First, I hope I don't come off as too bitter or hateful with this, and secondly, I'm sorry for being so long-winded in my posts. Anyway...

In the last couple days (as well as many times before), I've noticed a few groups releasing a TON of 1+ volume releases of many (usually shoujo) series. I haven't personally investigated the releases or their quality, but due to factors such as the covers being scans of the English publication, and series summaries being taken directly from the back of the covers (like, "From Tokyopop: [summary follows]"), as well as the very large quantity being released at once, I get the idea that these aren't actually scanlations of Japanese/other language manga (translated into English by the group), but rather are scans of the actual English-language publications—if that's not true, then my suggestion can be ignored.

While I know the legality and "right-ness" of scanlations in general is debatable, I think it's completely inexcusable for groups to pass off something they scanned and did not translate or do anything else to as a scanlation. I know that these groups do not give site or irc addresses for their releases, but I'm wondering if they should be listed on MU at all...is it reasonable to suggest that these kinds of release not get posted here?

I'll second this.

It would at least be nice if you could add in a distinguisher, like you do at baka-updates anime. Like the DVD tag for straight up rips, instead of fan-translated anime. Maybe just [Scan]...?

I mean, it's pretty obvious when things are scanned from English versus fan-translated, but a distinguisher would be nice.

As of right now, we're allowing *most* of the scanned stuff (some exceptions...but only admins need to worry about that). An indicator though *might* happen, but it depends on Manick's mood...

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Thanks for your reply! Would it be possible to allow users to filter out such releases too, maybe?

Again, it depends on what Manick thinks of this suggestion...

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Where did you get the idea that all those groups identify themselves as scanlators?


Why they should not be posted here? The only reason you gave us is that is inexcusable for scanning groups to pass off as scanlators, which is a pretty weird reason if you ask me. Usually, people would argue about the ethical issues that arise when scanning English-licensed material, not if it's correct to scan groups to label themselves as scanlators...


How can you possibly second a suggestion that dictates the complete removal of all the information regarding scanned material of English publications listed on this site, while at the same time supporting the implementation of a new tag identification system aimed to distinguish such material from the rest? It just doesn't make any sense.


Really? which are those, if I may ask?

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Well, I didn't mean to start any controversy. I just figured that MU is a scanlation-release posting website, and scans of English publications didn't really have a place here (a suggestion forum didn't seem like the place for debating its ethics/legality). But my assumption was wrong, and lambchopsil's explanation is acceptable to me. All I meant by "passing off as scanlation" was that their releases were being posted among other scanlations with no differentiation given.

I totally understand that any filtering/marking system will take time and there are certainly many things of higher priority. Thanks for considering my request, and thanks even more for everything else you folks already do for this wonderful website!

Well, if you read carefully all the sections of this site you'll notice that there is no indication of that. In fact, if you go to the "About Us" entry you'll see this:

[...]Baka-Updates is a site dedicated to bringing the anime and manga community the latest release information[...]

Also, in the forum rules:
[...]We are an information site[...] (Notice that it says "information site" not "scanlation information site").

The only thing that gives you the right to say that MangaUpdates is a scanlation-only release site is (as far as I remember) the fact that the releasing groups are identified by default as "Scanlators" (as you can see in the main menu located in the upper-right part of the page [erroneously labeled as "Scanlator Section" instead of "Group Section"] as well as in the series information page) but that (in my opinion at least) doesn't indicate that this site is dedicated exclusively to scanlation releases, only that all the releasing groups are regarded (erroneously) as such.


Uh...what explanation? The only thing lambchopsil said is that this site allows most scanned material to be listed here and that a tag identification system could be a viable option. He didn't explain anything as far as I understood from his reply.


Ah...If only you had clarified that particular aspect of your suggestion before I wouldn't even thought of replying to your suggestion and we wouldn't be having this futile conversation...Oh well.


Oh, I fully agree with you on this. Many thanks to all the Mods/Adms for all your hard work and for maintaining this fantastic site.

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The main ones we don't allow is almost all scanned yaoi (there's some kind of legal reason I believe, but only faye or Manick really know why) and anything licensed by NetComics

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

I can completely understand why you don't list NetComics-licensed material, but scanned yaoi? Maybe if they were only certain titles would be more understandable, but almost all of them? That's kind of strange.
Well, it's not that I'm interested in yaoi, it's just that I'm curious about the legal problems that this site incurs in listing that kind of material here. (Oh well, thank you for the clarification lambchopsil, I guess I'll have to ask Manick or Faye if I want to find out the details of this matter).

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haha so listing tokyopop rips is allowed but net comics isn't? lol b.s. Neo is a hardcore leecher and doesn't have ethics so i'll ignore him since he just wants to read for free what he should buy. Licensed manga scanlation is done because the publisher is far behind or sucks. Don't go comparing it to scans lol. yeah an identifier would be nice. Or the complete removal. Don't need all that crap filling up my screen . If i need it i can go to lurk and check their archive. That's where it all is anyways >.>; Plus you don't see the negative effects listing all that manga has? naive. /me waits for tp to come knocking on mu's door.

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~~~the world it is a dyin'~~ so let's just enjoy the view~~~

Ah. It probably won't make much of a difference, but I would also like an identifier and possibly a filter too. Although I'll understand if this would be too much trouble. Thanks again. : )

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I don't really get the issue of being ok with scanlations and not scans; essentially it boils down to electronic theft to some degree of someone or some peoples' work. An while a tag or filter system might stop displaying these to people who choose not to download scans, it won't really stop the issue of people scanning licensed stuff in.

So i'm voting in the "it's part and parcel of Manga info, so why try and seperate/hide it" group.

I'm in that group too...

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source: animenewsnetwork

Join SRoMU Scanlations or visit #SRoMU at IRCHighWay.

if you have noticed, most groups discontinued their projects right after they were licensed, so these scanlation groups are doing a big favor to the rest of us, who is interested obtaining the licensed manga online...just because you're annoyed by seeing those releases doesn't mean that the rest of us do....NeoFireHawk had also quoted earlier from the about us page of MU that this is an informational website, so it should be completely reasonable to post any kind of releases from scanlation/translation groups...this site wouldn't have been existed if we all have the time to check upon lurk everyday for a new release from a scanlation group...like reanimated838uk had said, it all comes down to electronic theft, whether you translate or scanlate, so i don't think MU is ever going to be brought down by these scanlation groups alone...

for those who are greatly annoyed by these releases, maybe someone (manick) can input an option for each release, whether it is a translation or scanlation, and add some filter for scanlation release

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The Deviant