It has to be said, the scan-translators and scanners that put these watermarks on their releases are no better than those corporations that force strict anti-piracy rules on everyone else. It's even more ironic due to the fact that these groups are complaining about someone pirating something that, essentially, is already pirated. I don't understand it, I've been reading manga online for almost a decade, and whenever a distributor's anti-piracy measures where defeated, they hailed as champions. Now we have the scan groups, worst of all Japanzai, attempting to protect their work by shoving crap in, making even the releases gained from Batoto unreadable, and everyone is okay with this?

Piracy will happen, you all scream it whenever Ubisoft unleashes a new DRM. Why the fuck are you punishing everyone in an attempt to slow the marginals?

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Nya?

Comparing scanlation groups to being the RIAA or MPAA is nonsense.

Scanlation groups are not like the MPAA or RIAA who don't even provide anything for free whereas scanlation groups do the opposite and provide free pirated material with their own labours and costs added into the scanlation or fansub. If you don't want it, then don't get it.

but ... what about their pirated stuff being pirated to make money? that could make the RIAA/DRM/MPAA believe its them the ones making money with their piracy... AND I DO believe thats what piss people like japanxxx to being seen as bastards who pirate stuff for money instead of piracing it "for good" ya the for good is no where good but we go feel its good tho.

Like the MPAA and RIAA, scanlation groups provide an invaluable service to both creators and consumers. Also like the MPAA and RIAA, scanlation groups go absurdly overboard when it comes to "protective measures" of what they feel is "their" work, and try to control all means of distribution and consumption.

Unlike the MPAA and RIAA, scanlation groups have absolutely no legal rights to anything they do.

One thing you can draw from this is that people will be incredibly possessive of anything they've touched, regardless if you're big business or just a hobbyist.



By the way, in terms of sheer actual numbers, the MPAA and RIAA have provided more free stuff than the cumulative sum of all Scanlation groups. Not by percentage, but by actual volume.

If you want to troll, please, at least attempt to be good at it.

Stay ignorant.

We're talking Radio. Promotional giveaways. Live events. It goes on and on, and spans 5 decades from two of the largest organizations in the United States, for the most consumed products in those same years. And that's not even counting the recent years where music labels have put entire albums up on Youtube.

It isn't a matter of being charitable. The scale of the MPAA and RIAA is so much more massive than you seem to realize.

You can't compare watermarking to RIAA/DRM/MPAA. You can; however, point out the hypocrisy of watermarks.

What I find ironic is that scanlation groups think they can control who redistributes work that is not theirs in the first place. End users uploading scanlations to sites and readers is no different than scanlators stealing the work in the first place. Actually; it is different, It's not as bad. Especially since the amount of work put forth in scanlation cannot compare to the work an author/artist puts into each

The argument "but we need ad revenue to purchase raws" is a load. Even if you do HAVE to buy raws, people will donate. If enough isn't donated, you just don't scanlate that series. Or you know, get the raw from Share/Perfect Dark and put a little extra work into the raws.

No matter how bad MangaFox and the like are, pasting huge fucking watermarks over pages doesn't hurt anyone but the people reading a series.

PS: I am a scanlator, and I don't care what's done with my work after it's released. I don't scanlate because I want credit. I want people to be able to read and enjoy something. The people I work with feel the same way.

Sadly, if this nonsense had happened a few years ago, people wouldn't have put up with it. Hopefully some other scanlators will step up and pick up some of the series being heavily watermarked.

Last edited by HumanoidInterface at 7:13 pm, Feb 24 2012

I look at watermarking from a different angle. Watermarks remind me that I'm reading something illegal. If I want my manga to be as clean as possible then I should support the mangaka and purchase it legally.

I honestly don't buy the typical "we hate MangaFox" line; it's pointless trying to control what people do with *illegal* stuff you distribute for free over the internet. But having said that I don't rage on scanlators for watermarking; I'm getting something illegal for free, and as long as I can still read the text and understand what is happening it's all good.



I don't read off Batoto. I don't read online at all.

And besides, Japanzai offers clean versions (which I don't even dl because the WMed releases don't bug me); catch is you just have to wait for it... but hey, no one died because they had to wait to read their manga.

I can't help but feel much of this hatred towards watermarking is just the result of reader impatience. That, and a huge sense of entitlement.

radio is payed for... when have the mpaa and riaa ever given anything away for free.

i mean they have strong armed radio to the point where independent groups cant get on some stations because they they aren't from a label.

I lol'd. If you don't like the watermarks, either WAIT for another scanlation group to scan it without the watermarks, buy the official volume yourself, or simply don't read the manga.
I mean, seriously, one way or another, you can read still read the manga in the end. Japanzai is actually a very prominent scanlation group. If you don't appreciate the manga you get to read IN ENGLISH, simply leave.

If you wish to discuss watermarks, go to the old site poll thread for it.