HISTORIC Lawsuit to Kill Manga Piracy Launched

[@thanishdavipaul2876]

Inherited Will, The Destiny of the Age, and The Dreams of the People. As long as people continue to pursue the meaning of Freedom, these things will never cease to be!" - Gol D. Roger

[@satwikparth6326]

I just wanted to say 'you nailed it HARD'

[@ibrahim5463]

These word always go hard

[@dkutch8776]

The golden age of piracy

[@hewhosays7979]

You say that but it's becoming harder and harder to pirate pc videogames because gamers are becoming lazy and conformist.

[@DharcVasquez]

@@hewhosays7979 do it yourself then

[@Thunderlips-60602]

Nowadays when I see someone saying they’ll put “a final stop to pirating” I just feel like Mr. Krabs: “I’ve seen this before. Eleven times as a matter of fact.”

[@bakanu]

I woulda liked this but it has 11 likes. So i gave you a comment instead.

[@UnstoppableChaos]

Seriously though how many times do they need to teach you this lesson old man?

[@wohlfartricsi2649]

Valve's Gabe Newell, owner of Steam, said: "Piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue". And he is absolutely correct. If your service is worse than what piracy offers, it's naive to expect costumers to choose your service. And what manga companies currently provide to western audiences is either worse than the alternatives or simply non-existent.

[@YetiCoolBrother]

I was going to comment the same thing. Until it's made available easily people will continue to pirate, idc how much you sue for. Remove one head & two shall take it's place.

[@Rihan-hn6qp]

I agree, I own way over hundred volumes of different manga series and I wouldn't own one of them without piracy sites. The services we have in the west to read manga legally are a joke. I wouldn't mind paying 10-15€ a month to read all the manga I'm currently reading but the legal apps and sites we have are terrible.

[@Captain_Chaz86]

there is actually a new digital manga service coming next month to the US. 95% of Japan's manga publishers are on board with it. Even japan english versions of manga are going to be on it.

[@Lightbluecloud1]

This a 100% I would be very willing to pay for manga. But the availability is just so incredibly bad that I feel forced to use unofficial sources.

[@Hadjo373]

He is correct yes but for some people like me (im poor), I simply cant afford 10 subscriptions for all the stuff I want to watch, read and or listen to.

[@tiborsipos1174]

Reminds me of the movie "Deliberate Intent": A thriller/drama from 2000 where the plot is that someone wrote a book about how to become a hitman. A guideline about how to kill and hide the evidence. A random reader actually kills someone and the only got caught and sentenced because police found the book and it was clear the murderer followed the instruction. So the rest of the movie is about lawyers fighting over who else should be punished. The killer is sorted. But who should take responsibility? The one who wrote the book? The one who approved publishing? Those who printed still out against the content? The distributors?

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

It is quite clear really, the one that did the action of murder. The other parties wrote a book, published a book and sold a book. Acts morally neutral, unlike murder which is morally wrong.

[@basgree4179]

Just playing Devil's advocate here but: morality is fluid and dependent on circumstances. For example slavery 2.5 thousand years ago was something common and accepted by everyone. Today it is considered immoral. In the case of books, writing a book promoting violence (e.g. Mein Kampf by Hitler) is immoral as an action but could be used for educational issues. All in all it boils down to "was the writer promoting assassination deliberately or is it an unbiased fact based book?".

[@skelitonking117]

@@basgree4179 Exactly; if this result was the writer’s intent, then certainly the writer could be charged

[@chaotica-game985]

If that book didnt at the end also say "oh yeah also don't be a dipshit and forget to burn this book after" the dude should get his money back. (Kidding of course)

[@kindaraharyu7926]

That's actually a bad book then because he got caught.

[@nilskaspersson]

It's mind-bogglingly stupid how these companies clearly notice piracy, but somehow fail to recognize that they literally do not offer a legal method of purchasing the same product.

[@DxReaper120]

But they do. Shonen jump changed to a free model about 2 or 3 years ago. You get all new manga chapters for free for 3 weeks and they made their app price 2$ a month for full access. Can't speak for Viz and the other companies though

[@az639]

@@DxReaper120 They don't. There are hundreds of manga and anime that are not licensed so you can only read/watch them if fansubs pick them up and I didn't even start to talk about older manga/anime that are licensed but it's still impossible to read/watch them on legal platforms because they are not up anymore.

[@DxReaper120]

@A Z I can't speak for the other companies but as OP said, "there Is no legal method of purchase" but there is. On SJ anyway , there is a legacy section they don't have the chapters up but they do sell the volumes for series like YuYu Hakusho Ruroni Kenshin etc. If you got the money buy them if you don't however you choose to enjoy those series it's all you. But I'm responding because OP said "purchase"

[@az639]

@@DxReaper120 I live in a country that basically doesn't have any legal services where you can watch anime and read manga so for me there is no legal method of buying manga. Funimation is blocked in my country, crunchyroll is 90% region blocked and there is no website aside from mangaplus and webtoon that provides official translations so I have to read everything that's not a shounen or a manhwa on pirated sites.

