeah, something like the "99 cent an issue / 5 dollar a month / 40 dollar a year" idea that Karl talks about strikes me as the realistic business model in the short term. Delivering comics to fans ASAP is great, but the publishers also have to eat. Marvel's digital comics service is not what it could be, but the price is certainly right ($60 for a year's access to a veritable library). Unfortunately, offering consumers the latest stuff is not something it's good about AFAIK, and most companies haven't even gone as far as Marvel yet. The Japanese companies take a lot of flack for not adjusting to the times, but in addition to the Indie comics even **DC** hasn't gone digital. Everybody definitely has a ways to go.

Open Manga may not be proven irrelevant though, even if the companies get it together. Even if the big players don't participate, it'd be a good thing if even the occasional artist gets noticed and picked up that might have been overlooked by the U.S. publishers otherwise.

[Sparticus]

Yes. This.


One thing I'd throw out there is that I think the industry's crackdown is, can be, and will be very potent. To me, Open Manga's existence is either a result of some people having the foresight to see the writing on the wall or a rushed reaction to last week's news. After all the project is a spin-off of what used to be a hosting site, and the news came out the same week as the industry alliance was announced. The timing was way too opportune to be a coincidence. At the very least, I think the site was definitely announced earlier than intended to avoid legal problems. At any rate, is it the sort of concept that probably would have been tried eventually by someone? I'd agree the answer is probably yes.

Actually, some stuff was leaked about this time last year. There was a lot of wank about MH selling out, and wanting a piece of Crunchyrolls pie and stuff like that, so this has definitely been on the books for a while. There was an update earlier to clarify that Open Manga is a separate entity that was spawned by some MH people. I think starting to launch it now was intentional though.

I'm curious to see if they're gonna keep it mostly manga, or open it up as a massive webcomic conglomerate site - a one stop comic shop, if you will. THAT would be awesome, IMO.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Open Manga may attract a few independent, probably mostly American, manga creators, but it will never have the backing of any major publishers. As a former pirate site there's no way the publishers will trust them, they'll laugh in their faces the same way they did to the htmlcomics guy and his blackmail scheme. Would you trust a chop shop if they came to you and said, hey, we're getting out of selling hot cars because there's too much heat, how would you like to invest in our legitimate auto parts business?

If they do anything like this they'll start their own enterprise that they can control. The pirates have burned their bridges, there's no reason for the publishers to work with them when they can do it all on their own and keep control of it.

[garfield15]

Open Manga may attract a few independent, probably mostly American, manga creators, but it will never have the backing of any major publishers. As a former pirate site there's no way the publishers will trust them, they'll laugh in their faces the same way they did to the htmlcomics guy and his blackmail scheme. Would you trust a chop shop if they came to you and said, hey, we're getting out of selling hot cars because there's too much heat, how would you like to invest in our legitimate auto parts business?

Actually, ever since CR went legit, I figure anything can happen.

[Radiant]

Open Manga may attract a few independent, probably mostly American, manga creators, but it will never have the backing of any major publishers. As a former pirate site there's no way the publishers will trust them, they'll laugh in their faces the same way they did to the htmlcomics guy and his blackmail scheme. Would you trust a chop shop if they came to you and said, hey, we're getting out of selling hot cars because there's too much heat, how would you like to invest in our legitimate auto parts business?

If they do anything like this they'll start their own enterprise that they can control.

While I agree with you for the most part, look what happened with Crunchy Roll.

Anyway I really hope this Open Manga site works to eventually get a lot of more obscure titles up, that's what I want from it.

The big manga titles like One Piece will not be on this site, though. The big companies just quite simply wouldn't let scanlation groups handle the translations, whether the majority wants that or not. Crunchy Roll doesn't even do the subs for Naruto or Bleach, VIZ media does.

I think that hoping we can eliminate or set aside the publishing companies is a bit of a pipe dream at this point. Eventually when they do start moving the titles digitally they will still be done by the official companies, I can guarantee that.

[Sparticus]

Open Manga may attract a few independent, probably mostly American, manga creators, but it will never have the backing of any major publishers. As a former pirate site there's no way the publishers will trust them, they'll laugh in their faces the same way they did to the htmlcomics guy and his blackmail scheme. Would you trust a chop shop if they came to you and said, hey, we're getting out of selling hot cars because there's too much heat, how would you like to invest in our legitimate auto parts business?

