Shonen Jump has published an editorial threatening those who illegally copy its manga on the Internet with legal or criminal sanctions, and decrying all who would “wound the souls of mangaka.”
The statement, which studiously avoids mentioning the putative effect on manga sales such illegal distribution has in favour of concentrating on the supposed devastating impact on the sensitive feelings of mangaka:
To our readers,
The Internet is now overflowing with illegal copies of manga. All of these illegal copies run counter to the wishes of mangaka. They also ignore the wishes of the creator as to how the manga should be read.
It may be done without much thought, but in reality it hurts the mangaka who pour their creative talents into these works, and it is also against the law.
When we discover such illegal copies, we discuss possible measures with the mangaka concerned and try to tackle the problem, but there are so many heartless people around that it is just impossible for us to tackle them all.
This is a plea to our readers. Illicit copies of manga harm manga culture, infringe the rights of mangaka, and most importantly of all they deeply wound the souls of mangaka. Please also understand that it is illegal.
From now on Shueisha will, in collaboration with mangaka, deal more harshly with any illegal copies circulating on the Internet.
We hope we can count on the unchanging support of all our readers in this endeavour.
The Weekly Shonen Jump Editorial Staff
In Japan, most illicit scans of such works appear to circulate on encrypted P2P networks, traditionally a major obstacle to rightsholders seeking to battle infringer.
However, the Japanese police have been successful in reverse engineering the protocols used in developmentally stalled software like Winny and Share, even setting up a national P2P surveillance centre, so it seems Shueisha may join the ranks of companies already trying to stem the tide by having police arrest distributors and readers alike.
Whilst their concern over their copyright being violated so freely is understandable, it has to be said that major publishers have yet to make any credible effort to serve the needs of an emerging demographic of readers, both within Japan and outside it, who would rather read manga on a screen than squint at the badly printed dead tree version.
In fact their business model has remained unchanged for decades now, and confronted with plummeting sales those in the industry are concerned that manga is losing its creative edge – in the face of this Shueisha apparently instead intends to confront the wicked manga sharers in much the same way as the recording industry did a decade ago; just whether they will fail as spectacularly remains to be seen, but does seem extraordinarily likely.
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strange... i read it as "go away stupid gaijin! learn to read japanese and buy our original magazines!!" maybe its just me...
just like the music industry before, the higher up have yet to recognize the validity of electronic media and instead of trying new distribution methods, are just going to sue and beat down on pirating?
pretty fail gaiz.
Face it,..there is too much manga! Japanese draw day and night.I for one will never pay for manga.It is easier to download than to fill up my room with a hundreds of manga books.
Shueisha is the yakuza. Sorachi-sensei said so.
I want next game.
Is there really no legit online delivery service for manga? With licensed anime streams like ANN, Crunchyroll and Funimation, you'd think similar services for manga would be a no brainer. Hell, I would have expected online manga delivery to come BEFORE online anime. I don't condone stealing, but seriously, Shonen Jump needs to get on the ball and release ebook versions of their magazine.
oh man! this is bad! we dont do something. all people the world will stop reading manga for eternity.
only Japanese people only can read.
those users from youtube not supposed to upload video on chapters on any manga.
I read manga online but the ones i love i buy. for example one piece, reborn GTO, yubisaki milk tea.
I would also buy bitter virgin but no one would translate it so the only way for me to enjoy them is through the internet.
yeah like i have any patience to wait any manga to come overseas, and when it comes they already released a new volume. I'm not living in Japan yet
DRAMA!
I do buy all the manga I read, but it's only because I hate reading on the monitor.
But hey, way to generalize all the people who download their scan with crap like heartless, or whatever.
If it wasn't for P2P and scanlates, most of Shonen Jump works would be widely unknown through the world.
Also, maybe you should consider paying those "mangaka who pour their creative talents into these works" better if you're so worried about them, huh?
As for the profit, it's time for you to move on and find new ways of profiting from the industry.
P2P and file sharing won't stop, no matter how many dramatic letters, lawsuits or whatever you try to do.
So it's better just to deal with it, confront reality, and open your mind.
I buy the manga when it becomes available in South Africa i love manga and appreciat the art behind it and all the work the creater put into it but i still read it online but we also dont want manga to get to commmercial and poppular because when it becomes to poppular we are going to get manga and anime that tottaly alienates real manga fans when it becomes a fad whitch would kill the industrie could you stomach 90% of anime becoming like the tripe on tv that commes out of the USA and UK...
pardon my spelling as it may be a little shaby today
Better watch out, Nick Simmons.
Just wait till ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is passed anons; then the shit will really hit the fan
btw Artefact you should do a review of ACTA. i dont see any article on it on your site.
uselles...itt's all useslless
Maybe if they weren't so goddamn xhenophobic and release their crap worldwide pirating wouldn't happen in large scale.
What the hell. I mean, I like supporting the series I like when they're actually released here, because nothing compares to the sensation of owning the damn thing. But I live in Brazil, godamnit. Only a few manga are released here, and I have no other way to read the ones I really love. So screw it, I'll be the king of pirates!
Ah, yes, the age-old tactic of passing the blame. Two years from now they'll claim that they "tried" and "begged" the people to not pirate, and they'll engage the same useless tactics that have tried and failed miserably elsewhere. Then they'll claim they "tried" and "failed" and that it is necessary to turn it into a witch-hunt of epic proportions, because they're too damn lazy to get a clue and get with the times.
