Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[WarpspeedSCP]

I use calibre and dedrm/obok mostly to remove drm, but it doesn't work on shueisha titles for some reason. I guess they've updated their drm. Not that it really matters since I'm not actively working on any shueisha titles right now.

Some sites like dmm have their own pesky encryption to deal with, but its possible to get around it.

 

[chinchiro_addict]

I look forward to seeing groups scrambling to scanlate the bottom-of-the-barrel series that no-one wanted and the publishers didn't even want to DMCA

 

[wiwowiwooo]

is this site gonna be dead?

 

[T-sama]

Right, but MD isn't having to run like hell to try and stay one step ahead of the takedowns, and the users aren't having to rebuild bookmarks every couple of months. There's probably some impossible trinity thing here, but I'm supposed to be 'working' right now....

People still have to rebuild their bookmarks somewhere else lol, and it doesn't happen every couple of months, mangasse was in operation for years for example, and it didn't die, it became weebcentral so people had option to migrate all their series.

If this continue mangadex will be just a corpse lol

Because this mainly is a scanlation site for scanlators to upload their scanlations, and not primarily a piracy site.

You people keep repeating that, but the reality is that 99% of users saw it as a piracy site and used as such lol

 

[kn4ll]

Some sites like dmm have their own pesky encryption to deal with, but its possible to get around it.

I mostly just screenshot when I can't figure it out. If you manage to get the native resolution it usually looks okay. And if not, it's usually good enough for me honestly.

 

[kn4ll]

People still have to rebuild their bookmarks somewhere else lol, and it doesn't happen every couple of months, mangasse was in operation for years for example, and it didn't die, it became weebcentral so people had option to migrate all their series.

If this continue mangadex will be just a corpse lol

You people keep repeating that, but the reality is that 99% of users saw it as a piracy site and used as such lol

Doesn't really matter for the main target audience.

 

[uksi12]

Factual examples like K-manga, One Manga, and Viz being boycotted and people refusing to pay are more than enough to show that you're wrong.

Can you two reach a compromise that both refusing to pay and service issues might both be common reasons people still use manga piracy sites?

 

[Angry_Panda]

There isn't much to benefit from striking an, on paper, non-profit group of randoms translating their stuff for free access. I know you can argue that donations to MD through Nami, and individual groups, is "profiting" but the actual service itself isn't costing to access.

They're effectively just swatting at flies, knowing they'll return no matter what. If their damn apps and websites didn't use such exploitative, money-grubbing methods then they'd have an easier time. Having to buy "points" to read a chapter that's been intentionally split into three goddamn parts to cost you more is just pure scum, especially when as someone else has pointed out the physicals work out cheaper.

Yeah, but the publishers don't really seem to care. Anything scanlated isn't bringing them direct income regardless, so there's no direct penalty to them for making the effort.

Yeah, they're probably colluding.

Oh, they absolutely are. I'm pretty sure there's a government-sponsored industry group driving a bunch of this.

Could mean that their main goal is putting down mangadex, but we'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Maybe, but as long as MD keeps complying there's no route to doing that.

 

[kreahleiser]

There isn't much to benefit from striking an, on paper, non-profit group of randoms translating their stuff for free access. I know you can argue that donations to MD through Nami, and individual groups, is "profiting" but the actual service itself isn't costing to access.

They're effectively just swatting at flies, knowing they'll return no matter what. If their damn apps and websites didn't use such exploitative, money-grubbing methods then they'd have an easier time. Having to buy "points" to read a chapter that's been intentionally split into three goddamn parts to cost you more is just pure scum, especially when as someone else has pointed out the physicals work out cheaper.

Just to be expand on the second part for anyone reading through this.

I read "Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You" on one of their shitty exploitative apps because uploads don't actually happen on MD, presumably to placate the publisher.
Chapters get broken into 3 parts, .1 .2 .3 etc, and sold as individual chapters. Each chapter costs 80 of their gold coins to buy. The smallest gold coin package you can buy is 160. This leaves you 80 short of the third part of one whole chapter, and forces you to either buy the bigger packages, subscribe, or buy a second smaller package. It is blatant why they've done this. I can't talk for everyone using this site of course, but I sure as hell refuse to be exploited myself. Living is bad enough as is without some corpo fucks from another continent trying to walk all over me and sell me a "license" to look at a fucking PNG.

 

[kn4ll]

Can you two reach a compromise that both refusing to pay and service issues might both be common reasons people still use manga piracy sites?

It's only a service issue if it's not officially available, and that's where the scanlators mostly are free to work. When it's licensed and officially available, the right thing to do is to pay for it, not to expect that people make scanlations and that you can get it for free. Then it's not a service issue, it's a "I don't want to pay" issue.

You can easily go around the region restrictions with VPNs, so there's really no arguments for not paying. The problem is not really the service, it's that they're used to get manga and scanlations for free, and now they feel entitled to get it for free. Like you hear "Manga is garbage, I wouldn't read it if I had to pay for it" and shitty fallacious arguments like that all the time, while they're basically addicted to it.