[@DxReaper120]

@A Z like I said in my.last comment however you choose to enjoy your entertainment that's up to you. Idc if you pirate steal away. I responded because OP said there is no way to purchase which based on your region isn't nearly as true as it used to be. You don't need to explain your situation

[@TheManC96]

The title should have been: Shueisha tries to take on the internet and fails miserably. Remember when they tried to take down the Pirate Bay? Pirate Bay is still alive and kicking.

[@Nicu-vy3gm]

Nyaa too

[@waynoinsano]

Ironically most of these sites exist because they looked at downloading each individual torrent. Then they said wouldn't it be more convenient for the user if they didn't have to download each chapter/episode 1 by 1.

[@twenty-fifth420]

Pirate bay is a very strange example. It has technically been in both lawsuits and switched country domains. Shueisha is so dumb I would expect Japanese internet to know little about it. I wouldn’t be surprised, and I could be wrong but yeah, strange nonetheless. I am an anarchist and even tho I am a writer, I do not like the concept of ‘intellectual property’ as Unique and other similar minded people have said. Pirate Bay was also a win because frankly, it is the core of anti copyright movement. And I guess to avoid being a hypocrite, if my books later get adapted into anime like I want too. If you dont want to support the studio and would just want to watch it for your own sake, fucking do it. Id rather someone pirate my work and enjoy it for free then pay and hate it forever. If you actually ‘like’ mine and other works, you will still probably buy it. I mean hell, I pirated Yu Yu Hakusho and Naruto unironically and I later bought complete box sets for both, but the Naruto one I gave away. So yeah, Japan is both 100 years behind in copyright law and ethics. They are a strange anomaly that I think might as well be the antithesis of Pirate Bay, since they are very strict with their copyright

[@notzaney6951]

At this point, I'm not even fazed by these news because we all know these pirate websites just somehow find ways to go around despite the odds, so yeah...

[@TPShanks]

this is indeed the great age of piracy! we can't be stopped!

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

"Piracy" is not a valid word for content sharing. Nothing is stolen or then sold.

[@canned3880]

@@AleksandarIvanov69 you are taking someone else's work and redirecting traffic to your site. Same with shows, this is textbook piracy

[@NeguraGhost]

@@canned3880 Isn't textbook piracy to board another ship and steal goods like tea and spices?

[@Loaves_of_Cat]

@@NeguraGhost 😂😂

[@goodyfresh741]

As Donquixote Doflamingo once said: “Pirates are evil? The Marines are righteous? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!"

[@TomMotTom]

If I could buy officially released One Piece manga volumes in english on the day they release I would 100% do it.But that's impossible so I am forced to read scans. Even buying the old volumes is incredibly difficult and more expensive than it should be. On top of that it's very difficult to determine if the money will actually go to them. If I could go on a Official site on which they sold their manga in Europe... man that sounds like a dream.

[@see_yl]

Mangaplus/Viz offers a subscription for 2$ a month with simulrelease and -subpar- superb trabslation 3 newest chapters are free so you might not even have to buy

[@lynlynb7139]

I feel you, I'm not a book collector or any of that stuff. But, if the industry could organize a official website for manga. I would pay for that service to read official manga series and be more than willing to tip my favorite manga artists directly/buy stuff from the manga directly instead of crappy third party sites.

[@TomMotTom]

@@see_yl if they are free then I don't have the slightest moral issue of reading from where I do. especially if the translation is subpar since I believe that where I read it the translation is very good they sometimes even add explanations on how and why it was translated as to not loose the original meaning.

[@TomMotTom]

@@lynlynb7139 I will never understand how they don't notice the amount of money that would be made if they expanded the availability.

[@see_yl]

@@TomMotTom This guy. "I would switch 100% if i could buy official release" me: presents official release that is cheap, accessible, has quality and even provides free chapter. him: "nah im gonna keep pirating" Get out with your hypocrisy

[@obinator9065]

This is such an FU if the manga/anime isn’t, legally, available in your country

[@nophone9311]

@A Great Man Named Lieu They couldn't support in the 1st place. What part of "manga/anime isn’t, legally, available in your country" do you not understand?

[@Raymander97]

Like Kingdom for instance. Always in the top ten numbers of most sales every year and yet is not published in many countries outside Japan, including USA and my home country, the only source in English for this amazing historical fiction is a dedicated group of scanlators that have been doing it for more than 10 years now. They do such an stellar job with it with the quality of the images and translation that the only thing I might be missing is the possibility of having the physical volumes at home, and there's more than 50 of them as of now...

[@TobiasMohlin_Engineering]

Honestly such a well rounded video. Super impressed with your insight, as well as your ability discuss / provide arguments from multiple angles in a very understandable and relatable way. Well done, and thanks for amazing content.

[@Hatsjekideee]

Never thought I'd see the day where I watched a video about a Dude in a Room talking about the real life digital piracy of a series about fictional pirates.

