Mangadex gets hit by DMCA - more than 25% of chapters gone | staff FAQ update

[Sprocket]

I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop: they might be better off just focusing solely on Twitter/Pixiv manga at this point

 

[LilHoodie]

I hope it was worth it sucking up to the official publishers.
Most of my follows are DMCA'd now.

wtf bros why is mangadex removing chapters instead of getting their butts filled with legal cases they'll most likely lose?????

 

[InCnnuyWeThrust]

Well its been fun while it lasted

The series im handling on is still alive somehow but time can only tell

 

[Valle_reading_manga]

So, manga that were already affected by this could end up being removed entirely due to the risk of getting more complaints due to chapters being uploaded after?

I don't think/expect titles will be removed (because then someone will just create a new title). It'll probably come down to some sort of upload lock for titles

 

[TheBigMonk]

Time to find all the titles I care enough about and put them on the high seas tachiyomi pile. 🏴‍☠️

Also, I've been rummaging through my library and cleaning out alot of titles that seemingly have no chapters anymore, and I've found that alot of them are published by Kodansha.
An example - Kimi Janakya Dame na Dorei Shoujo - According to mangaupdates it was scanlated up to chapter 35.
It been completed for 3 years now at chapter 54. No official english.
That being said, basically none of them had english translations, really makes you think.

Also holy shit, I have so many titles in my library that I have absolutely no idea when or how they got there.
It's hard to tell when they have no chapters remaining, hopefully that remaining chapter feature comes soon.

 

[TheBigMonk]

Oh yeah, uploaders are already trying to reupload chapters that have been removed most likely because of DMCA.
Pink Candy Kiss had it's chapters removed up to the latest one, it has an official english release (you can buy the 1st physical volume).
I feel like putting a lock on uploading new chapters might be an necessity to prevent further headaches in the future.

 

[Mr_Cracker]

If I have to resort to torrenting every single chapter bad things will happen

 

[SuperOniichan]

I don't think/expect titles will be removed (because then someone will just create a new title). It'll probably come down to some sort of upload lock for titles

I didn't mean that someone would delete them completely, right down to the page. Rather, as you said, there will be no chapters at all.

 

[Gem-Bug]

Honestly, I'm most sad about the years and years of comments being wiped, but are they? If I go through my comments in my profile, the threads still exist, it's just that the actual chapters have no pages. I wonder if there would at least be a way to have the empty chapters listed with the comments still attached?

At the end of the day, this was always a possibility, and it's always been the community here that has mattered most. The comment sections here are usually not dogshit, even if a lot of the posts are "Thanks for the chapter!".

 

[Angry_Panda]

The comment sections here are usually not dogshit, even if a lot of the posts are "Thanks for the chapter!".

The best person on this site just posts that 99% of the time.

 

[SAnamtab]

If I have to resort to torrenting every single chapter bad things will happen

unlikely

 

[bondejeger]

It’s back to #lurk and xdcc again.

 

[Sky_Ravager]

thanks for the text

 

[BakedBanana]

The best person on this site just posts that 99% of the time.

Shout out to my boy @Hikineet, we've had like 1 conversation but you are a real one.
Though I would have DEFINITELY passed you up in due time.

 

[SuperOniichan]

Honestly, I'm most sad about the years and years of comments being wiped, but are they? If I go through my comments in my profile, the threads still exist, it's just that the actual chapters have no pages. I wonder if there would at least be a way to have the empty chapters listed with the comments still attached?

At the end of the day, this was always a possibility, and it's always been the community here that has mattered most. The comment sections here are usually not dogshit, even if a lot of the posts are "Thanks for the chapter!".

It all depends on the title and the people, to be honest. But yeah, if it all survives somehow, it would make a great "open-air museum" for the web's annals.

 

[Nezuko2077]

Mangadex was hit by quite the sizeable DMCA takedown, resulting in chapter numbers going down by more than 25% (that is, over 660k chapters) - and no, we're unfortunately not talking about Trump coming up with new tariffs.
Since this has led to a lot of confusion and off-topic discussions in the bugs, support and announcement threads and no real official announcement has been made yet, I'm making an unofficial one for the time being.

