Here's an interesting discussion to ponder. Does allowing other industries such as the manga doujinshi one to copy, parody and distribute the work of a copyrighted IP have a beneficial effect on the popularity of the IP or genre as a whole? What limits should copyright law exercise? Are the artists or IP holding publishers themselves free to decide whether to halt or allow this to continue, or should the law be standard and allow the government to step in regardless and prosecute anyone who infringes upon it?
Here are two interesting stories to read:
Ken Akamatsu, the creator of 'Love Hina' and 'Magister Magi Negima', is speaking up to protest against the Japanese government for adopting copyright laws that the U.S. currently has in place with regards to protecting copyrighted works. As an artist and creator of popular IP himself, he finds that the doujin industry by creating parodies and spin offs of his work has actually been financially beneficial to him and others by helping boost its popularity. As well, Akamatsu runs a site that scans and publishes out-of-print manga and doujin with their creator's permission for free online.
You can read more of this story at ANN here:
Negima's Akamatsu Warns Against Changing Japan's Copyright Law
And for another interesting story, would the Vampire genre be as popular today if not for the film 'Nosferatu' going around copyright law to avoid litigation with the Bram Stoker estate?
You can read about that at the links below:
How Copyright Infringement Turned Vampires Into Big Business
Dracula vs. Nosferatu: A True Copyright Horror Story
You can find more fascinating information at the following website:
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/
What do you think?