[@Lupinemancer87]

If companies wants people to pay for their products, which I'd gladly do, they need to release more of that product in more countries.

[@Zay-ki6uf]

I buy manga but a lot of series I love isn’t in America like blue lock so there’s nothing I can do

[@Lupinemancer87]

@@Zay-ki6uf That's exactly my point.

[@Zay-ki6uf]

@@Lupinemancer87 exactly

[@atharvadeshpande4749]

Summed it up pretty well.

[@Coran_06]

True but I also feel like pricing can be somewhat of an issue like one manga volume is ten bucks and you read it in like 20-30 minutes and then you’re done with it, so if you’re wanting to read a whole manga series it can get absurdly expensive.

[@Lordsmylee]

the fact that so many of the "Fan translations" convey the original story's essence to english so much better is what gets me

[@solidjakecloud2]

My first dip into manga piracy was due to Viz I grew up reading Pokémon Adventures and it randomly stopped in Gold and Silver and child me just said “oh it got canceled ok” I turned like 14-15 and saw a panel of the manga on generation 4 and suddenly looked up if it continued and my world was changed for manga reading. Viz only started continuing the release long after and censored it to hell.

[@jestersage44]

Great content as usual. Really appreciate the effort you put into your videos. "Best we can do is give you 1/4th of the series." Lol That comment killed me but jokes aside you're right the solution is painfully clear.

[@bobbymerrylands]

I'll speak as a web developer. Cloudfare is amazing for ensuring your website is online. If I as a developer make a site, I want to ensure my site stays online regardless of how many people access it. And if I host content that is 100% legal, and I mean this literally, it is 100% legal. But a government decides retroactively that what I did was illeagle (cough canada). I want my content to stay up. As of this moment, I want to use cloud fare

[@ibrahimali4234]

Honestly really well explained topic. Thank you, your analysis is not only for this issue it is very informative for business development

[@grantisshananaa4906]

You blew my mind about the demon detective manga, I forgot all about that, it was so so good. Thanx for igniting that spark in my memory Liam, going to re-read right now.

[@Bilbreynanimus]

I have NEVER heard anyone talk about Neuro ever and I kept forgetting the name of it. Thank you for unlocking a memory I had lost. It was a delightful watch and wish it had aired here.

[@nivyan]

I've always had the following opinions of piracy: 1) *Generally* piracy is most often for people who either can't afford or don't have a way of purchasing any given content. 1A) For example, anime in the current cour - that is, anime that has yet been licensed to non-japanese non-cooperations and is therefore impossible to watch legally. Or a series that just hasn't been picked up by a studio and just isn't available. 2) The possibility of piracy most often works to gives people a chance to dip their toes into something before actually purchasing said content. 2A) For example, checking out anime which doesn't exist on Crunchyroll or similar series before considering buying the actual product. Or a fan of a show giving their friends the ability to experience it - who in turn can become fans, who then tells their friends... 3) When people find a series that they like, piracy is a bigger *gain* than a *loss* for a given anime - giving people the ability to consume a product further enables them to support it, which in conjunction with 1) means more people get to experience a series which they can later pay for. 3a) For example, a person hears of One Piece and experiences the series for free. Down the line, they will have the money to actually support the series, which more often than not they will do. This creates a fan/customer that would otherwise not exist. 4) *This is my personal opinion, but* I believe the biggest issue stems from the fact that when studios gains the right to sell a series outside japan, they feel the need to add dubbing: *A lot of people don't care about dubbing* - if a studio would buy the rights for a series, and only add localized subs, there is a vastly bigger market - because a huge chunk of people do not want to buy a series which also costs extra for dubs they're not going to use. 4A) For example, if a studio gains the rights to sell Attack on Titan outside of Japan, they're most likely going to hire voice actors - these are expensive. Because of the extra costs, the series will be more expensive for the consumer, meaning less people will be able to buy it. 5) Streaming services do more harm than good for the creators and authors: Because a Crunchyroll subscription simply doesn't compare to buying a series - and the authors will not know or 'feel' how popular a series is outside of Japan, under most circumstances. Series like Dragon Ball, Jojo, Naruto and One Piece all have loud, countless fans. Whereas a 1 season show generally won't have the time to give the creators an impression of the popularity and appreciation of an anime. Sorry for the essay - this is a subject I'm both passionate about and feel there is a lot of misinformation about.

[@JulioTheMr619]

What companies and people who are anti-piracy overall fail to realize is that piracy =/= from losing money, simply because most of the people that are consuming a product by illegal means would not be able to/want to acquire said product legally in the first place, thus not really losing any reveneu

[@Luminousreign]

This is categorically untrue and just a very weak overall way to rationalize piracy. The issue is that the company can never offer the same convenience of right now and free.

