OriginalSin
Newbie
- Sep 26, 2017
- 30
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- 169
Well, you won't catch me dying on any hill to defend Japan's censorship laws. They're dumb and arbitrary and I have no intention to argue otherwise. The thing is, distribution and logistics are why DLsite exists. For digital goods, it's definitely possible for creators to create a direct line of access for would-be customers, but it's also something I imagine many don't want to deal with. Publishers don't just handle distribution, they also provide a level of legal protection for creators in the event of lawsuits. Their legal departments are self-serving, but an author of a book is far less capable of defending themselves from a lawsuit (frivolous or not) than the lawyers retained by say, Simon & Schuster.I actually understand both your points, but regulations on porn in Japan are far too stupid, and I'm quite sure DLsite loses a lot of value out of their products just because of this. I'm just using this game as an example, but in reality, I'm sure this thing happens for most other games they publish; I'm not gonna buy it off of DLSITE, imma download it and pay the creator. Already said it various times, and I don't care how much does that piss other people off(Because apparently people gets pissed off thinking I don't want to support D-LIS now, which I actually want, I just don't think such a restricting site is the way)
This would not be the first company to expand with smaller versions of their own business outside their main country of operation. Hell, up until recently(A year ago?), DLSITE actually had 2 different sites for English and Japanese users, and they merged both sites, adding the English translation to the main site so they don't have 2 separate pages, so it's not outside of reason to think they could pull it off with making a small office in another country. They'd have to, indeed, check if it would be profitable...I don't think they can truly check if they don't try, though...They can't really calculate the number of users who would buy more products if they were uncensorable.
Additionally, while an international subsidiary is not exactly the hardest thing to do, a subsidiary expressly created for the intention of subverting local/domestic laws opens up another can of worms altogether. DLsite is a big fish in a small pond, they don't have the power to fight the government in court the way a truly large, powerful congomerate or multinational corporation does, and the Japanese government would (if they desired) be very easily able to argue that the existence of "international DLSite" is founded on an intention to subvert their laws. Considering the overwhelming share of their income comes from the Japanese market, that's a bear that you don't poke unless you have ALL your ducks in a row.