If they do anything like this they'll start their own enterprise that they can control. The pirates have burned their bridges, there's no reason for the publishers to work with them when they can do it all on their own and keep control of it.

This is a little different. Obviously a chop shot going legit won't get any backers, but this was a matter of technology and failing to utilize it. The publishing industry's been as slow and dense as the rest of the entertainment world when it comes to the internet. They had an opportunity to cash in on this newfangled form of publishing before piracy could become rampant and they IGNORED it. Worse yet, they didn't think anyone would make use of it.

I feel bad for the artists, but the industry? No way. They had their chance, they have another chance now if they play their cards right as Crunchyroll has proven; but if they don't, the whole thing's gonna crumble.

Now that I think about it, I doubt the big publishers would put their stuff on Open Manga, even after watching it for a year or so to see how it does. It'll probably stay an indie paradise. Crunchyroll DID host manga at one point though, and the anime industry already has a working relationship with them, so it's not a big stretch to see the publishing companies hopping on board. CR may very well become THE place for Japanese media outside Japan.

[Shawn Hopkins]

This is a little different. Obviously a chop shot going legit won't get any backers, but this was a matter of technology and failing to utilize it. The publishing industry's been as slow and dense as the rest of the entertainment world when it comes to the internet. They had an opportunity to cash in on this newfangled form of publishing before piracy could become rampant and they IGNORED it. Worse yet, they didn't think anyone would make use of it.



No, it's not. This excuse is always used to justify piracy and it never holds water. It doesn't matter how much you don't like what a company is doing with content it owns or how poorly it's using it or how bad it's failing to get it out there or how clueless it is when it comes to taking advantage of new technologies, it's still not yours to take.

[Karl Olson]

Open Manga may attract a few independent, probably mostly American, manga creators, but it will never have the backing of any major publishers. As a former pirate site there's no way the publishers will trust them, they'll laugh in their faces the same way they did to the htmlcomics guy and his blackmail scheme. Would you trust a chop shop if they came to you and said, hey, we're getting out of selling hot cars because there's too much heat, how would you like to invest in our legitimate auto parts business?

If they do anything like this they'll start their own enterprise that they can control. The pirates have burned their bridges, there's no reason for the publishers to work with them when they can do it all on their own and keep control of it.

Sadly perhaps, the dirty roots of these sites will stop nothing.

CrunchyRoll. Huge pirates, went legit as per their business plan, and did so well with the transition that Funimation is emulating CR's business model, and getting just streaming rights for certain shows and doing fast turnaround streaming, likely using that to gage what they'll pay and if they'll pay for hardcopy rights. YouTube is now viewed as an essential part of musician promotion by the major labels since Mtv doesn't run music videos, but they were almost bought down by the labels at one point. No one would have called any of this at the time, but it came together.

Also, don't forget that for every commercially published manga-ka, their are countless doujinshi (self-published) artists in Japan that would jump at the chance to get an international audience with subsidized/free localization, while tapping previously non-existent monetization. They go from making no international money from their doujinshi to making something. This may even include certain professionals who are constantly thwarted from publishing the titles they'd like to do commercially so they have to self-publish them anyway. Ken Akamatsu, for example, has had ideas shot down by his publisher that he could now self-publish and monetize internationally. He's not alone in that problem either.


No, it's not. This excuse is always used to justify piracy and it never holds water. It doesn't matter how much you don't like what a company is doing with content it owns or how poorly it's using it or how bad it's failing to get it out there or how clueless it is when it comes to taking advantage of new technologies, it's still not yours to take.

Even when people don't pirate it, they often still stop consuming it if it's not available in a relevant format. People aren't learning Japanese and importing titles if they aren't otherwise available, they are dropping the titles all together. People don't go and buy title-X in Japanese if it's not translated legally or illegally. If someone is all about e-books, and the title isn't available as an e-book, there is a good chance they aren't going to settle for less. I've even seen the inverse. I have a few friends who refuse to buy anything not in hardcover, and they don't pirate in that absence. They look at other titles or spent that money on different entertainment.

