Site Update - 14th of May 2025

[MangaField]

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

Wtf I love new bato now!

 

[Forikorder]

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

might not be totally crazy, for instance have mangadex just start charging a monthly subscription, bare minimum goes to running the site the rest is pooled to buy licenses, when they have one they give it to a group that scanlates it for free as they do now, add in a built in tip system

if a group wants to work on a series that they dont have a license for they make a manga page and if it attracts enough attention/donation then MD buys the license and the group can work on it legally

realistically i dont think anyone would ever do that though

 

[deackychu]

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

Cheap and high quality are not synonymous, honestly. If we are taking on titles as "official" translators, then compensation should be no different than the industry folk, it's only fair. When you turn a hobby/fan venture into something official, it would only be fair.

But, while a good idea in theory, you run into a roadblock if publishers won't allow for ebooks and force print-only versions.

 

[Angry_Panda]

Honestly, really thinking about just making my own publisher firm and working together with scanlation groups, while using that license to protect the works.

RUN AWAY. As someone who works in the operational side of the print publishing business (and deals with some digital publishing as part of that), publishing is a bad business model for startups.

 

[T-sama]

Cheap and high quality are not synonymous, honestly. If we are taking on titles as "official" translators, then compensation should be no different than the industry folk, it's only fair. When you turn a hobby/fan venture into something official, it would only be fair.

But, while a good idea in theory, you run into a roadblock if publishers won't allow for ebooks and force print-only versions.

I think it depends, if we could for example, make publisher sign a contract that says mangaka gets most of the profit, I do think some might translate for super cheap or even free.

As for cheap and quality, it's basically a trinity, you can choose only two between:
Good
Fast
Cheap

You can have good and fast, but not cheap
You can have good and cheap, but not fast
You can have cheap and fast, but not good

As long as most profits really go to mangaka I'm certain some people would even do for free, but we would have random releases cause they still have a job and a life, and quality might be all over the place

Like I said before, on paper we could manage something, but in practice it's not that simple, money moves everything after all, and soon it's all about profits first and foremost

Edit to add pic:

Edit 2:
For some reason imgur isn't working here
So here the two links I tried adding
https://im --- gur.com/gallery/good-cheap-fast-pick-2-ZT4bE66
https://im --- gur.com/gallery/golden-rule-TFeuF5B
Just remove the ---

 

[Oliveaffection]

Well, it doesn't look like my chapters were taken down, so I'm good to continue I think... unless there's something I should be doing to protect myself?

 

[jeezits]

Well, it doesn't look like my chapters were taken down, so I'm good to continue I think... unless there's something I should be doing to protect myself?

You're almost certainly never going to get hit with anything worse than a DMCA "Take this down please" unless you're selling scans, oops sorry, "asking for donations totally only so we can release faster ".

 

[Angry_Panda]

I will note that a bunch of folks downloading MP3s in the early 00's considered themselves largely immune, until the RIAA decided to make a few examples and used the big hammer on individuals. Not that it put a stop to the practice, but it sure changed the game. Wondering if/when something similar is coming for scanlation groups.

 

[T-sama]

I will note that a bunch of folks downloading MP3s in the early 00's considered themselves largely immune, until the RIAA decided to make a few examples and used the big hammer on individuals. Not that it put a stop to the practice, but it sure changed the game. Wondering if/when something similar is coming for scanlation groups.

Funny, I was actually thinking of that yesterday, it's part of the reason I find so baffling that mangadex is hosted in a way they have to obey dmca, cause so many sites just ignore it lol

Although there will be a rise in apps with official translation for a while, and they might crackdown on manga piracy, I suspect in the long run it'll get nowhere.

People talk about how manga became too big, too popular, and now normies read it too, but the truth is that global manga industry is still a joke compared to how it is in Japan, sure it's more popular now, but as a whole it's still kinda niche compared to other medias.

Anime? That might actually be more accessible to normies due to streaming services, but manga? Nah, we'll never truly have a situation like RIAA cause western manga industry is not really that big or relevant, manga industry is an ant compared to music industry, not same repercussions due to piracy.

What will happen is that mangadex will slowdown, fall into irrelevance unless it becomes a community hub as I suggested, die, and another site will rise, only question is if next one will be smarter with hosting.

Meanwhile most shitty manga sites full of adds will continue as usual, cause they're not as easy of a target.

It's funny how mangadex touted itself as protecting scanlation groups when it can't even protect itself lol

 

[Angry_Panda]

Anime? That might actually be more accessible to normies due to streaming services, but manga? Nah, we'll never truly have a situation like RIAA cause western manga industry is not really that big or relevant, manga industry is an ant compared to music industry, not same repercussions due to piracy.

Except the recent cooperation between the JP/KR publishers makes me think we are seeing something similar - not identical, but not entirely unlike both the RIAA and MPAA pushback that started some decades ago. ('YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CATGIRL'... watch me, assholes.)

And I don't believe that there's going to be any offsetting push by the publishers to increase official distribution - they legitimately seem to give zero fucks about the western market for any but the very biggest works. What they may be doing is attempting to enforce the copyright for the sake of maintaining it - there have been works fall into the public domain because the copyright holder didn't protect their copyright when they learned it was being infringed, as this was interpreted as abandonment.

 

[deackychu]

I will note that a bunch of folks downloading MP3s in the early 00's considered themselves largely immune, until the RIAA decided to make a few examples and used the big hammer on individuals. Not that it put a stop to the practice, but it sure changed the game. Wondering if/when something similar is coming for scanlation groups.

