I understand where Chris is coming from in that he has to stand there behind the register and listen to d-bags tell you to your face that they're taking money out of your pocket, and that's a frustration that I couldn't deal with.
And I'm totally in agreement that people who steal copyrighted work online should not be complaining about some other guy stealing artwork for his comics.
But not everybody complaining about Nick Simmons is a scanlatin' jagoff. Me, for instance. I think I've looked at CANDY CANDY scans online, and.. um... hell, I have a Black Jack story that a friend translated 20 years ago that I was tempted to post online, before, you know, Viz and Vertical saved me the trouble.
The fascinating part of the scanlation issue is that it's something anime fandom has dealt with before, only in a different guise - there were industry organizations (J.A.I.L.E.D.) that attempted to fight bootlegs and unauthorized copying by, um, sending cease and desist letters to fan translators, there were fans who got sued for calling other fans "video pirates", there were endless debats about SM CDs and wall scrolls and you name it. And at the end of the day the fan organizations had to (a) set down guidelines and see that they were enforced, and (b) that was about it.
Because I am not Toei Animation Company's unpaid legal watchdog, and Interpol does not pay me to see that international copyrights are enforced. We're not cops. All we can do is see that the stuff that's sold at our shops or our conventions is as legit as we can determine, and the rest is up to the people who are actually being hurt by the pirates.
If scanlation sites are making money off of somebody's copyrighted material, then the copyright holders need to take action. Us shaking our fingers at the naughty people who download scanlations will not accomplish much.
no subject
And I'm totally in agreement that people who steal copyrighted work online should not be complaining about some other guy stealing artwork for his comics.
But not everybody complaining about Nick Simmons is a scanlatin' jagoff. Me, for instance. I think I've looked at CANDY CANDY scans online, and.. um... hell, I have a Black Jack story that a friend translated 20 years ago that I was tempted to post online, before, you know, Viz and Vertical saved me the trouble.
The fascinating part of the scanlation issue is that it's something anime fandom has dealt with before, only in a different guise - there were industry organizations (J.A.I.L.E.D.) that attempted to fight bootlegs and unauthorized copying by, um, sending cease and desist letters to fan translators, there were fans who got sued for calling other fans "video pirates", there were endless debats about SM CDs and wall scrolls and you name it. And at the end of the day the fan organizations had to (a) set down guidelines and see that they were enforced, and (b) that was about it.
Because I am not Toei Animation Company's unpaid legal watchdog, and Interpol does not pay me to see that international copyrights are enforced. We're not cops. All we can do is see that the stuff that's sold at our shops or our conventions is as legit as we can determine, and the rest is up to the people who are actually being hurt by the pirates.
If scanlation sites are making money off of somebody's copyrighted material, then the copyright holders need to take action. Us shaking our fingers at the naughty people who download scanlations will not accomplish much.