So, if the people weren't reading online, there is a strong chance they wouldn't be reading it at all. I know people who haven't discovered manga via these sites, and they were friends of mine who I'd tried to hook previous by lending copies out to. The format didn't fit, and I didn't have the variety they were looking for. Now, they'd probably pay a monthly fee for that access without even thinking about it, as they already blow money on ringtones and stuff, but they don't do books.

I essentially agree with you - it's not yours to take, but they were leaving money on the table. The market has the chance to grow it's audience, and it's piracy that's pointed out. Heck, self-publishing pointed that out, but that didn't make the point clearly enough.

[Sparticus]

No, it's not. This excuse is always used to justify piracy and it never holds water. It doesn't matter how much you don't like what a company is doing with content it owns or how poorly it's using it or how bad it's failing to get it out there or how clueless it is when it comes to taking advantage of new technologies, it's still not yours to take.

Pretty much what Karl said. It doesn't justify piracy by any means, but the publishing companies still missed the boat.

[Oddone]

Y'know what?

I think we have to change the whole way we think about this stuff. I think content creators have to move into spaces where people are *used* to paying and use them as their primary means of distribution.

I'm mainly talking about cellphones and other portable devices. With the Ipad out now and Google working on a tablet friendly version of Android for release with about two dozen tablets near the end of this year, I think a lot of companies could stand to get their libraries up on reader devices with simple app-based stores(Or on official channels like ibooks or kindle or whatever) and sell that way.

It's kind of amazing to see how willing people are to bend their minds back around from piracy to legitimate sales when you raise the bars of entry(You have to jailbreak/root a device, find illegal copies of stuff, etc.). If(And it's a *big* if!) they can keep a lid on other forms of distribution that aren't sanctioned by them, who knows what could happen.

Of course...that'll take time. A lot of time. I still think tablets are too expensive, as are e-readers. But color e-readers are coming next year, and that means black and white ones will start going for dirt cheap.

Think about it: all the manga you know and love are black and white. If these companies can wait, organize, and get out there to sell to a nice, less eye-straining format on a simple to use device at a reasonable price with, say, the free 3G downloading you get with Kindle and Nook...something interesting could happen. It could be a third way.

But in either scenario you'd still have online to deal with. With that? Yeah, I'd be more inclined to use a few of the ideas pointed out in the first option of the blog post, combined with...I don't know. People's habits need to be changed, but these habits have such a strong, simple rewards system...and even when it's available people will still download and read at their preferred site...I know people who do that with legal Anime Releases online.

I do think pirates need to be shut down, but I also think that publishers need to do something big to answer the seemingly huge demand for their content in an electronic format. It's so hard to make money with content online, though...you almost always have to have a secondary source of income, or have something so special(or illicit!) that you can put it behind a paywall. The internet just makes anything based on ideas hard to control, I'm not sure there's a real way out of this in the near term.

I'll definitely be keeping Open Manga on my radar. There are all sorts of new legal distributors with different ideas showing up in this space, it'll be quite a show to watch for some time to come.

Excellent post, thank you.

[Karl Olson]

There is this myth it's impossible to make money online, because for about half-a-decade it was sorta true. However, people are used to micropayments and subscriptions, most people don't block ads, the 1980s and onward have produced generations totally okay with apartments that look like a 10-year-old's bedroom, and those people are ok with a similarly logo covered wardrobe. Are you going to have a billionaire CEO at the head of this stuff any more? No. But you can give it all away and make a living off merch and ads, and occasionally, you'll even tap those who fetish the hardcopy the way audiophiles persue vinyl records. You'll only do so if you have a quality product, but amazingly, the memetic flow of the internet allows good comics to be recognized fast. One memetic comic can create permanent fans out of 1000s overnight, and if that comic gets put on a shirt or a poster, you'll make direct money from your art.

I say this as someone who is close friends with independent musicians and comic artists. They'll be the first to tell you they pay the bills by selling shirts. Any books or CDs sold on top is a bonus to the shirt business. It's why the music business cuts 360 contracts these days - the endorsements, the tour merch, the ringtones and all that stuff is where the real money is. Even to Universal Records, mp3 and CD sales are quickly becoming the icing on the cake, not the cake-mix.

