On Thu, 4 Dec 1997 mahoujin@rocketmail.com wrote:

> Just a thought : this is also why companies like DH dislike fan
> translations... they are eating their money. And in case anyone hasn't
> corrected it yet, the real AMG translating is done at Studio Proteus, not DH.
> SP is purely a tranlation company, that's why the translations are of such a
> hight quality.

I've brought that point up before, but it usually just starts a big
flamewar so I didn't mention it at the time. In defense of fan
translations I should point out that it still requires you to purchase an
original AMG Manga in order to be useful so the folks who deserve to be
compensated are. Unlike when you grab MPGs of songs or buy SonMay CDs or
even Fansubs, fan translations still require a legitimate purchase of the
manga in question. 

It does give justification for the folks at Dark Horse to skip chapters,
though, if they feel there are too many fan translations to make a profit
on a particular set of chapters. 
 
> BTW : What the japanese artists think of their stuff being translated ny fans
> without their permission. I think they aren't very happy... I suspect that
> this issue divides the fans quite sharply in two.

This really depends on whom you're talking about. By and large the folks
most likely to be upset by fan translations and fansubs and the like are
the parent companies such as Kodanasha (sp?) or Pioneer who hold the
rights and are eager to license them overseas. The more fan translations
and fansubs of something that are available outside of Japan, the harder
it becomes for them to license a series to an import house without having
to lower their asking price. When you look at it from an import house's
point of view you find that more fan translations and fansubs that are
available the justification of taking a risk on licensing something,
especially some of the more obscure stuff, becomes harder to maintain.

When you get down to the individuals who write, produce, direct, etc. any
particular anime you find that some are sympathetic to overseas fansubs
and translations and some aren't. It varies depending on which particular
person you're talking about when it comes to the individuals themselves.

Les

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Les Jenkins    | The Casual Otaku (http://www.cris.com/~Dream)
dream@cris.com | Animecca: The Anime Magazine (http://animecca.com)