Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! - Ch. 122 - Kouhai and Settlements

[MisterMemeDaddy]

I mean, the admins of the site can literally be jailed for stuff like that, respecting the law or not isn't a choice for them.

I wasn’t dissing the admins for complying, I was complaining about the heavy handed DMCA process.

The folks reacting to my first comment (unrelated to above) must really like DMCA by the looks of it.

 

[Zahogan]

Remember guys, as one wise man once said:
"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem" - Gabe Newell

 

[Dimonchyk777]

All I know is, I'm never joining some discord server for a translation. You want to talk about a bad look? Swapping to just discord releases comes right before demanding money for fan translations. It's happened before, and I don't trust any group to not do it. Sorry, not sorry. You can release it to another site, or I'll just stop reading it. People act like 100 of these romcoms don't release a year.

I don’t think that’s what they said.

 

[Shita-kiri_Suzume]

It's not just the takedown, but specifically because MD now requires you to check a box saying that you have permission from the publisher to post a chapter, so they can theoretically use that against you if they get sued for copyright.

That's not how it works. The disclaimer is there because like Youtube, MD has to remain neutral and not responsible for uploaded content for legal reasons. The worst they can do to uploaders is force them to delete the scans... which, well, is what happened. Other than that, it also means that the uploader has to file a counter-claim if they need to, and MD can't do it for them.

 

[Vsmit]

That's not how it works. The disclaimer is there because like Youtube, MD has to remain neutral and not responsible for uploaded content for legal reasons. The worst they can do to uploaders is force them to delete the scans... which, well, is what happened. Other than that, it also means that the uploader has to file a counter-claim if they need to, and MD can't do it for them.

The checkbox means that uploaders can also get sued for misrepresentation, and that MD can say, "They told us that they had permission, go after them, not us."

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Shita-kiri_Suzume]

The checkbox means that uploaders can also get sued for misrepresentation, and that MD can say, "They told us that they had permission, go after them, not us."

That's only if the uploader files a counter-claim (with their personal information), and makes false statements within. The host doesn't have your information, and once they remove content in response to a DMCA they're already out of the picture; they're not going to tell the claimant to go after the uploader.

 

[Judaskiss]

The irony is not lost on me that a group full of /a/nons is afraid of a DMCA

 

[fight2live]

i... kinda like this new girl

 

[balenol]

does not matter, MD policy is to comply with DMCA


weeeell, I have a feeling a lot of scanlator groups will choose discord as a way to host their stuff. this will be hella inconvenient (especially for me, discord is banned in the country and I would need to figure out the way to get where) aaaand discord already has various ways to flag posted content, I feel like it will stop being a good place to host really fast

discord will still abide by DMCA takedown though. I think hosting your own blog or releasing your stuff like a cracking scene group and let the aggregators pick it up is safer for everyone.

 

[Eliminateur]

Man, it's such a shame but I feel ya, my group is also leaving MD at least for non-twitter mangas

and where you might be heading?

 

[Mikhail]

Two words.

Comick, Batoto. Keep an eye out there.

 

[volodyuka]

discord will still abide by DMCA takedown though. I think hosting your own blog or releasing your stuff like a cracking scene group and let the aggregators pick it up is safer for everyone.

blogs can be taken down too, with how Kakao [who started this thing] does stuff, with new tech what can find stuff more easily on the net, with the way watermarks on many services now work, in future, immediate future they [copyright holders] would not only be able to find scanlators blogs and DMCA them quickly, but would also be able to ascertain who exactly made RAWs too [especially if they would be careless].

 

[luigiymario2]

and where you might be heading?

Two words.

Comick, Batoto. Keep an eye out there.

What Mikhail said, I already asked for upload privileges on Comick and I was granted them.

 

[balenol]

blogs can be taken down too, with how Kakao [who started this thing] does stuff, with new tech what can find stuff more easily on the net, with the way watermarks on many services now work, in future, immediate future they [copyright holders] would not only be able to find scanlators blogs and DMCA them quickly, but would also be able to ascertain who exactly made RAWs too [especially if they would be careless].

good point, but this has always been a cat and mouse game. A scene will always be taken down somehow some when, but making sure we stay federated (e.g. different websites contains different manga), it will always be harder to takedown. Mangadex centralises the manga scanlation too much in my opinion, this isn't the first time such huge DMCA had happened.

 

[AntonSolo]

I am really out of the loop, maybe because MD isn't my main site anymore, but... what happened?

There was a massive DCMA takedown affecting over 750+ titles, including some big current and concluded RomComs, like My Dress-Up Darling, Nagatoro, Akutsu-San, and even RAG.

Or, in the Immortal words of "D-Day" from "Animal House," "War's over, Man, Wormer dropped the Big One..."

 

[OlgaFrow]

Wild.

MangaDex. These people are running an illegal operation at the end of the day regardless of how anyone feels about it. Of course they should respect the DMCA. That is how you stay out of the crosshairs.