It's not hard, "mangaka", just try participating in the culture for a while, figure out what makes them tick, and come up with a simple business model that takes the communities, gives them the credit they desire for distribution and such, and rewards reader loyalty in some way. Why not actually try to do your jobs, publishers, rather than assuming you are right?
"hurts the mangaka", "heartless people", "plea", "deeply wound the souls of mangaka"
YARRRRR! MaTES! I be enjoying the tears of the weak while reading my online pirated manga!
Talk about conflicting messages. I'm not sure how they can take the Marine philosophy after publishing the recent One Piece arc...
You know, I would consider to stop reading/downloading manga's online if they would at least tell the damn truth:
"Hey guys, you all are being jerks for hurting my wallet by downloading this. Stop it. Kthxbye".
I mean, c'mon now, lines like:
"They also ignore the wishes of the creator as to how the manga should be read"
SERIOUSLY? I mean if it really isn't about the money, me as a mangaka would be damn please to know that there are bazillions of people reading my work all over the f***kin' globe.
I agree they need to tell it like it is and so do tne anime companies. Infact they need to get together with their respective governments and get tough on the pirates. We all know this stuff is wrong. STOP WASTING TIME STOP SUGARCOATING FACTS It's time for action!
maybe if they didn't make so many name and spelling and translation errors people would actually buy them more instead of reading fan translated internet ones!
do what you want because the pirate is free,you are a pirate!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzpByR3MvI
lol if i think this is part of the problem why it sounds so awesome.
wow what the fuck, way to sugarcoat their words. All they really saying is: We're losing money! Stop pirating please!
Yeah, but pirating isn't the only reason they're losing money.
Pirating of manga has occurred for over a decade and only now it's a problem because the entire industry is suffering to due a bad economy.
So Shueisha blames the pirates for the drop in sales when in reality it's because no one wants to spend money on manga due to a bad economy and crappy stories.
you will neveer be able to stop sky net
I still would like to buy the manga even if I read it online.
Or if I have alot of respect for reading the manga I wouldn't even dare to read it online in the first place.
i think the mangakas that are angry are ones that who's work isnt an anime, therefore no otaku is going to buy anime goods that are related to their works.
"Illicit copies of manga harm manga culture"
Are you kidding me? Manga and Japanese culture are booming right now, all thanks to internet and scanslations. If it weren't for that, people in EU and US would have no way to follow hundreds of interesting manga titles that hit us every year.
This people sure are retarded and its just more fun when the ones talking about big creativity and talent are fucking shonen jump.
But they definitely need a new system, a better system.
Perhaps they need someone like Steve Jobs, do for manga what he did to music with iTunes.
If Shounen Jump wants to eradicate manga piracy, then them must first change their logo =_=
Huh!? you serious? i think because you can read it online that manga become famous at global , hell even i started wanting to collect a few volume of manga because i have read it online.
Besides who can stop piracy nowdays anyway.
Dat face....
Exploitable!
"Wound the souls of mangaka" I was under the impression that what mangaka wanted was for people to read their work. Scanning it onto the internet would probably triple the amount of readers and make the artist more popular, gain a bigger fanbase and probably make more money.
what's wrong with Bleach? It's one of the greatest epics of all time.
I agree with that 100%
Right you are. The Publishers and mangaka reealy need to STOP WASTING TIME AND STOP SUGARCOATING THE FACTS: Manga is a BUSINESS! and these people need to make a living as well. They need to get MUCH TOUGHER with their words and they need to act much tougher on the piracy as well, same goes for anime, and yes I support the involvment of the countries repective Governments to clamp down on piracy of all kinds. Let's face it sometimes THE HARD WAY is the only way! Shame on all of you pirates who don't buy the manga. I hope you enjoy your robbing of manga ka. You'll pay for it, eventually
Go to hell, Marine.
So you saying that piracy is bad right? Basically that's true. But like would you want to discuss an anime when the heat of it is all over? And how about the fans that gets to read volume one of an ongoing manga but can't find the means to read the rest? This is the basis of scanlation and fansubbing. Unless those two are addressed this problem will forever remain.
Unless they solve the issue of serving all fans in and out Japan this will definitely remain a big problem. It also can't help when the NA releases are not just as good as the scanlated ones....
just as the person above me said
Not to mention that sometimes of usually official releases take FOREVER to be released, take Enchanter as an example.
Their efforts are futile. Even if they were to find and shut down one pirate website, another would come in it's place.
They won't win this war, Nothing can stop the INTERNET.
The INTERNET and chuck norris are buddies, to declare war on the INTERNET is to declare war on chuck norris. And we know who comes out alive and standing after that war.
This is a common case of greed that blinds the thinking.
Most part of the so-called illegal stuff (Fansubbing, scanlations, etc..) creates merchandising market. Most people going to manganime expositions know their favourite animes via fansubs and scanlations. And knowing most of manganimes's official releases in USA and Europe take months, years or even never happen, well...
I perfectly know this since my country's government is controlled by a RIIA-like association who keeps bitching like this all time and want to take over the internet to prevent what they call "illegal behaviour". Ok, that happens and two years later we are on a government like China. Hooray! (Sarcasm)
Quoted for pure truth.
Raw-Paradise brought this shit upon themselves. If they hadn't been putting their damn website on a watermark on every frickin' page of the raws (with the presence of Japanese text in said watermark acknowledging that they're getting Japanese downloaders), in an obvious ploy to 1. Get people to come to their site 2. ??? 3. PROFIT!, then they'd probably still be there...
MY SOULD IS DAMAGED!
They are like the guys from anime industry.
They only think about making money NOW and don't think about the future = Internet and the world outside Japan -> so they will lose very much money in the future...