Dojinshi project

Also, interestingly enough, different countries treat copyright enforcement differently. In Japan, for example, a thriving manga (comics) industry exists. Manga in Japan is different in some ways than manga in the US. It has a much broader audience across a wide age spectrum. However, Japan also has a thriving doujinshi industry. Doujinshi are essentially "fan created" comics, and a very large number of them are considered derivative works. The doujinshi industry is open and huge, and most manga stores also sell doujinshi, with no stigma, with the full knowledge of the creators. It's a commonly expressed belief that the doujinshi industry can help the sale of the original works. When in Tokyo my wife and I stopped at several stores, and one manga store near Akihabara had two floors dedicated to manga, and four floors that sold only doujinshi.

An odd thing is that Japan, in many ways, has much stricter copyright law than in the US. I was glad to see Lawrence Lessig write about the doujinshi industry in his latest book, Free Culture. However, he attributes the thriving doujinshi industry to one element in particular: the scarcity of lawyers.

That was the case when she dabbled in Fan Manga, which is a fan-drawn comic using existing characters but with newly created storylines. She had entered her work into a National Fan Manga contest that required her to use a manga called "Black Sun Silver Moon." Soon after she entered, she heard from the contest sponsors, TheOtaku.com and the go!comi publishers, that she was one of 15 finalists. Guests at the New York Anime Festival voted on their choices -- and at the ending ceremonies, she discovered her work had won.

"My fan manga will be published in the back of the actual manga 'Black Sun Silver Moon,' which is every manga fan's dream: to be published in a real one," she says. "I haven't gotten word which issue it will be published in but go!comi said they'd let me know."