「売ってくれれば買うのに！」海外ファンが語る海賊版問題と、日本との「著作権」を巡る深い溝が話題に

Americans approach copyright with a pragmatic approach, while Japanese tend to favor viewing as like moral rights in the European sense. Americans view copyright as a means to getting the rights holder paid, and they's literally right. Copyright is a censorship regime repressed

The Japanese view is "You either pay for it, or if it's not available, you just don't get it. It may as well not exist for you. Consuming it without the creator having been paid is disrespectful" And I'll never agree with that.

As a half Japanese person myself I know Japan is just a bunch of contradictions a lot of the time the problem is no side wrong and no side right either It gets very annoying sometimes when the issues could be solved in an instant

No need to be rude. Piracy isnt a cultural element of the West, but a service issue. All we ask for is a legal way to access the art we love and to be able to support the artists. We already give half of the total revenue made by the anime industry. Allow us to pay more.

You people are in such a bubble that it never occured to you to ask *why* people overseas tend to resort to piracy? Seriously, the solution is super simple: Sell it to us and we will pay.

What’s really wild to me is people proudly claiming “Westerners just want free stuff.” Do these people think plugging their ears and shouting what they believe will make it true? In many cases, western fans would KILL to support the official release, BUT WE CAN’T!

With piracy I can watch anime online, read manga online, play older video games online, it helps with accessibility of content as well as allows me to prove something within an argument. Piracy on it’s own isn’t good and is often done when no good alternatives exist

In my country, Netflix basically killed piracy when arrived Know... With tons of different streaming services making difficult to watch... Putting ads on paid plans We are seeing piracy returning with the same strength it had before Netflix came out

The worst part is pulling the rug, mostly by using region lock. Case in point: site was DMM/Fanza's JAV service for overseas. They pulled the rug by closing down the site(3mo notice), everyone who bought the digital good from that platform got f*cked.

I'm a boxing fan, and It's kind of weird how Japanese fans will gladly travel to the states to cheer on their fighters, but trying to buy tickets to an event in Japan requires a Japanese address and/or number. Feels hypocritical.

That is a very good point but lately western credit card companies have become a larger part of the problem and are actively trying to destroy anime and manga culture, and alter its very nature at every step of the way along with lots of other groups from the UN down

Creators' wishes here very often are "if the corporation takes it off streaming services without warning and didn't give a physical release, PLEASE pirate my work and continue to enjoy it", it's a completely different atmosphere.

"They can't datamine the disc, that's illegal" - CAPCOM back in the SFxTk days

Touhou was a big part of internet culture because ZUN is built different.

Im not justifying piracy at all but im sure that people will always try to support peoples work if they can afford it.. Imagine having to buy a 60-80$ game in third world Thats like 7-10 days worth of their minimum wage.. While in first world they work for 3-6 hours..

The biggest ROM/ISO hoarders I've met were japanese dudes who were just really, really into emulation. The 本音 and 建前 phenomenon is really funny when it comes to piracy. Even the most prolific pirates of Japan will hide their power level.

Why would we care if someone says "no"? If I want something I simply take it. I pay for it if paying is easier than stealing, but if stealing is easy I'll steal it. I don't care what the "creator" (or let's be real, Kadokawa) intends to be done with their work.

In reality, the opposite tends to happen: high piracy is usually seen as a financial risk because it makes it harder to recover investment. That’s why film studios invest heavily in anti-piracy enforcement rather than treating piracy as a form of market development.

If piracy truly built markets, then regions with the highest piracy rates should be the most attractive markets for media companies.

With anime and manga, it's just flat-out more complicated than a hardline stance can really account for either way. Our legitimate channels largely arose from piracy, and the two have been heavily intertwined for as long as there's been a major market for Japanese media here.

actually, crunchyroll started as a pirate site. it was eventually purchased by a company, and turned into an official platform for overseas viewers as international distribution of anime began to grow

That may also be a form of survivorship bias. Many series receive fan translations, but only a small number are eventually licensed.

I understand your point about opera, but the situation with anime and manga is very different. Accessibility has already been greatly improved with platforms like MANGA Plus, Crunchyroll, and Netflix providing simultaneous worldwide access, often for free or reasonably priced.

I understand your point. However, in regions where piracy is already widespread, it’s not unreasonable for companies to doubt whether simply providing access would actually translate into paying customers.

Believe it or not there are plenty of Japanese who don’t give a fuck that westerners pirate because they know we literally have no choice in many cases.