[@ellog100]

@@Luminousreign They definitely could if they tried, the most convenient methods right now for piracy are still flawed. While the official Shonen Jump app ain't even available in my country

[@Luminousreign]

@@ellog100 I dont think they could, even if they wanted, and as a company that depends on sales, if the OG comment about piracy was true, why would they care? It very clearly DOES equal sales. It is a good question why it is not available in your country. Lots of countries are like this, tons that exist on a digital market and this niche doesn't exist to them. for absolutely no reason, sorry to hear that is the case where you live. Was the case for me earlier in life, but not now. Clearly speak english so hopefully they at least make that available to you. soon, and that it isnt some weird local law thing. Japan was kind of nasty so lots of places are like nah keep your anime.

[@ricardokojin7]

@@Luminousreign This is quite true tbh, most people that pirate manga would not go out of their way to buy it. What they will do however, is buy merch and spread the word making the brand more popular.

[@Luminousreign]

@@ricardokojin7 It isn't true though, that is the thing. You just heard that and thought it was true,. Basic princinple of marketing is creating a market for your product., ideally creating a want/need, and then filling it. If you were going to pirate something and you could get the thing from the actual creators for the same price at the same convenience. You are actually super unlikely to steal, if you were going to spend money at all. It is just a very simple justification for theft.

[@tobiaswedin]

You are completely correct in how these massive companies goes about it the wrong way, they still live under the old (and proven wrong) assumption that piracy = loss of income. Studies have been published that proves the complete opposite, piracy is basically free ads for your product spreading awareness and love of whatever it is you have created. And in the end those who consume pirated material are the same people that actually spend money on merch. People that buy subscriptions, cd`s, movies and other legal ways of gaining access to any given material spend *WAAAAAY* less money that ends up in the pockets of these corporations. So, what we can take from all this is that just like in One Piece pirates are the good guys of this battle.

[@Kal.556]

First day of my new school and starting it off good with a new Liam video ❤

[@CinereoTheRogue]

The perspectives and elocution in this video, and of your overarching assertion on the topic, are simply genius. Perfectly Put, in no simpler words.

[@chrissolace]

Honestly, you perfectly encapsulated how I felt about the whole thing. They just refuse to innovate despite there being solutions in which they could adapt and better ruin the piracy competition. Also, the situation with HBO Max just speaks volumes about the current climate of subscriptions; at this point, there’s just a bit too many and not everyone will want to buy a subscription to a site for just one show, since there’s just so many shows out there. Really, such subscription models would push people more towards piracy. As you said, piracy represents a market that people want, and that market is a service that readily provides multiple shows. Viewers don’t care about the ads, if it’s free and if it’s available. Which makes me think the business model of watching ads for some ambiguous token that can be exchanged to view the content is such an interesting concept (mainly used by Tappytoon, from what I’ve seen). Other interesting things I wish they could implement would actually be getting the rights to series. Crunchyroll doesn’t have all the shows by any means, but I feel like as they get more series, people have less incentive to pirate since there becomes less series Crunchyroll owns (speaking in a general sense, since there will always be series they never pick up). It could just be my experience, but over time, going to these piracy sites has become more tedious and the sites have become more unstable. Like, at one point in time, piracy sites were just a better experience than subscriptions, but then at one point in time, it shifted. (Not speaking factually-just anecdotally.) Also, WEBTOON has an interesting business model of releasing a certain amount of chapters “early” that are only accessed via paying, then there’s the weekly free chapter release, which releases chapters a few weeks behind the paid early release. The first few chapters are free as well, to give readers a taste of the series, and the chapters in between are the ones that cost money (or was that Tappytoon?). I’ve never paid for the early access chapters myself, but if I really loved a series, I could see myself doing it, like One Piece, and I wonder how successful of a business model that would be for manga. Also, WEBTOON has ads on their free version, which I don’t mind, but it’s another way for them to make revenue that is kinda “inspired” from piracy sites. Taking these tactics into account, I really feel like there isn’t a strong piracy scene for webtoons either, which makes me assume it’s pretty successful. All together, I feel like there’s a lot of techniques that manga/anime companies have yet to implement or try out despite the fact that there so much potential and real profit to be made-there’s so much to be gained, but they’re just so stuck in their old ways.

[@luminous3558]

Crunchyroll and anime streaming as a whole isnt a good example since crunchyroll sucks on a technical level that subscribing to them will serve you a worse product than free alternatives. They are also insufferable when it comes to their twitter acc since all they do is berate people for not supporting their shit website.

[@chrissolace]

@@luminous3558 I mean I've heard people say that here and there, but I personally haven't experienced these issues--but that's just me, and I know everyone has different experiences. As for comparing free alternatives to official sites, as a casual watcher, I really don't need the site to do anything crazy aside from having the series available and being able to watch them. And paid sites accomplish that fine. As for free alternatives, they are littered with ads, redirects, etc. which can decrease performance in my experience (on more hardware limited devices it's more evident). I don't follow them on Twitter, so I don't know how their PR team acts, but I agree it isn't sympathetic to berate those that pirate series, since many of them aren't financially capable of affording subscriptions, and these subscriptions don't always have all the shows people may want.

