Rocket Bomber - twitter

[so, apropos of nothing: I have a new personal rule. Well, more of a guideline. call it an intention. anyway… If some thought or topic occupies my mind and takes more than 4 tweets to properly express: I really need to blog that. I’m not saying I won’t also tweet it — as twitter seems to be my default habitat these days — *that and Google Reader damn you Google damn you straight to hell* — but if I have that much to say, and that much to link to, then I should be making use of the platform here. So. New Rule]

are you done reading the long intro/aside? good.

There has been some buzz and discussion regarding the recent changes to US patent law, the first real changes since 1952, apparently. Gone is the recourse enjoyed by some inventors, that they actually invented it first (which is kinda bad, I guess, as that makes sense) and instead the new law rewards the inventor who is first to file for a patent. If you’re first to file, and the patent is awarded to you, you’re actually in the clear and don’t have to worry about some garage monkey coming in behind you (after you’ve done the work and paperwork and filing fees and headaches and all that) and ganking your patent out from underneath you. (which is kinda good, I guess)

The new law is the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) [wikipedia link] and yeah, um, whatever – what I actually wanted to do was use this as a segue to introduce to you a totally awesome boardgame.

When I read about the new “first to file” proviso in the 2013 AIA – I was immediately reminded of a super cool board game from CheapAss Games called “U.S. Patent Number One”. The premise of the game is that YOU, the player, have just invented a time machine! Mazel Tov! Having invented the time machine, and having all the time in the world [so to speak] there’s not much else to do… except, of course, to lord it over all the other inventors, ever, by making sure your time machine in fact holds US Patent Number One (hence the title of the game).

However, you’re not the only one to invent a time machine (in fact, you might not even have been first) so now there is a race on to finish your machine and be the first in line at the US Patent Office on July 31, 1790, in order to file for Patent no. 1. And that’s the goal of the game.

The premise and the mechanics of the game are fun (as it mostly involves screwing the other players a.k.a. your friends, over and over again) but that isn’t even why I’m recommending it to you today:

In looking for a link to where one might purchase this fine board game product, I discovered The Game Itself Is Now Free! Go here to see a list of amazing CheapAss board games now available for Free! and here [zip file] to go ahead and download all the PDFs you need to play the game.

It is a tad inconvenient, as you have to print out everything, including the board, but hey! Free!

And maybe with the recent changes in law (and blog posts like this one) James Ernest or CheapAss Games will go to kickstarter (or similar) and try to get a physical copy of the game in print again, for all of us to enjoy

In response to a conversation on twitter, where some customers lament that they can’t buy their books from a single digital vendor:

[1of5] I think folks are blinded by the existence of [physical] Book Superstores out by the mall: Yes, BigBoxBooks stocks everything.

[2of5] but they can only do so with the help of dozens of middlemen – book distributors and occasionally the publishers themselves

[3of5] – along with a business model that is neutral to all suppliers and retailers: A physical book once sold can change hands many times

[4of5] Digital not only cuts out the distributors/middlemen, some insist that a ‘book’ is a license: sold once, direct to the consumer

[5of5] So you will never have a *single* digital ‘bookstore’ – the very things you like about the format make such a store impossible.

My, it has been a long, *long* time since I posted poetry to a blog. ;P

And absolutely no one is going to believe me, but I wrote this in real time while posting last night to twitter – which means I can knock out a kids-book-parody in about 18 minutes.

[I kid, I kid: I know it’s hard work]

Anyway, the original tweets: 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : 10 : 11

Time for all the lil’ evil geniuses to sleep

Good night giant robot, with laser eyes and arms that crush
Good night evil minions, whose kung-fu training leaves them bushed

Good night laser moon base, who keeps an eye on every soul
Good night hidden silos, whose missiles wait for special codes

Good night sleeper agents, sleep well, we don’t need you *yet*
Good night all my hackers, rule the night – and the ‘nets

Good night secret lair, in cold volcano’s once warm heart
Good night booby traps, and pits, and blades, and poison darts

Good night secret agent. you’ve been caught, you careless fool.
Good night, little Evil. Sleep and dream, of worlds to rule.