And, I do put forth the ebook idea in the article, but briefly because it's a secondary issue. While you'll get subscriptions and micropayments, you'll only do so with variety, a united platform and a freeium model where you can hook people, then charge for the goodies.

Like CrunchyRoll is already doing. Like the radio is to CDs and iTunes. Like TV is to DVDs, Blu-Ray, Netflix and so on. Heck, countless MMOs and games support themselves with just that model. Free basics, pay for goodies. Goodies with comics/manga can be priority access, it can be pdfs, it can be higher rez content, it can be extensive translator notes, it could even be to the back catalog.

The comic industry and manga industry have to get on this train, because at this rate, they are the only hold out, and more so than any other industry, the barrier to independent monetization is crazy low, making the threat of lost talent, and thus compounded lost sales more pressing for comic than any other medium.

[Sparticus]

I called it! http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-06-15/e-book-pub-bitway-invests-us$750000-in-crunchyroll

Bitway's investing in Crunchyroll to launch a manga platform.

[Karl Olson]

I called it! http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-06-15/e-book-pub-bitway-invests-us$750000-in-crunchyroll

Bitway's investing in Crunchyroll to launch a manga platform.

Well, CR already has translators and lawyers who can put up with the legal nightmare that is Japanese business. The question is, does this light a fire under publishers like CR did for the US Anime market, or do we see CR dominate the manga space since the publishers are a bit slow and a bit battered?

[wonderfly]

Well, at least one American comic book publisher has the guts to go digital (and not just through the iphone or ipad):

Boom! Studios is putting it's entire back catalog available for online distribution!!! (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/boom-studios-digital-plans-100615.html)

[TheVileOne]

If the big publishers aren't going to join the 21st century they are going to continue to suffer the consequences.

Why do they even need to use other websites? Why can't they just do this themselves? The major TV networks have streaming episodes of their shows on their websites.

Once again, this is the future right now. It's in Ipads, laptops, macbooks, Iphones, smartphones, etc.

Why are companies staying in the stoneage?

They don't like it yet they REFUSE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Stop whining and complaining. Make legitimate ad supported online content. Set up a cheap or subscription service or whatever.


This is a little different. Obviously a chop shot going legit won't get any backers, but this was a matter of technology and failing to utilize it. The publishing industry's been as slow and dense as the rest of the entertainment world when it comes to the internet. They had an opportunity to cash in on this newfangled form of publishing before piracy could become rampant and they IGNORED it. Worse yet, they didn't think anyone would make use of it.

Napster went legit and no one complained about it.


No, it's not. This excuse is always used to justify piracy and it never holds water. It doesn't matter how much you don't like what a company is doing with content it owns or how poorly it's using it or how bad it's failing to get it out there or how clueless it is when it comes to taking advantage of new technologies, it's still not yours to take.



People in the industry called VCRS theft when they were being made at first. I'm not saying it's the same, but people in the industry complained and called the new technology theft. But what did the entertainment industry do? They simply turned it into a new market and way to make money. The same logic follows here. The industry needs to get with the program and turn this into a revenue stream rather than just complaining about it and trying to shut everyone down. By doing it themselves and making it legit and ad-supported they curb the need for scanlation/piracy sites to exist.

And it might be self-defeating you can never shut this stuff down completely. And once its out there, its out. It can never go away with the internet. I'm not saying this as a justification, but I'm saying why the industry is failing at getting with the program while the getting is good. There wouldn't be piracy if the industry simply set these benchmarks and technological uses themselves.

[Shawn Hopkins]

These "There wouldn't be piracy if ..." arguments just aren't true and they kind of smack of the same tired "you made me steal" justifications. Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo and Steam have wonderful, easy to use systems for delivering digital content to users, but I've seen people trying to pirate that stuff. People still steal music and movies and software even though there are many legal and easy to use options for getting them digitally. No, as long as it's possible to steal it and get it for free without much chance of getting caught, a lot of people are going to keep doing that.

[Ed Liu]

Napster went legit and no one complained about it.