[@Jonsse]

It's really a problem with copyright and intellectual property laws in digital media. On the current laws the property rights holder can dictate on their own terms how it is sold. Even when that directive is at odds with consumer demand. Piracy squeezes in on that divide between IP holder practices and consumer demand. It's obviously meant to protect the intellectual property from being stolen or used without compensation to the owner, but often results in the property owner overprotecting the IP from distribution. They often consider the digital property to have the same characteristics of a physical property, which it does not. I've always considered a better alternative to the current system to be an open distribution model, where just like physical property can be purchased by anyone to be sold forward, so should digital goods. A system where the digital product can be purchased and sold by anyone, and compensation would be paid to the property rights owner in both bulk and as a portion of the profit made.

[@kaychan7242]

I remember at a big animecon, there was a panel about fansubs vs official dubs. Since it was the early 2000s. It came down to, we don't want to wait for you as a company to dub the animé, we just want to enjoy it. Not to long later, we started getting simulcast of animé from Funimation and Crunchyroll. And fansubs took a big hit and died out. (Though I do miss some of those fun word animations during the OP and ED that funsubs made them)

[@Raymander97]

I miss the kareokes so much...

[@illegalopinions4082]

Fansubs were amazing. I still have a bunch of them saved on an old hard drive. I also really liked the way they animated the subtitles. It added an extra layer of character to the show.

[@calebolds9609]

The problem with piracy cases is that companies claim damages based on if: 1) Every view is an individual user 2) Every viewer would have purchased the material at full price For example, Nintendo will often put out piracy statistics with that calculation - even if a game is only available to be purchased as a used copy

[@keithr.4645]

Great discussion Liam!

[@kaihaken5200]

What I have a problem is, and I’ll keep it to animated media… piracy sites keep it all in an neat easy to use package that doesn’t require paying for five different streaming services to watch the shows you want to watch. I’ll speak on manga now. Notice how they aren’t going after Reddit, twitter, and discord for stopping piracy… this is essentially putting a paper towel in a river and expecting it to soak up said river

[@nivyan]

I'd just like to point out that One Piece wouldn't exist if piracy wasn't a thing.

[@TheDarbMTB]

I love how you start a channel to talk about something other than fictional pirates only to talk about non fictional pirates lmao

[@animemanganmanhwa3538]

I've been reading scans practically my whole life because a lot of series bever even get legally translated near me and if they do, it's years late. However, if official translations get released I always make sure to buy a volume or two (mangas are super expensive here) and when it comes to manhwas (only recently really officially translated) I'll buy the chapter on tapas. However I don't want to limit myself nor wait literal years for official translations and have everything alteady spoiled for me

[@hovthegod3025]

I love how many people probably clicked off this video dispite you making a very sound and reasonable argument

[@sovietterran]

I read the official release of One Piece but it's really *really* hard not to go back to scans every time I read the word Zolo.

[@zombieguy4444]

You have mastered the ability to explain complicated things in really easy to understand ways

[@IchigoKurosaki911]

You look at series like Kingdom that have been in the top 10 manga sales globally for over a decade with more chapters than even Naruto or Bleach, its insane that it's not even officially liscenced or translated. Yet companies get angry when overseas fans find a way to read translations, it cannot be that hard to find resources with such big IPs to localize and distribute early with such obvious profit potential.

[@ponchopponcho]

I pirate all media I consume without regret or hesitation. I genuinely encourage everyone to do it. I don't give money to companies that earn too much money, makes me feel dirtier than pirating.

[@Miestwin]

The problem is, most Japanese companies are still living in the '70s and '80s of the previous century. Many of them don't understand the internet and internet culture nor do they even intend to try. Hell, from what I heard from foreigners living and working in Japan, an insane number of companies don't even use email, instead, they rely on fax machines.

[@hervemenjou-marcat2888]

Fansubbing the one piece anime into French since 2002 I can only agree with you! We had to wait 18 years for an instant legal solution to exist. Yet we have been attacked and threatened by the rights owners to stop our activity which has never brought us any money (the servers cost us money and we don't get any income since we don't impose any advertising).

[@travisr4622]

Your saying wat we’re all thinking!! Thanks room dude guy!!!!

[@ryderairlie-blundon377]

This kind of feels like someone going after someone's internet provider rather than addressing the people abusing the service

[@planswalker]

Yeah that's because that's what they are doing. It's like suing the factory that made the murder weapon. Whether draconian japanese law allows it or not, there should be no case here and the evil, xenophobic manga companies should have to eat all the legal fees involved

[@StoufSto]

@@planswalker No, it's called suing the party with the money to pay. ahha

[@hasanalkabeer6744]

Liam - have you ever considered going into the management consultant business?. Your dissection of this business problem is spot on and so well articulated. No joke - you’ve got the chops for McKinsey / BCG and the like … look into it (if you haven’t already / have moral reservations on those companies😂)

[@strawhat_moses4079]

I read both for clarity in the images and the difference in translations, but yea you do have some good points

[@pulkitjain8135]

You absolutely nailed the reasons and benefits of piracy. Infact some of the paid softwares actually allow piracy, so that software can get popular and even after many people get it for free, you end being paid by more customers you had been otherwise.