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And just a friendly reminder that this, like all my posts to RocketBomber, is released to the vast internets under a Creative Commons license.

Good Night, Little Evil by Matt Blind is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.rocketbomber.com/contact.

So, if you happened to join the discussion on RocketBomber just a couple of weeks ago and were under the impression that the blog is just about business analysis with the occasional odd word on retail: thank you. Skip this post, and I won’t have to excuse or explain anything further.

If you’re still with me: I’m about to eat some red meat and swill some beer and get my umbrage out of the storage case – and really rant a bit.

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[links below represent, and largely repeat verbatim, posts I made to my twitter account]

I wish there were 3 separate, concise terms for fans-who-like-stuff, fans-who-BUY-stuff, and “fans”-who-STEAL-stuff .

See, a fan or “fanatic” really, really likes something. That is not only their defining characteristic, it’s the only requirement for membership in the fan base.

Some fans watch the show on ‘free’ [ad-supported] network TV or ‘free’ [subscription-and-ad-supported] cable TV, and wonder why, since they saw it for free once, why the DVDs cost so much, or why CN cancelled it, or why Nick only shows it on the Nickelodeon-in-the-high-hundreds distaff sub-network, or why they have to stay up until 1AM (or the ultimate hardship of having to set one’s TiVo) to watch this ‘free’ program.

See, there? “Free” things have costs. All things have costs. Some are dollar costs, some are opportunity costs, some are travel and transportation costs, some are insubstantial: the costs/time required to find it online, the costs/time to educate yourself about the industry, and creators, and the history of manga, anime, cartooning, animated film, animated film brought to television, comics as both an art form and a mass produced consumer product, or the costs/time spent learning the names and relative merits of all 493 Pokémon.

And while “time equals money”, your time spent acquiring knowledge means nothing, it’s only your money that communicates things outside of the internet and across oceans to the creators who are starving in Japan (and, well, subcontractors in S. Korea and China and who knows where next) (and I’ve yet to hear the impassioned call from any fan that they stop exploiting cheap labour from third countries, pay animators a living wage in Japan and elsewhere, and support both artistic integrity and basic production standards because our love of anime will support the higher costs.) (…just sayin’)

If you like it, buy it. It’s that simple.

If you can’t buy it: then you can’t have it.

You know where people get things only because they really, really want them? That’s communism, son. We don’t do communism.

And a whole internet is waiting in the wings with their very own, “Yes, I know, but…“

Save it.

Say, you know where people provide goods to those willing to pay money – enough money to cover costs (& with a profit to the seller?) That’s America!

Or more broadly, capitalism. Or even more broadly — for hybrid systems that provide education, health care, and basic needs under a European-style-socialist-safety-net with free trade and capitalist markets for luxuries and other goods, or even nominal-communist countries that still have active smuggling, pirating, and foreign-currency transactions — that’s The Market.

Even in places without “free” markets, there are black and grey markets — where the demand for goods overcomes ideology, philosophy, best intentions — and Marx, Lenin, Mao, Keynes, Friedman, Hayek and all the rest; Economics as a discipline, and as an academic study — are all subject to the universal truth that if I have something you want & I’m willing to part with it, you’re going to have to ‘pay’ for it one way or another.

Ad-supported models spring immediately to mind for the so-called-‘free’ internet: your attention is being sold; even if you don’t value it, there is money to made there.

Mutual exchange models used to proliferate, back in the earliest days: I have video tape X, you have video tape Y & we trade — and when fandoms were still courteous, polite affairs, I might extend something ‘free’ in the name of friendship (a history of past fair dealings) knowing that when you get something new, I’ll be the first person you think of.

A lot of “fans” complain that not enough is being done to specifically cater to their “fandom”, without defining terms or putting a price tag on it.

Oh sure, the only manga that you’d ever consider spending money on is so far out of the mainstream that there’s no way it’d ever be available for sale in a bookstore. Um. Well.

