JP publishers form e-book association

ICv2 cites a report claiming that for every book, an average of 10,000 copies are downloaded illegally.  The report also says that fiction titles are not affected as greatly, with 6,000 downloads on average each.  I suppose they didn’t include manga in their tabulations, where the number of downloads in the US may dwarf actual sales by a few factors…

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The only way this could have been better is if they had used better artwork for the body pillow.

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Spotted via Comics212… Postmodern Barney takes issue with the selection of someone who is openly anti-gay marriage (and possibly seditionary) as the writer of the comic adaptation of Dragon Age, a video game that supposedly has received praise from the gay community for allowing users to play as gay characters (I don’t know, I haven’t gotten very far in the game yet.  But now I’m of the mind to restart with a female elf.).  I’m not going to question the hows and whys behind IDW’s choice, but I suppose if you were planning to support that comic in part because the progressive elements in the game, it’s fair that this particular bit of info be made known to you, and far and wide.

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Spotted on Journalista, Mainichi reports that 21 major Japanese publishers, including Kodansha and Shueisha (and most likely Shogakukan as well), have formed the Japan Electronic Publishing Association, with the stated goal of, well, keeping those companies in the loop as print makes the digital jump.  The move seems to be spurred by the upcoming introduction of a true Japanese version of Amazon’s Kindle reader (the US version of Kindle has been available for sale in Japan for a few months, but it doesn’t have native support for the Japanese language).  An organization like this could influence the design of e-readers, or give publishers more leverage in pricing, but the real purpose is to lock-in digital rights, which until now have been negotiated separately from print rights, allowing authors to self-publish online if they so choose.  Obviously, publishers have a vested interest in combining digital and print rights, and with all the major publishers participating, they would be setting an industry norm, shaping expectations for the future.  In short, this is industry collusion against creators.  There’s really no pretty way to say it (and it’s not as bad as it may sound; consider in the US, a lot of comic publishers work with the assumption that they already have exclusive first rights in all mediums), but it is what it is.

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Comics Vine has a sneak peak at the Graphic.ly service, highlighting the social aspects of the program, some of it inspired by trends in console gaming communities.

Huh… where’s that Longbox service everyone had been talking about?

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Missed it… Robot 6 has condensed Viz’s release schedule for the first half of 2010 to new and notable titles.

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One Piece has boob mouse pads, taking its place behind the Hello Kitty vibrator and Hello Kitty vibrating eggs as the sexiest officially licensed product ever.