Amazon Doujinshi Incident
| Event | |
|---|---|
| Event: | Amazon doujinshi incident |
| Participants: | unknown Amazon seller |
| Date(s): | 19 April 2012 - 13 June 2012 |
| Type: | conflict |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
On 8 June 2012, Komatsu Mikikazu[1] reported[2] that about 140 Japanese doujinshi were being offered for sale as "fanbooks" on Amazon Kindle stores in various countries. The doujinshi were translated into English and cost $9.99 each. In a blog entry, Komatsu recounted how an acquaintance had found the doujinshi on the Kindle store, where what appeared to be a single seller had been adding them since 19 April 2012.
When Komatsu contacted several of the circles whose works were being offered for sale, it turned out that none had given permission for their works to be sold in this way. The doujinshi were also available for free on some doujinshi scanlation sites, which led Komatsu to speculate that someone might have grabbed those scanlations and made them into Kindle e-books without the knowledge of even the scanlators.
The news drew much attention from Japanese- and English-language Twitter and 2channel[3] users over the following days, especially when it was spread by popular Twitter users such as manga researcher Yukari Fujimoto.[4]
On 12 June, Komatsu reported that Amazon had removed all the doujinshi in question.[5] She credited the doujinshika and all others who had complained to Amazon for convincing the company that the seller of the translated doujinshi did not have the right to offer the works for sale.
Doujinshi can also be found on the Japanese Amazon site, but these are generally offered for sale by the circles themselves, not being uploaded without permission.
References
- ^ Komatsu researches the distribution of anime and manga outside of Japan.
- ^ "海外AmazonのKindleストアで、日本の同人誌の英訳版が無許可販売されている件について". 2012-06-08. Archived from the original on 2022-03-28.
- ^ "Example thread".
- ^ Yukari Fujimoto on 9 June. "Tweet".
- ^ "海外AmazonのKindleストアで無許可販売されていた日本の同人誌は、全て削除されました". Archived from the original on 2020-09-09.