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Q: Where are the chapters of the titles I was reading just yesterday? / What happened to my uploads?​

Mangadex got a joint DMCA takedown notice, presumably on behalf of major publishers both Japanese and Korean.

Q: Is there a list of that titles were affected?​

No such list has been provided by Mangadex staff yet, but you'll find community-compiled lists in a lot of places like this reddit thread. Therefore, please don't spam this thread with affected titles.

Q: What's next? / What about my read markers?​

An old v3 feature, allowing to show chapter metadata only without being able to actually read a chapter/access its images, is planned to re-release ASAP. This will include your read markers, as well as comment threads.
This also means that, even if a reading progress/library exporter existed, it won't work until then. And no, before you ask I can't recommend one (feel free to recommend something to put here), but it looks like T10_ considers making one.

Q: Is the removal of chapters permanent? / Can I appeal the removal of my chapter(s)?​

As things stand, Mangadex staying compliant with the DMCA notice is the most likely outcome. However, there are plans to show who took down a chapter and when. This means you will be able to file a DMCA counter notice to challenge the takedown if you so wish (good luck with that).
Additionally, if you believe (and can prove) chapters that aren't licensed by a publisher were removed incorrectly, you can report those on MD's end.

Q: Why are there sometimes chapters left?​

Because of the nature of a DMCA takedown request, only chapters available at/before the time when the takedown request was issued were removed. It seems like the plan for chapters uploaded after the creation of this snapshot is to still be removed, probably to avoid further DMCAs.

Q: Can we still upload new chapters to titles that were affected by the DMCA? / What about reuploading removed chapters?​

While this is just my speculation as an official statement has yet to be made, I would strongly discourage doing so. Unless publishers suddenly have a change of mind, this would just be asking for more trouble and DMCA takedown requests for Mangadex. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if uploads to affected titles get deleted precautionary. This has also been the case for previous DMCAs (although those were on a completely different scale and applied to English chapters only...).
TLDR: No and no, please and thank you.

Q: Why is there no official announcement?​

I wouldn't be making this one if there was. They'll make one when/if they can share more details. I imagine getting flooded with DMCAs isn't the most comfortable situation to be in, let's give them some time. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure they're all aware of the situation, so there's no need to reach out to individual staff members...
That being said, I'm sure they are just as unhappy with the situation as you are, so there's no need to vent your frustration at staff. Keep in mind Mangadex is being run by unpaid volunteers...

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With that, I think I got the most important bits covered. I might or might not update this, depending on how this whole mess unfolds.
Looks like there are rough times ahead, so let's hope for the best for all of us and the site...
Seems like the moral of the story was to read Manhua all along, didn't think I'd ever say that

Don't forget to reupload the chapters I want my favorite series back especially heat

 

[Valle_reading_manga]

I wonder if there would at least be a way to have the empty chapters listed with the comments still attached?

That seems to be the plan

 

[Valle_reading_manga]

It's kinda wierd that mangadex staff is not saying anything and people like Valle_reading_manga have to make such q&a threads

https://mangadex.org/announcements last announcement is from 4 months ago

Well, I think they'll probably have their reasons.
It's not like they gain anything from (somewhat) keeping us in the dark to deliberately do so...
That being said, what even is that page you found. I don't think I've personally ever used it and it frankly looks like the announcement shipped from dev because global tag filters did in fact not make their way onto the main site 4 months ago.

 

[ThetaSigma]

I'd probably take the list in the reddit thread with a pinch of salt, or at the very least check on here if something that's on it has actually been affected by the takedown, because a certain manga about a mother taking revenge on her son's bullies (not taking chances by saying the actual title) is on that list but the chapters are still very much up on MD. Unless they've been removed yesterday but have somehow been restored since.

 

[SpleenMilker]

This fucking sucks