Doujinshi, and Open-Sourced Mangacrafting (?)

For some times in my life, I have grown quite a fondness in reading (or watching) doujinshi materials. Be it a one-shot fanart, 4 komas, serious manga… basically, I always liked how a canonized story can be twisted here-and-there by another author’s creativity. Of course, it must be noted that, beyond the twists, the reader must have a firm grip about the canon.

It wouldn’t be good, for example, if I read a doujinshi of Tsukihime wherein Ciel-senpai unofficially went out with Shiki Tohno and think that it must be canon. Heck, everybody knows that Shiki is up to that moe-moe and idiotic white vampire Arcueid… so at this point I have to realize that “no. This isn’t canon.” No matter how much I favor Ciel rather than Arc, I must not let go of fact that Shiki officially chose Arcueid.

Indeed, doujinshi is fun to read because they give one way (or other) about how an original story can revolve. But there’s a problem.

Given the fact that doujinshis usually make use of copyrighted materials (i.e. title series and its characters), they are mostly copyright-infringing. Remember the case of Doraemon doujinshi, in which the original publisher even considered prosecution against it. At this point, creating doujinshi is not just potential fun — rather, it may also serve as a possible ticket to fight in the legal court.

 

But then, some interesting ideas popped up in my mind.

What if, if ever, there are few publishers/companies who put their title under the likes of GNU/Open-source licenses? Or rather, in a lesser degree, maybe following Creative Commons?

This may sound dubious as it seems, but it isn’t actually off-base. When Sun Microsystems decided to put Java and OpenOffice.org under GPL, it gains popularity in terms of sharing the libre spirit. You can use their sourcecodes. You can even made a new word-processor program, out of ripping OOo codes at your own — and then it’s up to you whether you want to sell it or made it free-for-all. It doesn’t matter as long as the copyright is still retained, however.

Of course, by then Sun doesn’t get financial profit from the use of their codes. But it reach to almost every open source-powered desktops. Now, who will find new-age distros that don’t equip itself with OpenOffice and Java?

 

Now, let’s back to the manga case.

Actually, I wonder if some publishers/authors would put some (not all, of course) of their titles to some kind of GPL. For instance, let’s say that it’s a “General Doujinshi Public License” (GDPL).

1. Companies retain their own canon and copyright of the series (including characters) that is licensed under GDPL.

2. People are free to use the characters, series’ story elements, etc., etc. in their doujinshi works, as long as the companies’ copyright of the aspects in questions be acknowledged.

3. No doujinshi can be considered canon, unless approved otherwise by the copyright-holding company/publisher/author(s).

4. People are free (as in freedom) to publish their own doujinshi(s), be it gratis or for profit, as long as it stays distinguished from the original canon series and doesn’t claim otherwise.

That is, open-sourcing manga/anime characters, plot, and settings to the masses.

So there will be two licenses in manga-crafting works. First is the traditional, copyright-related proprietary license (in which the series isn’t legally available to be made doujinshi). The other is GDPL, in which the series put forth is open-sourced for doujinshi-ka and manga artists.

With this, companies can have doujinshis as an effective way of spreading fame of their series — while keeping their sale of canon series — and have the protected-titles untouched from copyright infringement if they want it. ^^V

 

…but, of course, that would be applicable only when everybody in manga industry wants to protect their copyrights about stuffs. Bottom line is, they might want to retain some titles for their own — but when they want to release it, they could just plunge it under GDPL.

E.g. if TYPE-MOON would release Tsukihime in GDPL (due to the series’ being old in age) but want to keep Fate untouched. Then we can have parodies and doujins about Arc, Shiki and Ciel… but hardly any Tohsaka or Saber, for instance.

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Well, I might be way daydreaming — but that’s just a solution I thought of after hearing the Doraemon case.

Any comments?