[@johngalt8708]

You really drew a nice comparison when you talked about morality and legality. Good work. Respect.

[@BeNice108]

This reminds me of the legal system in America. "Oh, people are doing the crimes still? Well, lock them up HARDERer." They just refuse to admit what they're doing now isn't working and refuse to try something different, because different would mean they're wrong about what they've been doing.

[@shreyart2238]

"property of karasuno volleyball club" did u notice it.

[@javelincheshire6358]

One of my favorite shonen manga is Eyeshield 21. I adore that series. It’s really difficult to get friends to read it since it doesn’t seem to be in print or available to read on Viz’s website. Also I’m so willing to own volumes of Neuro I’ve been looking at the Spanish publishers since they sell to have the entire run.

[@sin9628-w1s]

I feel this, type moon who have spawned off a billion dollar series through fate pretty much refuse to translate any of their mainline visual novels, it sucks... as at least manga is much more easily translated, vns can easily go into the 500k+ word count so for a group to translate them is a huge effort. Though at least they all have fan translations / are receiving fan translations.

[@MadZwe1]

TM is such a pain in the ass. Just look at Tsukihime. There is a massive english reading fans available to consume and they didn't do it.

[@pucci405]

Nasu: "just pirate that shit" Still waiting for that CCC translation btw, it looks like the fans are going to beat type moon again though.

[@mauricemdd7456]

Awesome thoughts on this !

[@itmealice]

Ridiculous shit like this is part of why I will never feel bad about pirating from large companies. Piracy is not theft and will never go away nor should it.

[@bruhtholemew]

@C It doesn't help that they also keep giving streaming and translation rights to awful companies with poor services in the west. Fan translators will get a manga page out in a day and official translators will spend two years.

[@MattijnPlayz]

There have been countless antipiracy lawsuits, I'd like to see them try. Keep Pirating guys!

[@levizcolon5770]

There was another reason I used to read the scans vs the official work with One Piece (beyond how much I cringe at every time they write grog and Zolo): a lot of fan translations have notes explaining cultural and punny word play that doesn’t exist in Viz’s official release. Other manga companies like Tokyo Pop and Del Rey has translation notes at the end that added so much depth to the series! Why can’t you give me this, Viz!

[@DekuMight45]

Basic knowledge of trade agreements, and a big reason I'm super happy the Transpacific Partnership trade agreement failed. They have to sue Cloud Flare in US court for damages, or this does nothing. As long as Cloud Flare doesn't have any holding in Japan, they can ignore the shit out of this. Especially since Shuiesha has a US subsidiary.

[@grim1570]

What this really only briefly touched on is one of the most significant factors. The sheer number of people who will take offense to this gatekeeping mentality and will now go out of their way to promote and support pirating their ip's rather than support the same people who are attacking their only access to something they love.

[@TDH3407]

Wow, every day now?❤️ love it!!!

[@owlseyes_]

Another banger video, congrats for the 55.5k subscribers btw

[@Dudeinaroomwastaken]

🎉

[@KirbyVolt]

Hearing Liam mention Neuro made me respect him even more than I already did. (Not the point of the video I know, but I agree with everything on this 100%)

[@CapTrigger]

Agreed, I typically throw money at the Viz 1 n 3 collections of One Piece and FUNimations DVD collections when able to support the series. But the number of other manga series I've tried to collect only to run into no longer available, not in print or what have is insane.

[@evilmosquito2915]

I don’t have either crunchyroll or shonen jump access in my country

[@illithidlore]

If Viz wants my money they can start spelling Zoro's name correctly.

[@AntiSocialPlanet]

As someone who prefers digital copies of manga (because I don't have the space for physical copies) it's remarkable how difficult it is to find official digital copies at all for even the more popular series, let alone translated ones. I would gladly pay for the volumes if they existed

[@baratacom]

The solution you proposed has happened to some level at least once A few years back, there was this one pirated anime site called animetube, which had old and new content subbed in Portuguese, because it was a Brazilian site Well, what happened to it is that a good chunk of accesses were actually from Japan because they were watching legacy series no longer available over there, some Japanese company took notice of that and bought the site and its whole infrastructure No idea what came of it, if anything, but that's the story of how a small group of Brazilians got a lot of money out of a pirate anime site and each went their separate ways, story goes that one or two of them are responsible for the first KissAnime, but no confirmation

[@thecriddle]

As a fellow Australian, i feel this so much. Liam, you would remember the days where we were months, if not years behind the rest of the world on everything. And the infamous "this content is not available in your country" Plus yeah, Game of Thrones in Australia? You HAD to get Foxtel, and HBO's channel, which i think was like.. Fox Showcase or something? Which was part of one of the upgrade packages i've looked it up now, and per month on their current deal, its $59 a month - and that is Foxtel Plus - which includes Showcase nowadays. So $180 for a 12 episode season once a year, and then good luck cancelling it in and not getting charged for the additional month - so there's $240 for one show. actually, looking deeper, the $59 a month is a TWELVE MONTH PLAN. So you're paying over $700 for your 12 week sexy lord of the rings show! Bailing on that contract is going to have exit fees i think we only got access in Aus to HBO Go! or something like that during the final season of the show, which was much cheaper - and a few of my mates abused the free trial process for that!

