Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[Morose]

Some "Trust Me Bro, i have Hidden Source" type of info.
Wonder how reliable it is actually.

 

[Nyaako]

It would be nice if there was a compromise.

Like how Mangaplus would have the latest chapters that stay up for 3 weeks.

For manga that are affected here, could perhaps set up a 1 week time limit for new chapters and then have them automatically removed. Giving enough time for active readers to read what they want.

 

[T-sama]

Some "Trust Me Bro, i have Hidden Source" type of info.
Wonder how reliable it is actually.

Well it might have some truth to it, if it's not only mangadex I imagine it's a generic wide dmca claim on all sites they can put their hands into, if true the last ones standing will be the ones that never gave a fuck about dmca cause they're smart with how host their sites

 

[Angry_Panda]

has there been any official statement regarding this or just other people interpretations?

No. MD has said 'there was a large DMCA, and we will comply'. That's it.

If you dig back through the previous DMCA claims from 2022 to 2024, there's still somewhere between 300-400 titles they chose to ignore takedown requests for.

Are those actually requests to MD, or are they to Google or the scanlators or some other entity?

Some "Trust Me Bro, i have Hidden Source" type of info.
Wonder how reliable it is actually.

My understanding (which is as an amateur, not a lawyer) is that complying with the DMCA essentially absolves MD of further liability. So if the titles come down, the site itself can stay up. That's one of the underlying tenets of the takedown process in the US - it was intended to protect ISPs and sites like Google against getting caught up in a bunch of copyright lawsuits, and it wound up being used more broadly by a lot of other sites claiming 'it's not our content, we'll take it down along with any links, you can't do anything to us after that'.

 

[deackychu]

No. MD has said 'there was a large DMCA, and we will comply'. That's it.

Are those actually requests to MD, or are they to Google or the scanlators or some other entity?

My understanding (which is as an amateur, not a lawyer) is that complying with the DMCA essentially absolves MD of further liability. So if the titles come down, the site itself can stay up. That's one of the underlying tenets of the takedown process in the US - it was intended to protect ISPs and sites like Google against getting caught up in a bunch of copyright lawsuits, and it wound up being used more broadly by a lot of other sites claiming 'it's not our content, we'll take it down along with any links, you can't do anything to us after that'.

I'll say the same thing I said on Reddit:

A lot of these sites have content removal notices against them that are years old at this point and they've been ignored. If they were any sort of credible threat, publishers would've been a hell of a lot more aggressive about this. It's not like this has been a secret. The cat and mouse game serves no purpose, if this is as "severe" of an issue as they constantly like to make it out to be (Oooh, we're bleeding profit! So much profit!).

If scanlation groups are on this supposed "list," then they should be served. Nuking a scan hosting site isn't going to stop anything. You can't tell me a publisher is going to go to the effort of stopping the hosting sites without going to the source (aka the groups). If they can go down rabbit holes chasing all the pirate sites, they sure as hell could spend just as much time tracking the source (it was hard to type that without laughing). But, they don't. That's the thing.

 

[T-sama]

I'll say the same thing I said on Reddit:

A lot of these sites have content removal notices against them that are years old at this point and they've been ignored. If they were any sort of credible threat, publishers would've been a hell of a lot more aggressive about this. It's not like this has been a secret. The cat and mouse game serves no purpose, if this is as "severe" of an issue as they constantly like to make it out to be (Oooh, we're bleeding profit! So much profit!).

If scanlation groups are on this supposed "list," then they should be served. Nuking a scan hosting site isn't going to stop anything. You can't tell me a publisher is going to go to the effort of stopping the hosting sites without going to the source (aka the groups). If they can go down rabbit holes chasing all the pirate sites, they sure as hell could spend just as much time tracking the source (it was hard to type that without laughing). But, they don't. That's the thing.

I think there's two issues with why this happens:

1 - visibility

Mangadex got way too big and too much visibility, people literally mentioning it everywhere, even in places where they shouldn't, which of courses makes easy for dmca to happen.

Sites like mangadex need to be treated like the fight club, never forget the first rule, which honestly should be written everywhere in the site so people can't forget it

2 - how things are done

This is arguably the biggest issue in my opinion, Mangadex and Dynasty tout themselves as being different than those eeeevil shitty manga sites full of ads, better than them cause they do things "right", which means obey dmca.

I also assume that because of that they see themselves as "safe" from situations like this cause dmca are rare and few series, so they do everything over the table, host the site where is easy and convenient, put their real names attached to everything, which means legally they can easily get fucked.

The eeeeeevil sites full of ads that ignore dmca? Let say it's all under the table, full of ads for profit for sure, but that also pays for the site, they host in countries that don't care about dmca, probably don't put their real name on anything.

