Picture Perfect Paranoia

I was going to comment more about the article itself, but it looks like Brigid, who runs MangaBlog, beat me to it.

Anyway, I guess it’s an interesting view on doujinshi from a tech-oriented site’s (possibly the author’s) point of view.

Interesting viewpoints to ponder:

I see a symbiotic relationship between commercialism and creativity in Japan. Any of the manga stores you walk into carries how-to manuals on drawing characters and using colors, as wells as picture books on medieval weaponry, French castles or samurai-era textiles. There are collectible figurines, but also dolls you can mod yourself, with whatever hair, eyes, clothes or breasts suit your imagination.

...when it comes to creating derivative works, the commercial comic and anime companies look the other way. As a result there's consumption, but there's creativity too.