I will quickly jump in and say that scanlating/fansubbing is not the same thing as piracy.
That does not make it right, but it does make it different. They are providing high quality translations to a market that will probably never be served by the rights holder.
I don't see scanlating/fansubbing ever going away (especially given that they often do higher quality work than the official releases). The smart rights holders will use the marketing info that can be gathered from this practice to help determine where they should do translations. (i remember reading that the fansubbing comunity was part of the reason that the US got naruto).
It is an entirely different (and complicated) discussion to ask if such an increase in potential market is worth it in terms of sales at the end of the day. And I'm sure there are cases that fall on both sides if the fence.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
That does not make it right, but it does make it different. They are providing high quality translations to a market that will probably never be served by the rights holder.
I don't see scanlating/fansubbing ever going away (especially given that they often do higher quality work than the official releases). The smart rights holders will use the marketing info that can be gathered from this practice to help determine where they should do translations. (i remember reading that the fansubbing comunity was part of the reason that the US got naruto).
It is an entirely different (and complicated) discussion to ask if such an increase in potential market is worth it in terms of sales at the end of the day. And I'm sure there are cases that fall on both sides if the fence.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy