Why Is Pirating Games Bad But Pirating Anime and Manga Is Ok?

[Elamdri]

So Escapists i ask you, why is pirating Manga and Anime okay?

...it's not? Like, I don't know when pirating anything ever has ever been ok. I mean, the people DOING it probably think it's ok, but their opinions are kinda suspect. Pirating is pirating is pirating. Don't do it.

That being said, I know that a lot of otaku justify pirating things that aren't released in the US because of the fact that it's not released in the US. That's terribly flawed logic, but I'm pretty sure that's how most try to justify it. Least the ones I knew.

 

[DarkRyter]

It's not.

No one said it was.

Even if we pirate or imply we pirate, we never talk about pirating or defend pirating.

And Manga/Anime piracy is appropriate in the same situation Game Piracy is appropriate.

When one is unable to encounter the work through any other means.

 

[little.09]

Alright guys i agree with you there, its okay when you cant get it here if its gonna take years. But am talking people who've read all of bleach or death note online like the really easily accessible anime and manga is what bugs me.

I will say this though, we wait a year somtimes for a game to get a translation.

That stuff I think is even more ok to pirate (or at least the animes), Websites like Hulu have deathnote and Naruto perfectly legal in english- so if I prefer it in Japanese then watching a fansub on another site should be fine.

as for the manga, well, Unfortunately I can't say if its ok or not.

no because who ever hold the rights to a show on hulu still gets money when its viewed so your still taking money away from the creators or who ever is holding the rights to that show

 

[acosn]

It isn't. The issue is that generally speaking manga and anime tread much murkier waters. The majority of what I watch and read isn't just not going to show up in America, it's not even on the maker's radar.

And if it did? I'd get to import 100$ DVD sets to watch the anime, and spend 4-5 times as much money as what they spend in Japan to get a single manga printed on expensive as opposed to those fat packs printed on cheap paper.

 

[Apprentice88]

Pirating games aren't all bad; Sid Meyers Pirates is pretty fun, as is Lego Pirates of the Carribean.[/trolling]

But in all seriousness Pirating media is bad, you shouldn't pirate media because it's bad, m'kay.

 

[OrokuSaki]

Reason A:

Most anime/manga doesn't get released in the United States, so I feel perfectly innocent downloading Zetman, Jackals, and Darker than BLACK Shikkoku no Hana because these are unlicenced titles that are unlikely to ever hit stores. If they did I'd gladly pay for them.

Reason B:

Most anime/manga that gets released in the U.S. does so several months if not years before it ever hits these U.S. shores. For instance, I read Bakuman, and I've bought every single book released. There's 5. In Japan there are 17 books and I'm not a patient person.

Reason C:

Games cost more. I know it's a cop-out but if you spend 400 dollars on new releases in games, how will I afford manga/anime?

Reason D (Final):

It's EASY. Seriously, downloading manga/anime is so simple I could teach a 5 year-old to do it and it takes less time than actually getting up and buying it legally. I can do it right from home and don't have to wait a week for delivery.

That's my answer(s) take your pick. Personally I like the first 2 best because they apply to me.

 

[Strain42]

There is an anime series that I really like (I'm not going to name it right here) but I have all 203 episodes of it on my external hard drive. Is it pirated? Pretty much, yeah. Because it's not available in English.

Once I see a DVD that says Season 1, available in English from Funimation. You're damn right I'm going to buy it.

Every six months I pick up the new Case Closed manga. I've stopped reading the Reborn manga because SJ seems to have stopped publishing it. Even though I know it's online, translated further into the series than the manga are and according to most sources I've read is better than SJ's translation of it. I just don't like to read Manga online much because it feels wrong if the series was released where I am.

Only manga I read all the way through online was this hilarious series I found called Saint Young Men. And if I had been able to buy an English book of that, I would have.

 

[FuktLogik]

Yes, lots of people pirate lots of content, but think about this. Despite the amount of piracy out there, these companies still make enough money to pay all their staff and the creators themselves, plus make a rather sizable profit. This might lead one to believe that they are charging a excessive amount of money for the intellectual properties that they push on the masses.

Just a little food for thought.