[@Rhubarb120]

Something I rarely see people bring up in situations like this is that piracy makes new customers. I pirated the JoJo parts that haven't been translated and became a huge fan, which lead me to buy some of the videogames and a Netflix subscription to watch part 6 animated, giving the company money they never would have gotten if not for websites like these.

[@V-A-U-G-H-N]

Basically it sounds like but doesnt actually affect anything another will pop of if one is shut down

[@velvetsno]

I love this channel Liam. You've got many interesting experiences and points of view that extend past One Piece. I'd like to hear more of Dude in a Room's thoughts

[@chimaco4673]

It’s like trying to dam up a river, but the river will just build up and flow around the dam. Instead they need to dig a new trench for the river to follow.

[@Bleacke5]

Shout out to this awesome youtuber! *jazz hands to Liam*

[@ChichiNaka]

Everyone says this every six months. If Marvel/Disney/all of Hollywood can’t stop streaming sites in Albania Japan has no hope

[@hihowareyou9490]

For context, some of the more egregious cases of copyright claims I've read about, small community movie screen events have been targeted in the past. No idea how they find out about these events, let alone care or assume any market impact.

[@uchihabomber1296]

Seriously the official the websites should have all of the volumes ready for reading so sometimes it comes down to the piracy practices

[@WonderLady]

Liam, you need to send them a business plan and charge a consulting fee.

[@Hacker_lyx]

Same thing applies to the Colored version of One Piece. I looked on every digital store front and there's no way to legally obtain an English version of it. What's upsetting is, since the volumes are already translated it'd take a lazy guy with photoshop to copy paste the translated dialog boxes a couple days to translate a volume. Sure the sound effects would take more effort... but honestly an editors note is good enough for handling sound effects imo. But it's like I have the money and would absolutely pay for the colored version even at the per volume price not just the app subscription. It's just not a thing they offer. What I'd personally do is offer a system where scanlation teams could offer their translations to Viz or whatever the English (X language) distributor is. They'd go through a review process, pay the scanlation teams in a lump sum for their work and after a few adjustments just release that version in a "Fan translation" app/site/category. Until they have officially translated it or whatever. Sure this is more a solution to long running series which haven't been translated. It wouldn't necessarily solve the weekly release issue. But it's a step in the right direction and opens up a revenue stream that works with the existing community.

[@nuzzlefutz8607]

They’ll never stop it anyway. There will always be a way to get the content.

[@S-titik]

Every solution has a problem, and every problem has solution.

[@LudaChez]

I've honestly pirated all my Manga. Every Friday morning I have sites I check. But I feel I heard its not expensive to get access to actual translations on the day they are released. Anyone with suggestions would be appreciated, cause I should be paying for this stuff anyway. I pirated it when I wasn't so in to it. Now I'm excited every Friday for OP, Black Clover and MHA and Super usually around the 20th.

[@jorgemotta8290]

I pirate because i live in a country where you can eat for 1 week with 1 dollar if you are that desperate (I'm not) but i also walk in a tight rope with my finances.

[@nuredingeziqi679]

Weekly Shonen jump properties always come out Sunday at the same hour for free, either on the Viz website or on Mangaplus, it depends on where you live Oh, and now the MangaPlus app gives you one free readthrough of each chapter of every manga, but only on their app which is unfortunate

[@bleachvshollow]

Shonen jump app it's so cheap

[@thats4thebirds]

The viz app costs 2$ a month and gets you access to hundreds of titles and 100 chapters a day

[@DxReaper120]

@Nuredin Geziqi Shonen jump app is free. You get all new chapters free every Sunday and it's 2$ a month. Pirating Shonen manga is ridiculous at this point because they basically give it out

[@chriszorander9333]

I have been trying to buy the One Piece box sets for 2 years. But they're sold out everywhere and they don't seem to be publishing more. I've even contacted Viz about it, but they just say they're "delayed". Like, I'm trying to buy their product, but they won't sell it. Maybe print some translations instead of banning scans. Or make the online app available outside the anglosphere, because it's not available where I live.

[@flamesage0992]

I personally read the initial scanlation, and then the official translation because I want both interpretations of the translation

[@0725038]

Money money money, its mine, not yours... That's been the number one rule for a long time now.

[@Tsurf]

Where I live most of the stuff I love watching or reading are either: 1) not available at all without basically begging a store to special order it (like my friends and I back in highschool had to beg our local bookstore to order MtG cards, what we got were only booster packs that were sometimes available) 2) region-locked (I gave up on Streaming Services in general after that) 3) disingenuous (hi Crunchroll) 4) expensive while offering a subpar experience I'm honestly not asking for much, just access to the stuff I love and a way to guarantee that the creator, their team, and publishers can get my money so that they can continue to do their thing. My trust and faith though has been waning.

