Lmao requiring readers to pay for “early access chapters” has got to be a new low for scan groups. If you want $$$ per chapter, go legit, otherwise fuck off with that shit. Also none of that money goes to the original author, so it’s even more shitty than just “we want to get paid”; they take something artists and authors pour hundreds of hours into, feed it to an MTL model, then they have the absolute STONES to ask for money for their “work”. Hilarious.
They're likely not officially incorporated (that would require expending money, time, and effort for little gain), but I'm also fairly sure they're not "fans" of whatever they translate. If they were, they'd probably put more effort into it. No, they're just people trying to capitalize on our desire for more stuff to read. And, due to how unregulated this sphere of the internet is, they're getting away with it handily.I've been wondering whether a bunch of current scan groups are in fact for-profit companies masquerading as fan translators? Or whether it's a fad among young'uns who don't know any better? Because I've seen a lot of this suddenly.
But these guys in particular seem completely fearless, not only charging money but putting "copyright EZ Manga" on their credit pages, phrasing things as if they were an official site with rights to the comics... just, zero chance anyone could see this as even having been intended as Fair Use or in good faith or anything like it.