The music industry was a different beast entirely. I'd argue that cases such as this have a harder time moving to court. It's not something as egregious as, say, someone modding a Switch and selling it and having the hammer from Nintendo come down. It would be interesting to see how a case would play out in court if one of the publishers were pushing their AI/MTL version via the paid app and the scanlator had a much better quality product on the market for free...

 

[Angry_Panda]

The music industry was a different beast entirely. I'd argue that cases such as this have a harder time moving to court. It's not something as egregious as, say, someone modding a Switch and selling it and having the hammer from Nintendo come down. It would be interesting to see how a case would play out in court if one of the publishers were pushing their AI/MTL version via the paid app and the scanlator had a much better quality product on the market for free...

Except translation is an exclusive right of authorization, so the copyright holder has an open and shut case.

 

[T-sama]

Except the recent cooperation between the JP/KR publishers makes me think we are seeing something similar - not identical, but not entirely unlike both the RIAA and MPAA pushback that started some decades ago. ('YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CATGIRL'... watch me, assholes.)

Yeah I do think that's a possibility, which is why I think in the long run only sites like Mangasee, which completely ignored dmca for over a decade and still exist, will stay active.

It's why I keep pointing out that successor to mangadex has to do things different to survive.

And I don't believe that there's going to be any offsetting push by the publishers to increase official distribution - they legitimately seem to give zero fucks about the western market for any but the very biggest works. What they may be doing is attempting to enforce the copyright for the sake of maintaining it - there have been works fall into the public domain because the copyright holder didn't protect their copyright when they learned it was being infringed, as this was interpreted as abandonment.

Basically yes, I do think at least some series might get official translation in their apps, maybe, since that's a new market trying to grow.

I also think that's part of the reason this dmca happened, if it's true it's against hundreds of sites and groups then I believe it's guaranteed to be the reason.

But gave is we won't get even 1% of the series with fan translation in legitimate places, they're way too old or too niche to be worth, so at the end of the day this is first and foremost about stopping piracy and having a tight leash on their IPs.

Fact is in the long run scanlation community has to adapt cause dmcas might become more common with the advent of apps, especially if they don't die down even though most services are garbage.

Either we adapt or die.

 

[T-sama]

Except translation is an exclusive right of authorization, so the copyright holder has an open and shut case.

Yeah but music industry in the west is what, a trillion dollar industry that involve business at all levels of capitalism? Manga in the west just don't move enough money to  really be important, so it'll never get the same attention, western lawmakers basically doesn't care about it, so piracy can more or less safely continue as long as we're smart with hosting

 

[ScottChegg166]

I'm not aware of any library export tools.
If no one creates one within the next week or so, I will do it myself.

Don't suppose we could have a torrent set up for the site's contents, for... archival purposes? Maybe in batches of alphabetical order to cut down on each individual torrent.

 

[Angry_Panda]

Yeah but music industry in the west is what, a trillion dollar industry that involve business at all levels of capitalism? Manga in the west just don't move enough money to  really be important, so it'll never get the same attention, western lawmakers basically doesn't care about it, so piracy can more or less safely continue as long as we're smart with hosting

No, but it can piggyback on laws that were passed to protect the music and motion picture and publishing industries. Given those industries are going to want to cast as wide a net as possible, much of the legislation they suggest is going to be applicable for a lot of smaller industries as well.

 

[T-sama]

No, but it can piggyback on laws that were passed to protect the music and motion picture and publishing industries. Given those industries are going to want to cast as wide a net as possible, much of the legislation they suggest is going to be applicable for a lot of smaller industries as well.

Oh it can and might in time, since Japanese publishers are trying bring more stuff to the west, my point is that in the grand scheme of things manga and anime just really isn't important as it doesn't make as much money as music industry.

They might try tight the laws and crack down on manga piracy, but it's just not really important enough that western authorities will truly act on it, Japanese authorities are too out of touch with the west, which is why dmca incidents like this only happen from time to time due to a third party genning involved to get a big paycheck.

As long as we're smart about host, download, sharing, accounts and so on, manga piracy will simply never go away.

Fact that official apps are garbage, sometimes full of censorship, shitty translation and sometimes even mtl, means it'll never turn like music and game industries that found a way to give a good service with affordable prices.

Japanese executives are too used to abusing and exploiting Japanese customers, they think the same will work in the west, it won't, so manga piracy will never stop, ever.

The service and cost makes sure piracy won't stop, even if they try to push laws against it, at worst people go back to torrent and p2p

Legally they might try crack down on US and similar countries, but manga piracy is too global to stop, people will find a way to share fan translation.

Honestly? Call me when all sites like mangasee, which ignore dmca for decades, go down, then you'll convince me they're actually going to stop manga piracy with dmca and copyright laws.

 

[Variousletters]

A brazilian website just announced that more than 700 titles were impacted and it will increase. And the chances of many of these things becoming lost media are very high.

That's basically the worst part of all this. I recall how often titles licensed in the early oughts would get licensed, swept away, and then MAYBE we'd see one or two volumes over one or two years and that was the end of it. It was almost as if they'd bought it to squash it.

 

[Angry_Panda]

That's basically the worst part of all this. I recall how often titles licensed in the early oughts would get licensed, swept away, and then MAYBE we'd see one or two volumes over one or two years and that was the end of it. It was almost as if they'd bought it to squash it.

Good times, except without the 'good'... yep, those were times.

 

[T-sama]

That's basically the worst part of all this. I recall how often titles licensed in the early oughts would get licensed, swept away, and then MAYBE we'd see one or two volumes over one or two years and that was the end of it. It was almost as if they'd bought it to squash it.

And even if they didn't stop it might still have shitty translation compared to fan translation and expensive as fuck to boot.