Inubaka? Freakin’ Dog Manga? Viz.

Cooking manga? Viz, Viz Signature, Del Rey — Iron Wok Jan was ComicsOne and when they went out of business it was rescued by DrMaster.

Maids? CMX, Seven Seas, Tokyopop.

Robots? Maid Robots? Butlers? Supernatural possibly-demonic Butlers?

Idols, Pop Stars, Rock Stars, Actors, washed-up idols mentoring ingenues, highschoolers working as managers for other highschoolers who have to cross-dress while not performing to hide the fact that they are entertainment superstars?

Ninja, Wizards & Witches, Guns, School Girls, School Girls with Guns — Eastern-myth influenced, Western-myth influenced, at least five takes on Journey to the West (with both monkey-boy shonen action heroes and bishonen angsty drama included) — Ukes and Semes — Fanboys, Otaku, Fujoshi — budding artists and cute art school students — female shogun and male debutantes — sci-fi of all stripes and a whole load of epic fantasy, reverse vampires, paper masters, time travel, time-travel-romance where our heroine is dislocated to a fantasy/medieval realm where only she can tame the wild warrior(s) and bring peace to either the past, the present, or both?

Blue Space Vampires from Beyond the Moon, replaying 18th century French drama with the barest gloss of futuristic overlay? Sci-fi adaptations of Shakespeare with flying horses, the heroine as an underground freedom fighter and the ruling duke re-imagined as a sentient tree with Ophelia borrowed from Hamlet to serve as high priestess? Space Garbagemen? A Photographer who blows things up when he takes their picture?

I’m not even digging all that deep here. Just some stuff I happen to have on the shelf (plus RomeoxJuliet, which I don’t own but soon will). And I haven’t even mentioned [yet] Afterschool Nightmare, Aqua/Aria, Crest/Banner of the Stars, Kashimashi, Shugo Chara, Someday’s Dreamers, Sundome, VB Rose, Yotsuba&!, Yubisaki Milk Tea or other personal favourites yet.

Dude. Dude. Dude. To claim that, well, “the titles I like just aren’t getting licensed” is to ignore A Freakin’ Bookstore full of licensed, translated manga, and a lot of it is really good, and really-weird-but-really-good, and creepy, and disturbing, and fun (and some of it is bland, and routine, and predictable but still worth reading in some ways) and it’s a lot like any other genre and/or format of books: there’s stuff you really should buy, and stuff publishers would like you to buy, and stuff you almost bought but didn’t [the marketing was off, or it just wasn’t popular, but then when more volumes come out you really wish you’d started buying it earlier]

And then there’s the MMF, where a round dozen reviewers [plus new participants] are telling you each month about a great title (with multiple volumes) that you previously missed, or ignored,

and then there’s the crap:

95% of everything is crap. Of Everything. 95% of the crap you download is crap, except you ignore it because it was free crap, and yet you insist that the market is failing because first, it served up crap for you to pirate (for free, even though others are paying for that crap and you insist that it’s still crap even as you download it) and second, because your highly-trained crap filter is about to overload from all the crap, even though the crap is free and you can’t be bothered to think about your free manga & anime past the reflex response to call it all crap (even though you download it all anyway) and what you call “crap” may in fact be my much beloved Full Moon O Sagashite and who the eff are you to call it crap?

I make fun because I care.

There is an awful lot of passive/aggressive resentment directed at manga/anime [especially the corporate producers] about how it all sucks — and yet they [said fans] compulsively consume everything and also point to how their compulsive consumption somehow makes them *experts*.

If it sucks so bad, why are you arguing with me on news sites, blogs, forums, and occasionally even in the comments on this very [poorly-trafficked] blog?

Why the passion? Whence the passion?