[@HippoJPLauncher]

I only ever pirate unavailable/obscure stuff so hopefully things all work out and those kinds of series are still easily accessible

[@vladr8968]

I want my manga now! Not when I plan my journey to Japan after COVID in 10 or so years. Not when they translate and deliver an entire book in a year nor even 2 days for the official release. If you won't translate it somebody will and if there is a way to distribute illegal drugs so is the manga which is my personal addiction.

[@baltzy1616]

I Have no Choice But To Pirate Anime Cause The Streaming Service For it Has Licensing Issues in My Country:(

[@adamcristia1585]

I feel like there has to be more money to be made In generating loyal fan base and merchandising then there would be through with holding scan and alienating large amounts of potential

[@superneenjaa718]

One thing these people don’t get is that if these pirate sites can get translators, make the content available as fast as possible and still make money off of it despite there being countless competitors providing the same service, manga publishers themselves should be able to do it too. Why doesn’t shonen jump themselves make a website with all their IPs? They can even get away with charging a fair subscription fee.

[@DesnestheDwarf]

Shueisha should take this money to provide a good alternative! it's like with drugs! if you don't allow it, that doesnt stop anyone.. if you allow it and get them a way to consume, you can even earn money from it

[@sambeg2]

If only they made an effort so that people like us who don't have access to the content all over the world would we be happy. Piracy really helped anime grow which would be impossible if left alone to these companies. Piracy will never stop innovating and thriving unless these companies step up their game. What Liam said here disks bounds and his the nail on the head. Kudos man.

[@planswalker]

But you see the consumer is not important to them they want us to be mindless cashless slaves they can siphon money out of without having to put in any effort to give us what we want

[@sambeg2]

@@planswalker That's what saddens me. Virtually anything is possible today they just don't want to deal with the legalities of every country's distribution cuz they really don't care. We fans want to support the creators in some form or another, we may not be financially capable enough to support them but through models like Netflix we could share an account to buy a subscription so many of us could pitch in even if a little. Their reluctance to adapt is really saddening as a consumer.

[@epicgamingmoment2715]

I'd love to buy all of Medaka Box but none of it is localized, I don't know what they expect me to do lmao I've found so many cool series from scans that I've bought later

[@igotveemon]

A lawsuit like this would really only work if you can prove that there's an actual loss in revenue, which there isn't, since these products aren't legally available outside of Japan for the most part, and aren't being pirated inside Japan for the most part. Sure, a Japanese court can sign the injunction, but so what?

[@bruhtholemew]

The stuff I read doesn't even have official translations 90% of the time. And when they do the english translators update at 1/6 the speed of fan translators.

[@ZainAK283]

Great video! I'd appreciate it if the end of the video had a few seconds of "blank" time so I have time to like, comment, etc. after the video ends, and before my playlist moves on to the next video, thanks!

[@C0ldIron]

A potential business could be made from this. Just like Shonen Jump has a subscription that lets you read everything they have published on line there should be a company that can license all the manga that companies aren’t willing to try or were not successful enough to complete on a book steaming service. With the amount of manga there is in a month I would be willing to pay $10 a month to be able to read them.

[@TrevorNickell]

Naoki Urasawa's MONSTER is one of my favorite stories of all time. I have all of the Perfect Editions of the Manga but there's no legitimate way to get the anime in the US anymore. It USED TO BE on Netflix but was removed. Individual episodes USED TO BE available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video but were also removed. Viz released 2 DVDs containing 3 episodes each then abandoned the home release in the mid 2000's, before the Anime-Boom really took off. I ended up having to torrent the series to re-watch it, eventually bought a bootleg DVD collection to have something physical & recently bought the Australian box set (that I can't even play) just to have something *official* & physical. Last year I discovered ALL episodes are available here on YT in HD, Sub & Dub because Viz (or whoever has the US distribution rights) just doesn't care. I WANT to give them money for an official Blu-ray box set but they'd just rather leave said money on the table because the first two volumes of their poorly (or not even) advertised home release didn't sell like gangbusters 20 years ago.

[@grandmasta0079]

my go-to example in gaming is Mother 3, Nintendo still refuses to translate it despite there being countless fans wanting it. The download page for the English patch even says that they will delete it if Nintendo ever releases an official translation and that Nintoendo is free to straight up use the fan translation if they want to.

[@pirate_king4211]

My heart stopped when I saw the thumbnail

[@shonenenthusiast]

I feel like if you have the option to pay for an offices digital release always go that route

[@jrpgmike]

all big companies are like this. they dont care about bettering themselves and they don't give a crap about the customer as we are just numbers to them but they will try their hardest to do what ever they can to force the customer ( they dont give a crap about ) to buy their product .

[@bruhtholemew]

In this case they don't even try their hardest though. They don't translate majority of their stuff because they don't see it profitable in the west, and when they do they end up having the translation over a year behind the source.