Ken Akamatsu vs NicoNico Douga – “They Are Thieves!”

so let me get this straight:

people cheered him when he said he was going to do it and now, he tells people to stop fucking it up they tell him to shut up?

sure is sticking to the plan guys

Attitude aside, this is a serious issue for people who make creative entertainment for a living. It's true that publishers and big companies may be a big middleman in all this, but in terms of legal rights, they are in the right to claim it.

I'm not sure how it boils down to using licensed imagery and music for parodies and such. Youtube is still wrangling with it for example.

Akamatsu does seem to be very direct with his words, but I don't think he's doing it out of pure malice, if you can believe it.

HouseLife
11:55

one piece failed because of 4kids, and noting funimation did could save that for the western markets.

for online media, its still in its infancy, you will have to see more places like south park studios, and actual networks go a full digital version, before anime will stand a chance to go digital only.

now, manga, that needs a total revamp, it needs to be given page by page with bought adds on the sides and top, like a web comic is here. and everything web comics so, why cant a manga do it too?

you also have to remember that japan a nation of followers, if something fails they disregard EVERY notion of it. its not like other places where people learn from others failures and try it different.

Why doesn't he just charge the people for his works? That way all the money will go to him directly and none of it to the publishing companies.

That's a very good question, but actually I'm not even sure if he's allowed to do that. I've heard of some strange stuff when it comes to copyright, but that doesn't mean he has a reason he cannot do that. One way or another, I'm grateful that someone with a popular work is taking the first steps and finding the pitfalls so that others who can't afford to have this happen to can watch and learn for the future.

The future of markets is following this pseudo-social-capitalist methodology more and more due to piracy desecrating traditional markets in electronics. Funimation is only alive due to advertisements on Hulu and Youtube and the like, their DVD sales are as abysmal as everywhere else (one of the reasons we're not seeing more One Piece). Basically the only way the stuff that can be pirated electronically is going to survive is to do things like offering electronic versions for free and rely on advertising media to cover their survival, but that doesn't generate nearly enough survival profit except in extreme cases.

I'm sincerely hoping someone much smarter than I can find the way to make this work for the new century, because it's long overdue.

HouseLife
16:55

one piece was one of those anime that could have had universal appeal, like decteive conan, but it would have needed the right push, and thats where both failed at.

4kids fucked it first, puting in everyones who is normal head that its shit. they pulled out 30 episodes worth of content in the first 88 episodes, and most of that was what set the anime apart from other things, so to everyone older it was generic trash, to kids it wasn't memorable. funimation got it, un fucked it (at least the dvd version) but normal people will never understand that, how many times in america has a tv show changed hands, every episode was redone, how would you tell the public?

im thinking a side by side comparison, and an advertising campaign, thats told you re done closer to the original, would be the only thing that may have worked. but basically the moment that you had funimation start it there was no comeback for that series. maybe in 5-10 years after it, if thy took it off air and re aired it for a new gen of kids, it may do good because they dont know.

@Chen-04

"It's not like he owns his story only because he thought of it first."

"A story is just a concept. Like the concept of a chair."

Wow. A story is not like a chair. A story is a story. Run out there and try to write a story about King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and then try and sell it. Then go out, try to make a simple four legged chair and try to sell it.

See which gets you into trouble. Yeah, there’s a big difference.

However, write a story about King Dickbigulas pulling his mighty sword from the stone and see what happens.

Every story can only be about a few things and every story that can be told has been, BUT… that does not mean you do not own what you create.

"that does not mean you do not own what you create."

What good is claiming ownership over something everyone else can easily access without your consent? If you're brilliant and think up stuff no one else thought of before, good for you. But only because you were the first, doesn't mean others can't just copy what you did. Like with the first ironswords, gunpowder, nuclear fusion...
Nowadays people don't need to buy stuff because they are interested in it, but only if they know and love it. At least if it's about digital content.

Copyright was a nice idea but it's too restrictive and I think it's stupid that you can sell your rights to someone else.

Your last statement is simultaneously rather clever and overly generalized, alidan. We're a nation of followers just as much, just in different trends, however it's worthwhile to be aware of that aspect, which I had forgotten.

One Piece failed because of 4kids, and the Funimation took it up and did quite a good job with it, matching the original as was meant to happen. The problem is it never again got its chance on TV, because everyone believed what was coming on was the bad version, and unlike 4kids who raped us with advertisements, Funimation didn't really do anything with it.

But the reality still stands, right from the horse's mouth at a convention. One Piece isn't getting more brought over without more sales, and that's quite frankly a reasonable thing for them to do, as sad as it makes me.

Pirates will always try and justify themselves even though they are not only by law incorrect, but morally wrong. Anyway-Chen-04, your wrong by the way. It's his god damn work. He owns the goddamn story because he was first to think of it and first to publish it and first to license it. It's like JK Rowlings Harry Potter. So you're going to say , because it's a story that some people could have thought of, it's not her story to own. Well Fuck you. You're logic is just fucked up. Heck it's probably the same with everything. People build trains much like artists draw manga. However, designs of trains are different and that's where the whole concept of owning something comes into place. You own a designs of a train much like you own a story of manga. There is no difference. This is where you are especially wrong with the whole concept of Fire and god knows what else you talked about.