##

I know the answer already: Manga and Anime are Just That Good.

but you can’t always pay for it. Not what it deserves anyway. and your frustration leads you to blame not your own poverty, or the disconnect between what you can afford and what you want —

but to instead blame the whole ‘problem’ [which isn’t a problem, unless you can’t afford licensed content] on the greed of licensees, or the ignorance of the ‘buying’ public [who pay for things, but for the wrong things, in your book] or on “censorous” American publishers who “butcher” your books and censor things outside of the ‘artist’s original intent’

[and actually that’s a fine argument but doesn’t excuse, explain, or exempt piracy]

And really, even before you began reading this post or I began writing it, you already have a position and my attempts at logic or persuasion are for naught:

Either You Are With Us, and you believe buying licensed manga is the best way to not only support the industry but also communicate what we like [through dollars spent] to licensees, licensors, and major publishing companies…

Or you imagine the real world doesn’t run on dollars, but rather some odd construct where desire, good will, unspoken intent, and hit counts on online sites amount to “sales” [no, they don’t] or that enthusiasm and a sheer number of posts about a property contribute to that property’s success [no, it doesn’t] or that your love, a Love so great it compels you to actively campaign against the financial interests of the people who produce your anime & manga, and who do so on the very barest of profit margins, because they happen to crassly ask for money (or who made minor compromises in their pursuit of major market acceptance) (or even just to make a few bucks off of TV) (and which is then a ‘major betrayal’ of the fanbase)

Pray tell: exactly what odd fandom you personally are so ever-loving loyal to that you can’t find anything else to financially support in the wide, wild market?

Really? Yeah, I get that you like things, even things that aren’t translated, but that automatically precludes you liking everything else? Wholly Effin Shiznats, I mean, everything?

One can only defend piracy if the government is specifically censoring the manga you want to read [and not the market, which determines what will sell, but the government, which censors things you want to buy but can’t because otherwise you’ll go to jail]

The fact that some manga are economically unfeasible is a fact of life, and regrettable, but not actionable. The unavailability of some manga is a fact of life, and while you’re welcome to pirate them [if one must read them] that doesn’t translate into an inalienable right and certainly isn’t an excuse. If you chose to obtain these from the Black and Grey markets, recognise you’re breaking the law and do so quietly; don’t make a fuss and be happy you were able to skate underneath the law.

Dear Manga & Anime “Fans”: What, are you communists? Front some $$ or sit down and STFU. — and you’re not fans, you’re whiny, entitled children

I buy a lot. I work at a job where I sell books, and at least in theory, sell manga [though at least a third of all manga sold through my store is just me ‘selling’ books to myself]

Honestly, I don’t want to read a single argument about manga piracy unless the author reveals just how much money they spend annually on manga, and if they don’t, just how they expect the industry to continue while they not only don’t support it but are actively killing it.

##

Last year I spent $4895 on manga. [just manga]

You don’t have to beat me to have an opinion. but if you’re about to bring up a “I download scalations because the type of manga I like just doesn’t get published” I’m going to require a listing of all the unlicensed manga to which you refer, at least a cursory argument on why currently available licensed [LEGAL] manga doesn’t suit your particular kink, and [at best] a listing of untranslated manga you’ve bought via alternate channels [amazon.jp, for a start] because your love of the art is sufficient to prompt purchases of the manga even if you can’t read it. [yet. one also hopes you’re learning Japanese if you ‘love’ the manga this much]

What? I’m demanding too much?

Honestly, I’m only asking you to pay your way. I’m pointing out that there are legal alternatives. I’m stressing that in the lack of legal alternatives there is still no excuse for stealing. If you want to be an uncaring bastard and pirate content anyway, that’s certainly an option that is available but don’t excuse it, and most certain don’t try to pitch it as either noble or justified, ‘just because you’re a fan’

Don’t give me general arguments about why you pirate manga because it’s ‘not available’. Tokyopop just announced Hetalia Axis Powers — All I need is a Saint Young Men announcement, and I can claim there’s nothing to stop licensees, past money, and market demand.

…with a bag of stale pretzels.

You ever been in a situation where a friend of yours was throwing a party, but you had to work until 10 that night and couldn’t make it until well after the shindig was underway, and folks had come, drank, hooked-up, and left before you even made it out to your friend’s place?