I don't pay for everything myself and read some official translations on other sites or torrent them, but I buy the ones I like to support them. Though mainly Japanese raws. You don't need to buy everything, but you should support the stuff you like, especially when it's early in serialization and risk of getting axed is high. Which is mainly why I prioritize Japanese raws too I guess.

 

[T-sama]

Doesn't really matter for the main target audience.

Taking into account that a lot, if not most really, of scanlation groups were using mangadex as a hub for their series, then yes, it does matter for them, saying otherwise is just denying reality.

Mangadex is simply  not a scanlation site first and foremost, maybe once it was, but it sure isn't for a while now, you just need to look at the bazillion of series uploaded here and how both groups and readers use Mangadex as their primary reading site.

 

[JVick]

Read them on comick instead and buy the volumes when they're out. Then you've done nothing wrong really.

So you're saying pirating do bring sales.

 

[kreahleiser]

So you're saying pirating do bring sales.

I sure as hell buy the physicals for stuff I like. I just wonder what percentage of my purchase goes to the person who deserves it (the mangaka). It just seems everyone gets exploited on that exchange.

 

[JVick]

I sure as hell buy the physicals for stuff I like. I just wonder what percentage of my purchase goes to the person who deserves it (the mangaka). It just seems everyone gets exploited on that exchange.

If we take the book industry as exemple, for 1 yen given, the author might get 0.01.

 

[kn4ll]

So you're saying pirating do bring sales.

I think that people should buy and support the things they like, and buy on places like K-manga, Manga Up, and Viz instead of boycotting them because of high prices. But like I'm a scanlator, what do you think? I still try to get people to buy and support the stuff I scanlate by buying raws too.

 

[kn4ll]

I sure as hell buy the physicals for stuff I like. I just wonder what percentage of my purchase goes to the person who deserves it (the mangaka). It just seems everyone gets exploited on that exchange.

The general is that the artist receives 10 percent of physical sales and 15 percent of digital sales for Japanese volumes. For licensed volumes, they usually receive a one time license fee, and only receive royalties when the sales reach a certain amount. This is different from licensor and license from publisher to publisher though.

If they're only the artist or make adaptions, not seldomly they don't receive royalties and only a wage apparently. This probably differs from project to project.

 

[kreahleiser]

If we take the book industry as exemple, for 1 yen given, the author might get 0.01.

See at this point even buying to support the mangaka seems pointless. They'd be better off relying on donations instead, at least they get their money's worth to survive, and we can know we actually supported them instead of paying into some conglomerates black hole of a bank.

 

[kn4ll]

See at this point even buying to support the mangaka seems pointless. They'd be better off relying on donations instead, at least they get their money's worth to survive, and we can know we actually supported them instead of paying into some conglomerates black hole of a bank.

That won't keep the manga alive. The best way to support them is to buy the Japanese volumes honestly. Digital is cheap and like $5 a volume, physical volumes get expensive because of shipping. I buy everything I scanlate both physical and digital, but the shipping is almost as much as the volumes.

 

[uksi12]

It's only a service issue if it's not officially available, and that's where the scanlators mostly are free to work. When it's licensed and officially available, the right thing to do is to pay for it, not to expect that people make scanlations and that you can get it for free. Then it's not a service issue, it's a "I don't want to pay" issue.

You can easily go around the region restrictions with VPNs, so there's really no arguments for not paying. The problem is not really the service, it's that they're used to get manga and scanlations for free, and now they feel entitled to get it for free. Like you hear "Manga is garbage, I wouldn't read it if I had to pay for it" and shitty fallacious arguments like that all the time, while they're basically addicted to it.

I don't pay for everything myself and read some official translations on other sites or torrent them, but I buy the ones I like to support them. Though mainly Japanese raws. You don't need to buy everything, but you should support the stuff you like, especially when it's early in serialization and risk of getting axed is high. Which is mainly why I prioritize Japanese raws too I guess.

From reading this thread maybe in practice service issues and not wanting to pay can often be intertwined. Excluding entitled attitudes, Kreahleiser’s example of reading Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You depicts a bad service which drives away the customers to seek alternatives instead even when it's officially available.

 

[JVick]

That won't keep the manga alive. The best way to support them is to buy the Japanese volumes honestly.

But then you're dependent of scanlations that get nuked by the official release. There is no solution.

From reading this thread maybe in practice service issues and not wanting to pay can often be intertwined. Excluding entitled attitudes, Kreahleiser’s example of reading Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You depicts a bad service which drives away the customers to seek alternatives instead even when it's officially available.

And if you want another exemple, when you subscribe to a manga on comixology, you pay for each chapter when they release, but what they don't tell you, is that you'll also pay for the volume release, meaning they make you pay twice for each chapter.