Why doesn't Japan care about Doujinshi

The reasoning I've heard is its free advertising or fandom, but its still using copyrighted characters.  Even if a manga isn't that big a deal, fans have made doujinshi games using copyrighted characters, and most fans aren't sued.  Yet in the US you have companies like Disney cracking down on adult drawings, and Marvel going after fan sites and City of Heroes for having the potential to create similar character. 

But even Japanese companies seem to take more legal action in the US if a fan project is underway.  Square shut down the 3D Chrono Trigger project, Nintendo threatened an online game for calling itself Zelda Online.  Those are only game examples; most wouldn't dare print a full comic of copyrighted characters in the US.  I can understand when fan projects ask for money, but many are simply free fan projects.  Yet doujinshi in Japan is sold in conventions, even just to cover printing.  It seems Japanese companies are more willing to protect copyrights in the US, but allow near unlimited expression of copyrighted characters in Japan.

>>1

I thought doujin-people hardly make any money in the first place.

>>1
In Japan, the creators consider it a priviledge to have fans.

In the U.S., the creators think their fans owe them a living.

>>1
tl

Those laws are probably easier to enforce in the US

>>5
dr

Doujins aren't just at cons here, they're sold side-by-side the original manga at large-name bookstores. I agree with >>3 that by having more fans interested in the characters, etc., even if the doujin is straight-up porn, it can only benefit the original makers.

That, and unlike in America, people don't sue for shit at the drop of a hat in Japan. I'd like to think it's related to the non-confrontational nature of the Japanese, but unfortunately I also don't know much about the law system here.

I hear they DO sue quite a lot, but the law system moves like molasses and nobody pays attention to any case that isn't HUGE.

and Why doesn't Japan care about scanlation? Your opinion?

>>9
Because scanlation is a non-issue inside of Japan.

When a manga or anime is licenced, then it's the licensing company that pursues the scanlators and fansubbers.

>>1

Only a complete work can be copyrighted, not individual characters.
Let's take the example of Yotsuba, 4chan's mascot.
You can copyright a comic book/series named Yotsubato! (and it becomes ®), the whole content (story, artwork, etcetera), not independent parts of it. You can't copyright "Yotsuba" because it's an actual name, as you can't register the name "Peter" (Parker?).
You can't copyright "green hair kid with four pigtails". It's plain stupid, and it'd be futile to persecute every fanartist in the world for drawing that.

That's why you can make doujinshis. The doujinshi work belongs to their authors (the cirlce) just in the same way that the original manga belongs to the author (the mangaka and editorial). They're considered different works.

Nobody can sue you for making a comic that includes a redhead with ponytails named Tamaki.

It's different if you use a registered NAME of a trademark. Zelda is a name registered by Nintendo, that's why they can sue people for using the name Zelda for commercial purposes.  Most Americna companies copyright some names that are both names of series and characters (Spiderman®, Superman®, Wonder Woman®, Xena®, etc), but most Japanese companies don't register the name of characters (because they use common names for characters) and they register the name of the series instead.

Following the example above, you can get profit from a character named Tamaki Sousaka with the same looks as the To Heart 2 characters, the name and looks can't be registered. But you can't use the To Heart 2 name and logo, that's registered.

Not being original is not a crime, anyway.

That's, briefly, how it works. I hope (some) doubts are cleared now.

I really think westerners should allow themselves to make doujins too. It's not like they'd be sued by some Jap in other side of the world that doesn't know and doesn't care.

I've heard a rule of thumb for something to have at least 10% difference from copyrighted work to be safe.

Could Microsoft sue the OS-tan artists for the look and feel of their OS?

How about a comic or cartoon with characters that looked a lot like Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Wonder Woman, Donald Duck, Elmer Fudd, Wolverine, Cloud, Tifa, etc.  Even changing their costumes a little or changing minor details like hairstyle...

What if they were called by their character name without mentioning the title of the work, like a cartoon called Tifa?

I don't see how that would fly.

>>7
>>Doujins aren't just at cons here, they're sold side-by-side the original manga at large-name bookstores. I agree with >>3 that by having more fans interested in the characters, etc., even if the doujin is straight-up porn, it can only benefit the original makers.

Don't forget the professional artists who also still make doujinshi for fun to sell. Hell, the creator of Excel Saga did hentai doujinshi of his own characters for years. I seriously think it's seen more as a casual hobby, regardless of how much effort is put into it.

I just wonder... Don't foregn fans know the concept of "secondary copyright (二次著作)"?
It's hard to believe but nobody mentioned it, so...

By the way, CLAMP provides official comment about secondary copyright products.

http://www.clamp-net.com/information/index.html

>>15
A lot of artists do that Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima) is regularly selling doujinshi at the Comiket

whoa, i want a list of Ken's doujins!
In my opinion, i think that copyrights are what thats killing the original artists.

For a doujinshi to come out means that the people are advertising the orignial artist's art and when the people finish the doujinshi, they'll appreciate the orignial more because of the nice sex filled or completely new storyline that can either branch off or be completely different from the orignal series.

Doujinshi's are great, screw copyrights. Still you have to admit, America is full of this stuff anyways...

secondary copyrights.

>>1
Just so everyone knows that might not know, its offtopic but... the Online Game Nintendo Threatened was GraalOnline...

www.graalonline.com

I find It stupid Also, If you go and check the Classic Server on Graal you notice alot of Zelda Influence...

People make doujinshi games in Japan.

doujin games

>>1 they didn't call it zelda online...the gmae wa scalled Wiki or something and Nintendo sued them becuase it was pretty much a copy of the Wind Waker Zelda, graphically and engine wise

>>23
agreed