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You may have noticed a few changes around here at YaoiSuki. That's because we've moved to a new host, and in the process upgraded and altered a bunch of our features (most notably: embedded wiki and better forums). Unfortunately, we lost our user database in the move, so those of you who were signed up will unfortunately need to sign up again. It's a pretty painless process though!
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[Column] Troubles for Doujinshi |
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Written by Jen Parker
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Sunday, 11 February 2007 |
The news hasn't been specifically yaoi-related, so we haven't really posted it, but today I'm going to use this column to talk/rant about several news that puts "parody" doujinshi in some serious trouble and a couple of ways it might affect not only BL fans, but anime/manga fans in general.
{mos_sb_discuss:20}
There is a mistaken notion around the Internet that because "parody" doujinshi (e.g. doujinshi based on the copyrighted works of someone else) is prominent and easy to purchase, it must therefore be legal in Japan. Before I started really getting into the stuff, I myself assumed it was the case. But of course it's not: doujinshi is technically copyright infringement in Japan, just like it would be here.
However, it has a long history of being tolerated, largely because it helps spread out the fanbase and supports a pool of potential talent. The latter is probably especially important, perhaps largely due to the fact that manga in Japan is generally supposed to have an actual ending, unlike many comics in the US which are expected to continue on for all eternity (*cough cough* lookin' at you guys, DC and Marvel). If stories actually end, the need for new stories and new creators is considerably higher, no?
So manga publishers have, at least as far as I know, always tolerated parody doujinshi. Which is why I was amazed when I read on ComiPress that Shogakukan is considering suing the creators of a Doraemon doujinshi. And no, it does not appear to be some particularly disturbing and/or adult doujinshi, either. Nonetheless, its creators may be sued for copyright infringement.
On its own one might hope it was merely some kind of isolated incident, but another report from ComiPress says that a group called JASRAC, which is the Japanese equivalent of BMI (e.g. they do rights management for music) is hoping to do for manga what they do for music: arrange for people to pay for the use of copyrighted materials.
If JASRAC, who is also involved in YouTube's difficulties, succeeds, it may mean that doujinshika can legally use copyrighted materials...if they pay for the use.
That doesn't sound like a huge deal, since doujinshika sell their works in the end, but there's no word on what kind of price ranges one might see, and perhaps more importantly, no word on what kind of restrictions might be involved. (Note that I can't read anywhere near enough Japanese to read the original articles, but I am presuming that if there were significant details, ComiPress would have included them.)
Note that this is all my speculation, but if this JASRAC deal happened, it's not hard to imagine that in addition to a fee, there might wind up being restrictions on what kind of doujinshi can be produced. It wouldn't surprise me, for example, if a work would have to be non-pornographic to be permitted. The doujinshi could even have to meet some particular standards set by the publisher.
I could be worrying about nothing; the fee could be nominal and parody doujinshi could go on its merry and now legal way. But if it didn't, it could have a profound effect, both on manga in general and on yaoi specifically.
The first thing I think of, of course, is the narrowing of the aforementioned pool of potential talent. If you have to put forth any significant amount of money on top of the printing costs, there will no doubt be some number of creators or would-be creators who will decide it's not worth the bother.
If there are restrictions like I suggested above, adult parody doujinshi could find itself having to go underground. Since porn tends to find a welcome home on the 'net, and many US BL fans read illicit scanlations anyway, it's unclear what kind of difference this would make to us, but it could mean considerably fewer works to read.
It would also be kind of interesting to see what would happen for creators who do doujinshi of their own work, like Yoshinaga Fumi and Taishi Zaou. It depends on how their publishing contracts work, of course-- aka whether the publisher or the creator held the copyright. But if the publisher holds the copyright, in theory the original creator might have to pay to use their own works.
Which could, of course, discourage them from doing doujinshi. Then again, there might be special dispensations for original creators.
After talking to some friends on this topic, it seems like manga publishers ought to think twice before jumping on board the JASRAC train. As I mentioned earlier, if it cuts into their pool of potential creators, that harms them as much as it harms us. So hopefully my fretting is unwarranted.
But when there's money to be made, you never know. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 17 November 2007 )
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