The perceived value of a license ("it's utter crap!" vs "must have now!") has no bearing on whether or not scanlations/fansubs -- which may or may not constitute piracy, that's a tough knot to unravel -- hurt long-term sales, though.
Or, alternately: whether it's crap or not will be borne out by the market. If it doesn't even make it TO the market because the company has lost their shirts due to alternate (read: free) providers, then it's a moot point as to its quality.
I'm not an economist, I'm just this guy, y'know? But I've run my own business before and I've been undercut by someone offering what I had to offer (entertainment, in this case) for free. I couldn't compete, even though by all accounts what my wife and I provided was much, much better than what the other guy was offering. It's not a perfect parallel, because he was deliberately setting out to ruin our business and take it for himself (he raised prices after we folded), but the effect is the same.
So yeah, I get that scanlations and such provide a useful service. But I can't imagine a world in which they do, in fact, boost sales. Because people like "free" a lot better than they like "fair value".
Can anyone point at legitimate sources that indicate fansubbing and scanlations have helped anything? A quick Google reveals... um, a lot of bickering on both sides of the fence and very little data. Although I did find an article -- Q&A session, really -- from a publisher who doesn't mind responsible scanlation but notes, even so, that they have the same effect on the market as pirates.
Which I find telling.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
Or, alternately: whether it's crap or not will be borne out by the market. If it doesn't even make it TO the market because the company has lost their shirts due to alternate (read: free) providers, then it's a moot point as to its quality.
I'm not an economist, I'm just this guy, y'know? But I've run my own business before and I've been undercut by someone offering what I had to offer (entertainment, in this case) for free. I couldn't compete, even though by all accounts what my wife and I provided was much, much better than what the other guy was offering. It's not a perfect parallel, because he was deliberately setting out to ruin our business and take it for himself (he raised prices after we folded), but the effect is the same.
So yeah, I get that scanlations and such provide a useful service. But I can't imagine a world in which they do, in fact, boost sales. Because people like "free" a lot better than they like "fair value".
Can anyone point at legitimate sources that indicate fansubbing and scanlations have helped anything? A quick Google reveals... um, a lot of bickering on both sides of the fence and very little data. Although I did find an article -- Q&A session, really -- from a publisher who doesn't mind responsible scanlation but notes, even so, that they have the same effect on the market as pirates.
Which I find telling.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs