Jeremy Ross Media

Shueisha Plans Global Digital Comics Starting with Dragon Ball
Published: 11/16/2009 01:27am

Shueisha announced that it will begin selling digital versions of its manga for mobile phones in 28 countries and territories, including Japan and the U.S., beginning early next year.  Initial offerings will include 20 to 30 titles, including Dragon Ball.

Shueisha is the Japanese publisher of many of Viz Media�s bestselling manga releases in the U.S., including Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and Dragon Ball.

The digital copies will be sold via Microsoft for its Microsoft Mobile operating system. DRM (digital rights management) functions will be included to slow piracy.

Microsoft Mobile is the 4th largest mobile phone operating system, with a 9% share. Ahead of Microsoft are Symbian (50%), Blackberry (21%), and Apple, where most of the digital comics action is in the U.S. (14%).

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The deal got minor coverage here in the US, and only in the anime fan press, but it’s potentally significant:  http://www.animeanime.biz/all/2009111202/

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Here is the Japanese press release, auto-translated:

Google translation of press release:
Shueisha has announced a partnership with Microsoft to expand the business world in the comics. Both domestic and foreign companies in Japan, to cooperate in the deployment of digital comics.
The one business cooperation as well, starting this December to start Windows Marketplace for Mobile in the U.S. market to offer use of mobile comics. Free delivery first starting in January 12 next year to move to three charges delivered by September. Planning and delivery in both Japanese and English versions, Shueisha, and can have fun in a comic book from Japan mobile users in North America.

The future world of Windows Marketplace for Mobile is available in the delivery of 28 countries, Japan and North America first, and aims to expand in Europe. Mon 12 works will be provided free of charge, the work of Akira Toriyama’s popular in the U.S. it’s the version DRAGON BALL sample. However, future work DRAGON BALL delivery only. Moreover, we will work to provide the leading destination countries according to circumstances.

Shueisha is one of the largest publishers in Japan, with particular strengths in publishing comics. Several of their popular manga magazines have birthed many hits, including Weekly Shonen Jump and Weekly Young Jump, Jump Square, Ribbon, and Margaret. As manga publishers they are seen as the strongest in the country.

Among these, refer to NARUTO, DRAGON BALL , Bleach , DEATH NOTE , The Prince of Tennis , Gintama , as works not only popular in Japan but also in overseas countries. The company offers unlimited number of comics, Character animation and original products.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is a global IT company. To globally expand the company’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile, having mobile digital content is a key market strategy.
This time, they are joining with publishers of popular Japanese comics, the strongest in the world, aiming to take advantage of the market.
The collaboration of the two companies Iubeki is also likely to affect the outcome of the global manga business in the future.

Shueisha has said about this partnership with Microsoft that the company’s thinking is to expand globally based on digitized comics.
They said Microsoft holds a shared vision of global manga from Japan and a deep understanding of the need for content copyright protection, which makes them a perfect partner.
In addition, Microsoft is a global company, with a lot of users around the world. They are on PC, game consoles, smart phones and more. Their global cross-technological platform was considered the key to the strength of the business cooperation. . The deployment of a mobile versions of the manga company’s properties like the Internet games could be the way we may expand the fields in  the future.

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Shueisha indicates in its press release that they picked Microsoft as the perfect partner for their new digital strategy mainly because of three attributes:

– A global cross-platform presence (think PC, Web, X-Box and X-Box Live as well as mobile)
– A shared vision of global manga from Japan
– A deep appreciation of the importance of copyright protection.

Japanese publishers love copy protection to prevent all commercial piracy other that Comiket-market fan fiction and fan art. What sealed the deal here must have been that great Microsoft DRM technology, right? I hope not. This article convincingly states that Microsoft Marketplace has easily-cracked copy protection that amounts to no more than a speed bump for pirates. http://www.animenews.biz/piracy-issues-abound-for-shueisha-microsoft-mobile-manga-initiative-2493/

My best guess is that what really sealed it was that Microsoft was willing to pay significant money and promise major cross-platform development to secure Shueisha for the launch of Windows Marketplace in Japan, their answer to the iTunes App Store. Kind of like when they paid the Stones a reported $14 mill to use �Start me Up� as the theme song for the launch of Windows 95. Only manga is more trendy and current.

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Piracy Issues Abound for Shueisha-Microsoft Mobile Manga Initiative <http://www.animenews.biz/piracy-issues-abound-for-shueisha-microsoft-mobile-manga-initiative-2493/>
http://www.animenews.biz/piracy-issues-abound-for-shueisha-microsoft-mobile-manga-initiative-2493/

Recently, Microsoft and Shueisha jointly announced <http://www.animeanime.biz/all/2009111202/>  the forthcoming launch of a new mobile manga service for Microsoft Windows Mobile based devices beginning in December via the recently launched Marketplace for Mobile application store currently compatible with devices running Windows Mobile 6.5 (compatibility with older devices running Windows Mobile 6.0/6.1 is said to be arriving later this month) for free, with the move to a paid model by next March.

The service will be offered in Japanese and English in 28 countries, including Japan and the United States, as well as Europe. The first offering will be a free sample version of Dragon Ball with no further specifics on titles.

Read More for an in-depth explanation of current issues with Marketplace for Mobile and its potential to kill this paid manga initiative before it even gets off the ground.

The biggest concern that both Shueisha and Microsoft need to pay attention to (and has so far been ignored in initial and follow-up reporting by other organizations) is the relative ease in which the DRM that the comics will be wrapped in can be defeated, as shown in this XDA Developers thread <http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=583566>  as a proof of concept, which defeated Microsoft�s �more advanced copy protection� in two hours after first being updated by the company yesterday morning.

Microsoft�s protection schemes provided to developers in the Marketplace so far have amounted to weak license wrapping and authentication schemes that do not work very well in practice and are easily cracked with just a few lines of code and a combination of application editing or running a dummy executable in the background which bypasses the DRM completely

Microsoft currently does not allow individual developers to utilize their own licensing or protection schemes, forcing developers that want to be listed on the Marketplace to rely on the company for application protection.

If both Shueisha and Microsoft are to move to a paid content model for this initiative next year, they must take into account the ease in which Marketplace applications can be pirated their current form and take steps to reinforce their own DRM solutions or create another secure authentication system entirely, unless Microsoft wants to risk pissing off Shueisha after intrepid crackers inevitably start uploading the paid manga titles without DRM.