And you heard about the awesome jello-shooters, and the single-barrel bourbon, and the imported beer, and it’s all gone by the time you roll up and the only thing that’s left is half a keg of cheap, evil-smelling american lager, a bowl of stale pretzels, and what appears to be the all-male membership of the local uni “Frat Boy Studies Club” losing to the Intramural Beer Pong Team?

Still, a kegger is a kegger even if you’re late, and the only thing to do is start drinking.

##

My belaboured analogy aside—

There has been a lot of twitter and blog activity around this guy, Nick, and what his half-assed comic book might mean for new publisher Radical, and also what his actions and the vehement reaction on the part of a fraction of manga fans might say about both the alleged plagiarism and other acts of outright theft — like, say… fansubs, scanlations, and things-out-there-pretending-to-be-fansubs-and-scans that are just sleazy, lazy rips of officially licensed product.

Pro Tip: Icarus is not a scanlation group, and [R1 DVD] in a bittorrent filename is theft, straight up.

Deb has the best summary up, and the conversation continues (on twitter and in the comments at manga.about.com) and Really, This is a Gift that Keeps on Giving — we could argue free vs artist vs fan vs responsibility vs expectation vs sustainability vs what is wanted vs what is owed vs market factors vs New Media bullshit until the eventual heat death of the universe. There are partisans on all seven (eight? thirteen?) sides willing to argue their points to the bitterest of bitter ends, and nothing happens — and for some, ‘nothing happens’ is exactly what they want: no change at all to the status quo that enables their bad and illegal habits.

Sure, you like manga and anime. You can tell me so on the internet, you can quote Haruhi chapter and verse and can argue the finer points of Gundam Wing vs Macross Frontier. You’re a geek and a nerd and an expert and I’m just a poseur who shouldn’t have an opinion (or be allowed an opinion) because I dirty myself with the actual commerce of manga — since I sell books for a living it should be past obvious that I’ve sold out.

Gods, so much is wrong with our society, internet or otherwise.

Anyway.

For those of you willing to consider the alternate point of view, I have three links for you. Two years ago I started to research fansubs for a column, but I never managed to finish writing it, and now a lot of the points are moot, or superseded, by events that have occurred since. But, my early readings are still valid (or more valid) and I’d like to share:

The Ethics of Fansubbing, credited to ‘dejiko’ at everything2.com from July 2000. This is an early take from a former fansubber and how things were about to go horribly wrong 10 years ago http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=634984

I’m not a lawyer, but this guy is: go read “Of Otakus and Fansubs: A Critical Look at Anime Online in Light of Current Issues in Copyright Law” by Jordan S. Hatcher http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/SCRIPT-ed/vol2-4/hatcher.asp

and

Ask John @ AnimeNation from March 2008, Does the Anime Industry Deserve Some Blame for the Popularity of Fansubs? http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/03/04/ask-john-does-the-anime-industry-deserve-some-blame-for-the-popularity-of-fansubs/

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So now I may never write that column, and these are all older links (showing that this is not a new problem by any stretch) but at least the effort wasn’t wasted.

@ProfessorBlind Chipped in $25 #cash_for_robot to help a worthy cause – encourage you to do the same. www.giantrobot.com/donate

ProfessorBlind observation: twitter ’09 = webforums ’03 = AIM/ICQ ’98 = IRC ’90 = listserv ’86 = Usenet ’81 = BBS ’79 — the more things change…

ProfessorBlind …and typically, I resist each change, and only adapt right as the new technology is dying. If trends hold, I just killed twitter.