 

[OutforEC]

Because when people want something they become very good at the mental gymnastics that it takes to justify it to themselves.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

It's okay to pirate anime and manga only if it isn't legally available in your region or your language. You aren't cheating anyone out of a sale if they aren't actually providing you with a legal option. Additionally, fan translators put in a lot of work of their own to produce a finished product, so it doesn't fall into quite the same category of just outright stealing someone else's work that game piracy does, making it a little more like those fan games made with code and art assets from existing properties.

The bottom line is that no one complains if you pirate when it is literally the only option.

 

[The Naked Emperor]

Personally I believe there are grey areas when it comes to piracy. Downloading a new game without paying for it deprives publishers and developers of the revenue they need to continue operating, but if you download something that's ten years old you're not hurting anybody for the most part. Say you want to play Earthbound-buying the original cartridge isn't going to profit Nintendo, and as they've shown no indication that they plan to re-release the game on our shores it truly is a victimless crime.

Obviously it's a different story if you can find something on the virtual console or purchase it through gog.com, but there are lots and lots of games where the only way to really play them is through emulation. The best examples would probably be fan translations of old jRPGs that were never localized; ie, Secret of Mana 2 is one of the best games in that series and I would kill to support it but Square hasn't given us the option.

A lot of the best anime and manga never gets released over here because it's very niche. Japanese culture is vastly different from our own and most westerners don't really have the patience or inclination to understand it well enough to enjoy their media. And while it's a lot less common now, a lot of it has been poorly localized (just look at anything 4Kids has gotten their hands on) so while it may be a poor justification from a legal standpoint, you can often get a superior product through unofficial channels.

In the case of well-localized, true-to-the-source anime and manga, there's no excuse. It's a luxury item, we're not entitled to it. That's the attitude I have a problem with. Even in the case of games that weren't released here I understand that I don't deserve to play it but I will if I'm given the ability to do so, as with Mother 3. With stuff that's brought here and handled properly, it needs to be supported. Yes it's expensive but that's because this is a niche market; it's very rare that an anime will sell millions upon millions of units like shows made in the west. As a fan you accept that cost going in or you're not really a fan. How can you be if you're not willing to feed the artists that made your enjoyment of their work possible?

On the flip side, I'm glad companies like Funimation are actually making piracy a less lucrative option by releasing subbed versions of anime shortly after the episodes air in Japan. That's a major step up and it shows a willingness to adapt to consumer habits instead of merely condemning them, which is a far smarter approach than suing downloaders. My hope is that in time they'll actually be able to outcompete the pirates by making torrent sites and fan-work seem inconvenient by comparison.

I'd also like to see fans brought in to localize properties. Going back to the Mother series, I understand that Nintendo considered it too much of a financial risk to bother with it themselves but the translated ROM is absolutely fantastic and it seems like it would be fairly simple to pay the people who did the translation and then distribute it themselves through their various channels. I understand there may be numerous difficulties with that from a legal standpoint but it seems far smarter to turn fans into a resource instead of litigating the hell out of them whenever they take initiative.

This has gotten a bit rambly, hasn't it? The point is there's a lot of gray, the only black-and-white of it being that if someone isn't getting paid who should be then it's time to step back and examine what you're doing.

 

[RyokenX5]

I must say that I don't really feel that pirating games/anime/movies/music are the end of the world. Obviously if you get caught, then you should face the consequences and not complain, but I think part of the blame for piracy is the industries failure to keep up with modern times.

I don't pirate games myself, but I had a lot of friends in the original xbox mod community so I have to say that I've played pirated games before. The bottom line is that if people can get something for free, they will. And I say that as a musician.

In summary, I have no sympathy whatsoever for any publisher, producer, artist, etc. or industry worker who loses money due to pirating. I also have no sympathy whatsoever to anyone who's caught and fined horribly for pirating.

If you don't keep up with the times, technology will leave your business in the dust. That's how the world is sometimes.

 

[Zarkov]

Arguably, it should be the other way around.

Think about it; how popular is manga and anime in the United States? Not very, in comparison to gaming. And ironically, the majority of the people who do read manga in the good ol' US of A also tend to be computer nerds due to the share of love for manga on the internet.

But if that's even somewhat true, then those who read manga have a higher chance of knowing how to get a hold of a virtual copy of what they want than an average console jockey. And this is truly sad, because manga and anime creators don't get that much money to begin with; maybe they might get money from their fanboyism in Japan or another native country, but here the support in the way of money dwindles to this fad.