Really, at the end of the day this isn't a dmca issue, but a management issue, trying to be the "good guy" when we're literally thieves just mean in time we get fucked, scummy shitty sites had the right idea all along, cue for example mangasse operating for decades, at worst simply changing names and server.

I hope mangadex successor do things different  and that readers stops being dumb enough to mention / link it everywhere so publishes won't find it as easily.

 

[deackychu]

I hope mangadex successor do things different  and that readers stops being dumb enough to mention / link it everywhere so publishes won't find it as easily.

The harder you try and hide something, the more widespread it becomes.

 

[Angry_Panda]

If scanlation groups are on this supposed "list," then they should be served. Nuking a scan hosting site isn't going to stop anything. You can't tell me a publisher is going to go to the effort of stopping the hosting sites without going to the source (aka the groups). If they can go down rabbit holes chasing all the pirate sites, they sure as hell could spend just as much time tracking the source (it was hard to type that without laughing). But, they don't. That's the thing.

Largely agreed, though the hosting sites present a much easier target. However, from some of the actions over the last year, I get a feeling that there are a lot more actions coming, and (based on the recent action against Reaper Scans) some of those are actually going to be targeting groups. Could be all wet on this (and I hope I am), but it feels like the JP/KR publishers are finally deciding to get serious about this.

 

[T-sama]

The harder you try and hide something, the more widespread it becomes.

Yes and no, problem isn't it being widespread and people knowing it, but that some are dumb enough to talk and post links even in like official manga sites and such lol

Mangadex should have been a open secret, readers and such know about it but nobody mention name or link it in public so publishers can't find as easily

It's not about not being widespread, just not being too "in your face" when it comes to publishers and mangaka lol

 

[MangaField]

Mangadex got way too big and too much visibility, people literally mentioning it everywhere, even in places where they shouldn't, which of courses makes easy for dmca to happen.

Oh please, you think the publishers are ignorant? They are well aware of sites like mangadex, weebcentral, comick or batoto. Like, you literally just have to google „read manga online“ and you see the sites.
Whatever the reason for this massive DMCA now is, it‘s not that.

 

[T-sama]

Oh please, you think the publishers are ignorant? They are well aware of sites like mangadex, weebcentral, comick or batoto. Like, you literally just have to google „read manga online“ and you see the sites.
Whatever the reason for this massive DMCA now is, it‘s not that.

Which just proves my point that this is a management problem first and foremost, since mangadex is probably hosted in a place that has to obey dmca.

Point I'm making is that some people mentioning mangadex everywhere, including official places to read / buy manga, literally paints one big target on it, add to that how it's hosted and it's doomed from the beginning, we're just lucky it didn't happen until now.

I said and repeat, the eeeeevil shitty manga sites had the right idea all along.

Edit: also, the Japanese publishers are the ones behind this dmca, they most likely  are ignorant about places like this, which is why a third party is behind the dmca doing it for them.

 

[deackychu]

Which just proves my point that this is a management problem first and foremost, since mangadex is probably hosted in a place that has to obey dmca.

Point I'm making is that some people mentioning mangadex everywhere, including official places to read / buy manga, literally paints one big target on it, add to that how it's hosted and it's doomed from the beginning, we're just lucky it didn't happen until now.

I said and repeat, the eeeeevil shitty manga sites had the right idea all along.

Edit: also, the Japanese publishers are the ones behind this dmca, they most likely  are ignorant about places like this, which is why a third party is behind the dmca doing it for them.

I thought this site was based out of Indonesia? Unless some of their hosting is farmed out to the States.

Also, third parties have typically handled all this because it's easier to pay someone else to hunt down stuff rather than keep it in-house. It only stays in-house when it escalates to something more, from what I've seen.

Largely agreed, though the hosting sites present a much easier target. However, from some of the actions over the last year, I get a feeling that there are a lot more actions coming, and (based on the recent action against Reaper Scans) some of those are actually going to be targeting groups. Could be all wet on this (and I hope I am), but it feels like the JP/KR publishers are finally deciding to get serious about this.

I'm not familiar with them, but I'm guessing (based on searching) it's because of just how large/fan-facing they were? I've been the face of Gundam scanlations for 20 years and I've yet to get slapped with anything from the publishers. Sure, Mega/MediaFire titles have been nixed, but there's never been a direct message to me personally (of course now that I say that, watch it magically happen).

 

[Morose]

but that some are dumb enough to talk and post links even in like official manga sites and such lol

Yeah i know about similar cases, as someone who had joined the "Hanashi Media" Discord
(for those who don't know, "Hanashi Media" is a Official Light Novel publisher for various Japanese publication)

They have a "license suggestion" channel, and people regularly link sites like NovelUpdates or some other sites, there when suggesting a Light Novel for licensing.