Well, no, but nobody's using it, either, compared to the other services or its peak when it wasn't legit. Your point is still valid, though.


No, as long as it's possible to steal it and get it for free without much chance of getting caught, a lot of people are going to keep doing that.
While that's probably (depressingly) true, it's also not the whole story, nor is it what I think TheVileOne was getting at. The iTunes music store proved that you could compete just fine with free as long as you were 1) cheap, 2) convenient, and 3) reasonable in your restrictions. For some reason, nobody else anywhere in the media industry wants to learn this lesson. I question whether the music industry really learned that lesson. Their insistence that I didn't REALLY want to own my music collection when I could rent it from them for a perpetual monthly fee seemed to demonstrate that to me perfectly.

There will be people who will steal because their ideal price for anything is free. You will never get those people to buy into any service where the price is higher than zero, but they're not the ones who the industry should be aiming for with these services. You want the casual pirates, who steal because it's convenient and they don't think they're harming anyone, but will use the legitimate service as long as it's cheap, convenient, and reasonable. The problem, I think, is that the industry still doesn't believe that this latter category exists, or that they far outnumber the hardcore pirates. Part of THAT problem is that their services violate one or more of the "cheap, convenient, and reasonable" terms, and they use their failure as a justification that "nobody wants online except to steal it."

[Shawn Hopkins]

While that's probably (depressingly) true, it's also not the whole story, nor is it what I think TheVileOne was getting at. The iTunes music store proved that you could compete just fine with free as long as you were 1) cheap, 2) convenient, and 3) reasonable in your restrictions. For some reason, nobody else anywhere in the media industry wants to learn this lesson. I question whether the music industry really learned that lesson. Their insistence that I didn't REALLY want to own my music collection when I could rent it from them for a perpetual monthly fee seemed to demonstrate that to me perfectly.

There will be people who will steal because their ideal price for anything is free. You will never get those people to buy into any service where the price is higher than zero, but they're not the ones who the industry should be aiming for with these services. You want the casual pirates, who steal because it's convenient and they don't think they're harming anyone, but will use the legitimate service as long as it's cheap, convenient, and reasonable. The problem, I think, is that the industry still doesn't believe that this latter category exists, or that they far outnumber the hardcore pirates. Part of THAT problem is that their services violate one or more of the "cheap, convenient, and reasonable" terms, and they use their failure as a justification that "nobody wants online except to steal it."

Good points. It has been proven people will buy digital content, in addition to iTunes the video game content I listed has also been very successful. Seriously, if everyone was determined to pirate the Virtual Console would have been an abject failure, because it's easy to spend five minute Googling and get an NES ROM and emulator free. So there are some people who will pay for it if you make it easy and reasonable, and I agree that using piracy as an excuse to not start or to explain the failure of your own legitimate online distribution system is dumb.

I was just disagreeing with the idea that starting one would completely eliminate piracy. Not even if they had gotten into it at the dawn of the Internet. Some people are still going to get it for free as long as they can.

[Karl Olson]

I was just disagreeing with the idea that starting one would completely eliminate piracy. Not even if they had gotten into it at the dawn of the Internet. Some people are still going to get it for free as long as they can.

It probably would have suppressed it to the point where it wouldn't have strayed far from newsgroups and IRC. Yes, you'd get some degree of file sharing still, but the door was left wide open, and they let the problem ride until it was an epidemic. They let the idea that is "information is free" fly around almost a half-decade without serious, modern counterattacks. They didn't innovate, they sued, and without Apple, they'd probably still be clinging to the old model, and be in serious financial trouble for having done so.

The comic/manga industry has less excuse for not getting their act together on this because their product is easier to distribute digitally than almost anything else besides books, and they've had the examples of the music industry, the movie/tv industry and even the traditional publishing industry to follow. The pattern of what happens when you don't out run the consumer was already obvious.

[Shawn Hopkins]

It probably would have suppressed it to the point where it wouldn't have strayed far from newsgroups and IRC. Yes, you'd get some degree of file sharing still, but the door was left wide open, and they let the problem ride until it was an epidemic. They let the idea that is "information is free" fly around almost a half-decade without serious, modern counterattacks. They didn't innovate, they sued, and without Apple, they'd probably still be clinging to the old model, and be in serious financial trouble for having done so.