Now, gamers on the other hand don't necessarily need to be computer experts; consider the popularity of the consoles for a moment. Sure, gamers will go to the internet for their love of consoles [Hell, we're on the Escapist], but the majority of young adults love video games on consoles, and therefore no directly tied to a computer. This means that yes, games are pirated and whatnot, but there's always going to be the large, large console crowd who can't pirate games [due to the difficulty of console pirating if you have no idea what you're getting into]. Games, for the most part, will always have a buying crowd. In the realm anime and manga, this is sadly not true.

And what makes it worse is the difficulty level between getting manga for free and software for free. A level of dedication has to go to learning the ways of pirating before you pirate a piece of software, whether that be the simple access to a website with illegal software on it or learning how to operate a key-gen. A manga lover has to search in google or any other search engine [which, considering that you HAVE internet, isn't a far stretch to say there's no dedication there] the chances of finding a website with a free virtual copy of what they're looking for is quite high. And, what do we do about it? Nothing. Sure, take down a site, but two more will pop up. And I'm not saying there's something we can do, because I honestly don't know what we can do. Sure, stricter laws might work for awhile, but the interests of foreign comic-book makers just aren't that of the government of the United States. The United States is more worried about stopping lolis [enforcing moral law] than stopping the pirating of one's creative work [stealing one's art]. Priorities anyone?

I don't support the acquisition of software or creative works without money if money has been put in to it, whether that may be a good thing or a bad thing. I believe that creative works should all be free, because everyone should be able to experience such works without restriction. But in a money driven world, and rightfully so, this cannot be true without a truly revolutionary change to the way we see value and exchange.

 

[Thaius]

Not sure about Manga, but there are two reasons for anime. First, the idea that pirating television shows is... well, a problem at all, is kind of insipid. Tell me, why is it perfectly okay to record a television episode off the television, but not okay to get it online? There is no good reason for this; it's one of the most extreme examples of our utter failure to adapt copyright law to the internet.

Secondly, half the anime out there isn't even available in English. At least not immediately. Honestly, I understand pirating something that is not available in your country or language. I'm sure this is often said, because it's true. If the only way to get something is to order it from another country and learn another freaking language, I think fansubs are a perfectly understandable option.

 

[Llil]

I used to think like that. I stopped pirating games and movies a long time ago (abandonware doesn't count unless it's rereleased), but for some reason I just didn't see anything wrong with pirating anime.

A couple of years ago I noticed that my thinking was a bit weird, so I decided to stop pirating anime as well. Now, if I can't find it legally, I won't watch it. That does mean I watch a lot less shows than before, but I can live with that. I do sometimes slip from that principle with youtube, but I never download the shows.

I think availability is the main thing how people justify pirating anime to themselves (That was my reason, as I live in Finland, which means it's even harder to get anime legally than in the US.)

Or because it's free and easy to do.

 

[OutforEC]

Not sure about Manga, but there are two reasons for anime. First, the idea that pirating television shows is... well, a problem at all, is kind of insipid. Tell me, why is it perfectly okay to record a television episode off the television, but not okay to get it online? There is no good reason for this; it's one of the most extreme examples of our utter failure to adapt copyright law to the internet.

The argument is that the people behind television shows make their money through advertisement revenue, and to download it online has the potential to rob them of money they might otherwise make. Not necessarily saying I agree, I've just heard it mentioned before.

 

[Thaius]

Not sure about Manga, but there are two reasons for anime. First, the idea that pirating television shows is... well, a problem at all, is kind of insipid. Tell me, why is it perfectly okay to record a television episode off the television, but not okay to get it online? There is no good reason for this; it's one of the most extreme examples of our utter failure to adapt copyright law to the internet.

The argument is that the people behind television shows make their money through advertisement revenue, and to download it online has the potential to rob them of money they might otherwise make. Not necessarily saying I agree, I've just heard it mentioned before.

Hmm... interesting argument. I admit it might actually have something going for it, but it would be pretty small. The fact still stands that future advertising revenue would be largely lost because of recorded episodes, and then there's the question of people like me that don't have television service anyway and just use the internet instead. But admittedly, that argument does give me pause. I'll have to think about that one more.