ProfessorBlind Blind’s Law: A net communication ‘revolution’ every six years, ‘new’ but used the same old way. The New Hotness due in ’12, adopted in ’14

I took a very quick pass through the data for 2009 (scarcer, lumpier, and less polished than I’d like) and was able to crunch some “points” based on the rankings that may or may not correspond to online sales for Yaoi Press titles in the past year. Anyway, here are the top YP titles based on my rankings, with an adjusted score for all of last year:

Cain Trilogy – Yaoi Press, Apr 2009 [141]
Winter Demon 4 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2008 [102]
Dark Prince Trilogy – Yaoi Press, Apr 2009 [91]
Happy Yaoi Yum Yum 1 – Yaoi Press, Jul 2009 [73]
Winter Demon 1 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2006 [61]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 3 – Yaoi Press, Feb 2007 [37]
The Lily and the Rose – Yaoi Press, Aug 2007 [13]
Stallion – Yaoi Press, Jul 2006 [11]
Enslaved by the Dragon – Yaoi Press, Sep 2005 [5]
Gothic Yaoi Bundle: The Works of Dany & Dany – Yaoi Press, Dec 2009 [4]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 4 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2007 [3]
Yaoi (anthology) 1 – Yaoi Press, Mar 2007 [1]
Wishing for the Moon – Yaoi Press, Apr 2007 [1]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 1 – Yaoi Press, Oct 2006 [1]

One thought that occurred to me is that a single ‘point’ may correspond to x volumes sold (maybe 10?) and that online sales as tracked by Amazon, B&N, Borders, et al. necessarily exclude direct sales, and also I have no idea what was moved through book stores and comic shops. So overall sales may be up to 40 (but likely only 20) times the point value found. (but what to make of a single point? The Lily & the Rose likely sold more than 100 copies online, but still didn’t crack the top 1000 on the sites that I track…)

I can only guess… and my best guess is based on manga that hit the sweet spot in the middle of my charts — Dark Horse series Blood+ was the touchstone I used last year (because they posted actual sales numbers for the books that I could base an analysis on) but I know the very top of the chart is under-represented, and I have no real idea what to make of the bottom.

[Not that Yaoi Press is putting out bad books, I did not say that: I’m just saying their volume is lower than the majors. Which should be obvious, but which also means I have less data from which to develop educated opinions]

There are also these, which didn’t rank in 2009 but are still in my database from 2007-8:

Cain 1 – Yaoi Press, Sep 2007 [0]
Cain 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2008 [0]
Dark Prince 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2008 [0]
Dark Prince 3 – Yaoi Press, Sep 2008 [0]
Reflections: the Artwork of Kosen – Yaoi Press, Jan 2008 [0]
Saihoshi the Guardian Omnibus – Yaoi Press, Dec 2007 [0]
Winter Demon 2 – Yaoi Press, Jun 2007 [0]
Winter Demon 3 – Yaoi Press, Feb 2008 [0]
Yaoi (anthology) 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2008 [0]
Yaoi Gothic Sketchbook – Yaoi Press, May 2007 [0]
Yaoi Hentai (anthology) 2 – Yaoi Press, Apr 2006 [0]

I know these sold more than zero. This reflects the limitations of my method. Maybe I have good guesses for YP’s top 5, or top 10 — but I can’t say much about the rest of their catalog, and I can only hope my aggregate online sales estimates are close to the mark. A direct hit is a lucky shot, more often than not.

And thanks: to @yaoipress for sending a few folks my way; hopefully y’all will stick around.

Ha ha ha. (no, I’m not actually laughing, that’s a dry, ironic recital of those three syllables to show mocking, begrudging acceptance of a ridiculous situation)

I signed up for twitter — not so much because I feel it’s a necessary part of an online life but rather because it seems an ideal tool for what it does: a forum for short, snarky reflections on life, the universe, and everything.

However, my proper name was taken, my website’s name was taken, both my preferred handles were taken — and a few of my backups (Beer Disposal Unit, Taishi’s Otaku Army, Epictetus of Nicopolis) are all too long.

I can’t use my professional pseudonym, so… I’ve decided to instead take on a mantle of pretension — not without cause, as I have taught college courses in the past* — if you decide to follow me on Twitter you’ll have to look for ProfessorBlind.

(if you already subscribe to my RSS feed, you can likely ignore me on Twitter, unless Twitter is your preferred platform)

[* as a TA. Psych 1001, Ga. Tech. I also taught homebrewing as an extension course for three years.]