In that discord i heard that Japanese Publishers actually hate and frown-upon when such sites are mentioned on Localizers social media.

The situation is such that, J-Novel Club (another Official Light Novel & Manga publisher) has outright made it against rules to link such sites when suggesting a series for license (as apparently some people where even linking to Mangadex when suggesting a series, which the Japanese Publishers weren't happy about).

 

[T-sama]

I thought this site was based out of Indonesia? Unless some of their hosting is farmed out to the States.

I have no idea, but if someone put their real name in the fine print, or used a host that would give their name away if demanded, does it matter where it was hosted?

Facts are, mangadex obey dmca out of fear of legal repercussions, many shitty sites are able to ignore that, so obviously mangadex is doing something wrong.

Also, third parties have typically handled all this because it's easier to pay someone else to hunt down stuff rather than keep it in-house. It only stays in-house when it escalates to something more, from what I've seen.

My point is that the Japanese publishers themselves are ignorant, add to that that, if what some say is true that the third party group prepared the case and then contacted publishers, it basically proves my point, that Japanese publishers are too ignorant to do anything large scale.

So if we're lucky it'll stop here in the fight against piracy

 

[AnonymousContributor]

Where then? WeebC? the "new" Bato?
At least here I could write my thanks to scanlatora without joining a million discord groups

BTW the "new" bato does not allow shota/loli content at all or any shit like doujins of characters in school dare i say that so uh yeah

 

[T-sama]

Yeah i know about similar cases, as someone who had joined the "Hanashi Media" Discord
(for those who don't know, "Hanashi Media" is a Official Light Novel publisher for various Japanese publication)

They have a "license suggestion" channel, and people regularly link sites like NovelUpdates or some other sites, there when suggesting a Light Novel for licensing.

In that discord i heard that Japanese Publishers actually hate and frown-upon when such sites are mentioned on Localizers social media.

The situation is such that, J-Novel Club (another Official Light Novel & Manga publisher) has outright made it against rules to link such sites when suggesting a series for license (as apparently some people where even linking to Mangadex when suggesting a series, which the Japanese Publishers weren't happy about).

In case of western publishers I imagine it's part out of pragmatism, unlike Japanese publishers they know how big scanlation is, so technically they  should act against these groups.

So I assume them making rules about it is part to protect themselves from need to act, after all theorically it'll make them lose readers, part like "don't be stupid to link these sites here", after all they know those sites and fan translations are part of the reason they have costumers to begin with.

 

[ZinSk8r]

I should know this outcome will come someday. Look like I have to learn Japanese language to read manga. Before I become user of this website, i used to have mangarock with about 1000 mangas and I regret to this day that I do not download data for them. I will keep using this site but no longer read manga except informations about manga basically treating as alternate for MangaUpdates.



Here is my questions

1. What is best ebook service to read manga in Japanese language. Also, what is their image quality and is it possible to do all this in one place without extra steps?
2. If I want to read manga in physical copy, what is best place to buy with all manga available and delivery to American?

 

[T-sama]

BTW the "new" bato does not allow shota/loli content at all or any shit like doujins of characters in school dare i say that so uh yeah

Hentai? Cause if that we can find somewhere else for the most part lol, one certain sites got a bunch of dmca from Fakku and Irodori, but since neither seemingly host loli, shota and toddler, we can still find all there lol

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

Honestly, really thinking about just making my own publisher firm and working together with scanlation groups, while using that license to protect the works. Getting both goodwill with the online anime fans, in comparision cheap and high quality translations and be able to spread series that I like that don't have one in my country.
Probably won't due to having a lot of business ideas already, but still thinking about it

 

[T-sama]

Honestly, really thinking about just making my own publisher firm and working together with scanlation groups, while using that license to protect the works. Getting both goodwill with the online anime fans, in comparision cheap and high quality translations and be able to spread series that I like that don't have one in my country.
Probably won't due to having a lot of business ideas already, but still thinking about it

Unfortunately not possible in my opinion.

Let say somehow we got funds and money to start one, only way to make it cheap would be if translation continue as it is, free and by volunteers, cause otherwise you need to pay translator, then publisher and mangaka, license, and so on, which will end as expensive as it is right now.

That of course if any publisher gave license to a random nobody no name firm we just started lol

And in the long run more and more series are getting licensed through their own apps and such cause they think western readers will accept the same abusive prices like the Japanese readers.

Unfortunately there's not much we can do legally speaking, works on paper but not on practice, cause it still needs to make enough profits even if we try to cut costs with good will.