But making uploaders tick a checkbox that says "I have permission from the copyright holders" is ridiculous. You might as well kill the website. The administration here seems extremely naive; you cannot avoid any legal repercussions by half-assedly trying to shift the responsibility to the uploader. The intent of this website from creation was clear as fucking day and you won't be shielded if Kadokawa decides to take you to pound town. This little addition literally accomplishes only two things: average people will be scared to upload anything, and if MD gets in actual trouble, they will put additional burden on any bad faith uploaders.

If you're really pessimistic, you could also read that as MD looking for a bargaining chip by handing over said uploaders in case shit goes downhill.

There is no ass covering here. The site was created for scanlations, and has hosted thousands of illegal scanlations.
You can't put the lid back on the jar. The most you can really do is just shut down the website immediately and hope they find someone else to pursue. Of course, I don't think MD is actually in that much danger, so I'm just guessing they are scared and think this does something.

MD is living on borrowed time because of this. Massive take downs are not new - requiring permission from rights holders on a piracy site is. In about a year (probably less), you can just look elsewhere for doujinshi because that is about all you will find here. It seems very unlikely that anything uploaded in the past will stay for long because there is no point in requiring permission otherwise.

As for uploads...moving to Discord is bad. Everything in Discord is logged and much of that is outside of your control. If someone comes after you, there is no middle man: you're the one looking at the legal papers. The smaller community makes it more likely that everyone in the Discord channel becomes a person of interest too. Yet as if to compound the issue, shit still tends to die easily on Discord.

There isn't a great answer for this but Discord is probably the worst solution.

edit: Oh wait, MD is dead. Admin ghosted the website for NamiComi or some shit. Check the later posts in announcements because they aren't actually making one yet.

Peace!

 

[definitionofinsanity]

Whether you think it'a fair or not, piracy isn't legal. All of us are sailing the high seas here.

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out, far more than I ever should have, that this is a tort/civil law issue here - especially for the readers/consumers. Not a criminal one.

MD runs into more potential issues for hosting content, but calling it illegal... That's a stretch. Violating copyright itself is not a criminal violation in most countries, and it sure isn't where MD is based.

 

[definitionofinsanity]

The checkbox means that uploaders can also get sued for misrepresentation, and that MD can say, "They told us that they had permission, go after them, not us."

...That's not how that works. PirateBay tried the "sue the uploaders, not us" defense and didn't work out too well for them.

What MD here is doing is what will look like a good faith attempt at upholding the DMCA Safe Harbor clause. Basically, they are attempting (and I doubt it will work out well if they were taken to court over it, but it's better than just looking the other way and doing nothing) to claim that they are trying their best not to have any copyright violating content on their platform. This doesn't absolve them of their legal responsibilities, but if they are ever taken to court over this it would be a better look for them.

Just like how them removing the DMCA takedown content will look good in a court (and also doing so means that they avoid court in the first place). It's just CYA. I don't blame MD for doing it, but let's be realistic - this is not a magical talisman. No court is going to accept "It's okay, your Honor, because we had a checkbox and AnimeTiddyFucker6969 lied and manipulated us by saying he had permission from Akira Toriyama himself to upload every DBZ volume." If MD didn't abide by a DMCA takedown, it would still be on them.

And, likewise, Kadokawa isn't going to waste $2.4 million dollars suing AnimeTiddyFucker6969 or LoliCunnyHunter1337 because, shockingly, they probably live in the basement of their parent's home and have no assets to ever collect. (No offense to AnimeTiddyFucker6969 or LoliCunnyHunter1337, I'm sure you guys do excellent scanlations.)

 

[cajones]

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out, far more than I ever should have, that this is a tort/civil law issue here - especially for the readers/consumers. Not a criminal one.

MD runs into more potential issues for hosting content, but calling it illegal... That's a stretch. Violating copyright itself is not a criminal violation in most countries, and it sure isn't where MD is based.

Civil offenses are still illegal. I don't know where you got the idea that only criminal offenses are labeled illegal, but that's flatly wrong. Civil offenses can still come with legal consequences, like exposing you to liability. The entire point of tort/civil law is to provide redress for all those things which aren't criminal. There are still consequences for tort/civil infractions.

There are few countries that do not have some sort of legal framework for enforcing cooyright laws of members across international boundries. I don't know the exact number, but I know it is comparatively small (perhaps fewer than 50).

Are you and me going to get in any kind of trouble, civil or otherwise? No. Could MD? They implemented a CYA policy for no reason because they are totally free of all possible liability, obviously.

If you're going to try to be technical, you should bother to be technical.

None of that has anything to do with the point I actually made, which is that we're all taking things without permission in the first place (whether that's criminal or civil or neither doesn't even factor in), so no one has any right to complain about "losing" anything. We never had it in the first place.