My argument is that companies are offering money for the exclusive license to a work for a given region (i.e. licenses are sold on a geographic basis, or linguistic, in some cases), and thus the result is that there doesn’t exist a single distributor globally.
There cannot be one single global distributor. They would need too much specific knowledge of trademark and copyright laws for every destination country, among others, in order to do that. Plus that would be a distribution monopoly, which in many Western countries is illegal.
It’s not a distribution monopoly because the licensing firms then sell through other avenues (like how, for example, Seven Seas sell their books through Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, etc.). I’m notably omitting Yen Press and J-Novel Club in this discussion because they’re wholly owned by Kadokawa (the latter I don’t believe should have been permitted by the FTC, but what do I know).
I don’t see how trademark and copyright law would be a hindrance. Any multinational company and any company with global markets has to gain this expertise, and they contract lawyers to do so.
Steam can do it. Bandcamp can do it. Netflix can do it. Amazon can do it. What is supposed to be so different for manga or anime?
My argument is that companies are offering money for the exclusive license to a work for a given region (i.e. licenses are sold on a geographic basis, or linguistic, in some cases), and thus the result is that there doesn’t exist a single distributor globally.
There cannot be one single global distributor. They would need too much specific knowledge of trademark and copyright laws for every destination country, among others, in order to do that. Plus that would be a distribution monopoly, which in many Western countries is illegal.
It’s not a distribution monopoly because the licensing firms then sell through other avenues (like how, for example, Seven Seas sell their books through Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, etc.). I’m notably omitting Yen Press and J-Novel Club in this discussion because they’re wholly owned by Kadokawa (the latter I don’t believe should have been permitted by the FTC, but what do I know).
I don’t see how trademark and copyright law would be a hindrance. Any multinational company and any company with global markets has to gain this expertise, and they contract lawyers to do so.
Steam can do it. Bandcamp can do it. Netflix can do it. Amazon can do it. What is supposed to be so different for manga or anime?