The comic/manga industry has less excuse for not getting their act together on this because their product is easier to distribute digitally than almost anything else besides books, and they've had the examples of the music industry, the movie/tv industry and even the traditional publishing industry to follow. The pattern of what happens when you don't out run the consumer was already obvious.

I don't really think the product is easier to distribute. Well, I guess it's more accurate to say it's more difficult to consume digitally. I hate reading comics on a computer and can only tolerate it for something like a quick Web comic. And it's not just me, that's a common complaint. The rise of the E-Reader might take away that hurdle, though.

Edit: Here's on reason why it might be better for publishers and selfpublishers to release comics through their own outlets rather than trying to put them out through some kind of hub site or major online store. Censorship. The creators of a Ulysses comic book adaptation had to fight to get their comic book on Apple's service uncensored. It's like the 1920s all over again.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/061610-apple-says-sorry-over-comic.html?hpg1=bn

Yeah, they reversed their decision in this one case, but only after the media jumped on it and they still have censorship standards. By publishing things on your own you sidestep these issues altogether.

[Karl Olson]

I don't really think the product is easier to distribute. Well, I guess it's more accurate to say it's more difficult to consume digitally. I hate reading comics on a computer and can only tolerate it for something like a quick Web comic. And it's not just me, that's a common complaint. The rise of the E-Reader might take away that hurdle, though.

Can't be that common a complaint if consumption of material via the computer screen was enough to warrant immediate legal action, and get into the top visited sites on google. A whole lot of people must not have that issue. Also, manga, being black and white normally anyway, and much more prone to piracy damage do to lead time between Japanese and US release, could be on e-readers now. Otaku tend to be pro-gadget as well, so the kindle or the nook suddenly had access to a manga library, you'd sell a lot of people quickly.

Consumption habits aside, it's cheaper to put out something digitally than in hardcopy. The biggest single cost at most publishers is paper, and that removes that cost, and the biggest single piece of lead time is printing, and that removes that problem. It is easier for publishers, and clearly there is an audience for it. It's not to say hardcopy doesn't have a place, but it's clear digital has one.


Edit: Here's on reason why it might be better for publishers and selfpublishers to release comics through their own outlets rather than trying to put them out through some kind of hub site or major online store. Censorship. The creators of a Ulysses comic book adaptation had to fight to get their comic book on Apple's service uncensored. It's like the 1920s all over again.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/061610-apple-says-sorry-over-comic.html?hpg1=bn

Yeah, they reversed their decision in this one case, but only after the media jumped on it and they still have censorship standards. By publishing things on your own you sidestep these issues altogether.

Application that then pulls content could go to the app store, or work with a different e-publisher already cleared for the app store. There is Kindle for Apple's iOS platform (IE: iPhone and iPad,) and Amazon doesn't have a standards gestapo like Apple. Ditto Barnes and Noble. Not to mention the flood of Android tablets and e-readers set to hit by year's end, and Google doesn't really care much at all what goes out through their store. Or have it be a website, like the CrunchyRoll and OpenManga offerings will be, and that's then compatible with everything (as long as it's not flash.)

Thing is, most these guys aren't even selling PDFs at list through their own website, which any half-decent web programmer could implement in a day, and in the cases of the major publishers, wouldn't even run into having to get clearance from artists since in most cases they hold the copyright lock, stock and barrel.

[TheVileOne]

Good points. It has been proven people will buy digital content, in addition to iTunes the video game content I listed has also been very successful. Seriously, if everyone was determined to pirate the Virtual Console would have been an abject failure, because it's easy to spend five minute Googling and get an NES ROM and emulator free. So there are some people who will pay for it if you make it easy and reasonable, and I agree that using piracy as an excuse to not start or to explain the failure of your own legitimate online distribution system is dumb.

I was just disagreeing with the idea that starting one would completely eliminate piracy. Not even if they had gotten into it at the dawn of the Internet. Some people are still going to get it for free as long as they can.

The idea is to be proactive instead of complaining and pointing fingers and whining about losing money. Piracy and theft will always exist, but they could've lessened the problem had the industry been more proactive.