User blog:Angel Emfrbl/Another one bites the dust

Apparently I've woken up with a case of double vision... So I'm being ultra clumsey today and typing is oh so much harder.

I looked at Anime news network yesturday and saw a report on a teenager in Japan getting arrested for scanning manga and uploading it on the internet. Thats the 3rd case that I know of myself. I know a few years back a Bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo (did I get the right no. of "bo"s?) scanning group were caught. The other groups are scared for a few weeks, but slowly return if they dare. Some people don't realise that besides breaking the law, in some cases they also risk their jobs (some snap shooter spoilers work for the magazines) and their shop in others.

I don't support scanning groups much, though I admit reading a few in the past. However, all reading on-line manga did was make me buy figurines for One Piece and 3 plush dolls. I guess out of guilt or interest, one of the two. You can't always get hold of the manga at times over here and when I went to conventions, they were there in front of me. You have to put money into your hobby, be it Vocaloid or manga or anything else. That means buying a CD, Vocaloid or figurine in this hobbies case. Why? While things are free on-line, someone has to pay for the producers of the series' bread and butter. They don't produce these for kicks.

So that means, even if you read a manga on-line for free, at some point you've got to take a look at that nice Goku figurine and ask yourself; "what makes me a fan?". In fact, though I give up figurines, I do state that in worst case scenarios, figurines still supply your hobby in one way shape or form. Its a pity most of the Vocaloid ones are of Miku and pretty plain. I was a fan of Vampire Karin... I've never seen anything related to that to buy besides 4 issues of the manga which were not in serial order. As I said, sometimes, these things are hard to get hold of. Last time I ordered a manga to complete a set I had 3 left to get. I finally managed to get 12 via order. 13 I went to my local comic book and he ordered it in. My (then) boyfriend found me the last. After a struggle to get the last set of volumes, I must admit I'm put off this, though I do own the first 6 volumes of One Piece, the fact the series is so long is off putting. Oda made those large books with 50 chapters inside for this reason, however Viz (or whoever does it these days) are simply not releasing them. I'm waiting to see if they do release them though.

That brings me to why free on-line manga is a strong following. Basically, its "there". However, I've seen too many fans on-line admit that they'd ratehr read that then buy the manga, heck, they refuse to buy anything. They just don't see the point in putting money into the thing they follow, should it disappear they are satisfied with just finding another.

Its back to the mentality "Why should I pay for it when I can get it for free?". Well, for starters, getting it for free is against the law. As some react to this, "I'd not buy it anyway so they loose nothing?". Well, thats the thing fans are expected to pay for our hobby, they are not suppose to view it if their not willing to buy it. Its like pay-per-view TV, you can't view it unless you pay for it. The producers of these things want money to make more of these things and build up strength, this is almost like those who are unwilling to sink money into fishing so might as well be fishing with string and a stick...

Sadly, looking at the wikias latest poll, 17 people out of 169 would result to downloading Vocaloid knowing its illegal... Thats a good outcome considering that most are saying they would at least buy it, but for a satisfactory result it would be next week seeing only 2-4 in that section. So evn though 17 is not much, 17 is more then I wanted to see there.