I dunno, J. The industry is behaving in a fairly reactionary manner. It wouldn't surprise me if they actually do turn against their manga-ka. Although I hope they wouldn't be so foolish to do something like that. It'd kill the company in question outright - first from the legal fees from all the lawsuits, then from the sudden lack of manga-ka.
And hell, I'd still buy the tankobon even if I had an entire serial as a digital archive. It's so nice to just be able to flip to the damn page instead of fishing through files!
Really, the Big American Licensees need to get on the ball. They're missing out on something huge by not have portals for digital versions of their manga. And stomping out sites like One Manga and Manga Fox without providing a reasonable alternative is gonna look like RIAA vs. Napster all over again. (Napster may have lost, but RIAA took the worst of the publicity damage.)
If I was in charge, I would have hit OM up for royalties. Each licensee with a manga licensed on the site gets a cut of the pie, size dependent on how many hits each manga gets over the course of a 'billing period'. Example: if manga licensed by Viz Media gets more hits overall than CMX, then Viz gets a larger cut of the profits than CMX, all in proportion to the difference in hits. Unlicensed manga represents the website's share, thus encouraging them to draw on more unlicensed material.
Further more, the Licensees can caveat on what scanslation groups they approve of. That, or they can go through the trouble of paying someone to do it for them. Or even better yet, cut in the scanslation groups. This provides competition among the scanslators, because the Licensee in question is only going to approve of one, maybe two groups. And competition means better quality scanslations.
Finally, OM would probably become a pay-site, but not evilly so. Unlimited access for as little as ten bucks a month, or an a la carte option for the really light readers - fifty cents a chapter or five dollors for a digital tankobon.
So... Cons? Some legal niggles to sort out for certain, and we would have had to start paying for sites like OM and MF... Pros: improved quality (which is already comparable to the 'professional' stuff in some cases), and a lot fewer and less annoying banner ads. (Those religious ones were starting to make me sick.)
And hell, I'd still buy the tankobon even if I had an entire serial as a digital archive. It's so nice to just be able to flip to the damn page instead of fishing through files!
Really, the Big American Licensees need to get on the ball. They're missing out on something huge by not have portals for digital versions of their manga. And stomping out sites like One Manga and Manga Fox without providing a reasonable alternative is gonna look like RIAA vs. Napster all over again. (Napster may have lost, but RIAA took the worst of the publicity damage.)
If I was in charge, I would have hit OM up for royalties. Each licensee with a manga licensed on the site gets a cut of the pie, size dependent on how many hits each manga gets over the course of a 'billing period'. Example: if manga licensed by Viz Media gets more hits overall than CMX, then Viz gets a larger cut of the profits than CMX, all in proportion to the difference in hits. Unlicensed manga represents the website's share, thus encouraging them to draw on more unlicensed material.
Further more, the Licensees can caveat on what scanslation groups they approve of. That, or they can go through the trouble of paying someone to do it for them. Or even better yet, cut in the scanslation groups. This provides competition among the scanslators, because the Licensee in question is only going to approve of one, maybe two groups. And competition means better quality scanslations.
Finally, OM would probably become a pay-site, but not evilly so. Unlimited access for as little as ten bucks a month, or an a la carte option for the really light readers - fifty cents a chapter or five dollors for a digital tankobon.
So... Cons? Some legal niggles to sort out for certain, and we would have had to start paying for sites like OM and MF... Pros: improved quality (which is already comparable to the 'professional' stuff in some cases), and a lot fewer and less annoying banner ads. (Those religious ones were starting to make me sick.)