There's recipe for a pie that you've discovered which, as a talented and acclaimed pastry chef, you benefit from protecting the recipe to.
A small restaurant chain comes to from out of state comes to and would like to use your recipe as a part of their menu.
You really have no obligation to let them use your recipe seeing as your name carries recognition and the pastry speaks for itself but you're intrigued by the balls it took to approach you with such an idea and you consider that it might foster even more recognition for your pastries so you go through the process of carefully sharing your recipe so that it might be mass produced without divulging the details to more individuals than necessary.
The pastry hits the chain restaurant and it is a success. Now people out of state can enjoy your pastry.
But now people two states over hear about the delicious pastry and want to try it for themselves without the trouble of traveling all the way to a neighboring state.
So what do they do? Sadly, because these people are nimrods, they start pestering the chain restaurant. They cause a ruckus and hurl accusations of hate at the restaurant for not offering the delicious pastry in their own state. They don't realize that as a small business located within one state, the restaurant CANNOT actually offer the pastry unless they go through the incredibly expensive process of opening more chains in the neighboring state.
What's more is, because of a disparity in local supply issues that are beneficial purely within the restaurant's operating radius, the restaurant would not benefit from operating out of state since it couldn't offer the same fundamental items on its menu.
So what choices do they have? Well, one would be to beg you for the recipe. But let's face it, you're busy and there's no way in hell you'd give that recipe up just because you get a few phone calls, emails or letters from people that don't have professional experience which you cannot trust to protect the recipe.
But a bright idea emerges.
Instead of bothering the restaurant which has absolutely no say in offering the pastry out of state, or bugging the chef which is literally pointless, the people go to their own local restaurants and demand the same product. The local restaurants are troubled by this because, honestly, most of them don't have the backing to approach such an acclaimed chef and ask for your recipe but one or two among them stand out and seeing as how they stand to benefit from the demand, they gather their resources and approach you about getting that famous recipe.
Now things are complicated for you. More people involved means more chances for your recipe to be found out and despite immediate financial benefits, there could be significant loss down the road if the recipe is mistreated or worse, stolen. So on first approach, you reject the idea. Why? Because you're just a chef! You've made pastries all your life, you don't know about interstate trade and business security. Not to mention, under the right circumstances, such a decision could stand to take some business away from the chain you've had such friendly dealings with. But you remain interested in the idea and believe in progress so you go back to the drawing board, and try to devise a way to offer your recipe to multiple chains.
Shueisha is in that position of the chef as I type this.
Manga is changing. I'm seeing it first-hand. This is huge for Japan because despite all the viral videos about wonky weird shit, this is an extremely conservative country that resists change until they're dragged kicking and screaming into it via neo-black boats.
You kids don't realize that the bounds they've made in just these past two years are enormous. Unthinkable even to someone from my generation of manga fans. The people at Shueisha are chomping at the bit to get their properties available as fast as possible to every corner of the globe. But it's simply something they haven't done before. It takes time because of that. Notice I'm only talking about Shueisha. This matter has literally nothing to do with Viz.
When you say you've bugged local publishers, sending an email or a phone all and then whining about how that hasn't worked doesn't amount to anything productive. Organize your efforts and join up with others locally to motivate local publishers. Get active. If there's any way Viz can be involved in this conversation, look at its history for inspiration. It was started by a guy who got passionate as fuck about manga and wanted to bring it abroad.
