It's because they are stupid. They see it like this: Kill the source, no one will be able to distribute them
Instead of: Kill the distribution and people will find it harder to find their free illegal stuff and will give up and buy it instead cuz they are wasting too much time on it.

I want them to go after the online readers too...but it's probably not going to happen which is one of the reasons scanlators try to tell others to stop supporting them. Less user base, less money they makes, less threat to the companies they are. ^^

Ah, but if we America can find an excuse to take down MegaUpload, then we'll find a way to take down Mangafox. If we think they are taking money from us, then we'll spend shitloads more to shut them down. I'm sure there's some logic in that plan.

Oh you are so smart T1. You think that your opinion is better than everyone else here so therefore you are smarter? Tch yeah right. I didn't say anything about viz. I only said that Lord Jure is saying all this shit but in the end s/he is a contributor in perpetuating piracy and the whole scanlation thing. I myself have no problem with viz. I BUY all my manga so don't go assuming whatever.

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http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z204/kmacfarland/PonandZi .gif

it's because the economy currently sucks hard and there's no money in risking trying out new ideas and new plots. it's better and more financially sound to stick with the stuff that guaranteed sells: porn. simple as that. look at all the new anime being made in japan right now, it's either ecchi fanservice, moeblobs, or "deep" anime that turns out to be filled with fanservice anyways.

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;D

If it does happen it would definitely be for the best. Convenience is nice but it can come at a heavy price, especially for something you don't want anyone to know about. Plus it'll lead to less political drama in the scanslation world too, at least in my opinion it will. To be honest after null my second favorite group to pop in my life had to be A-Team and they got a lot of crap for something they knew was going to turn bad, and people kept bashing them for going to extremes when no one heeded their warnings. If this turns into a lesson to teach all the readers and leechers out there about how important it is to stay underground with and to show patience for releases, I'm all for this loss.

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Yeah, but eventually they will get to the online readers. I just hope we can go back to the good ol' days with the irc releases but I'm starting to think even that won't be possible anymore. Things have gone completely out of proportion and I think they will make one of the online readers the example (like what happened to pirate bay a year or so ago).

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True, but the anime industry has been like that for the last 3 or 4 years with the occasional good series popping out. From all the winter season anime titles I couldn't find even one that caught my attention. As for the spring season I saw 2 or 3 that I may pick up but I don't expect much from those either. Going to give them 2 or 3 eps to show me they are worth me time otherwise I'll have to wait for the summer season :\

And you actually made a very good point. Now that I think about it ever since this big economical crisis started there hasn't been many shows (or even any show) that actually had a new idea or tried something that no one ever dared to do.

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To be honest Japan's has been in the decline for a lot of their major popular exports. They've gotten stuck in the old ways that used to sell for them and they never improved. Like for example their games have dropped considerably, (I know we're talking about manga here bare with me on this) and a lot of famous developers have left their respective companies for lack of progress and innovation. The idea of sticking to what sold well in the past isn't going to cut it for a lot of reasons. it becomes repetitive and dry. Look at Capcom, they constantly rehashed Megaman along with other titles under them that have gotten sequelitis. If we put ecchi in every manga released now a days then it's just going to go the point of it all just being about panties and possibly boobs... And I'd for it to grow stale for the latter one since I do like boobs, lol. But having something too much is just going to make it boring and lame.

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Sex Sells.

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This, so much. What happened to the days when the moment a series got licensed, it was common sense for the scanlation teams to drop it? There used to be a sort of symbiosis between scanlation groups and English manga companies--the scanlation groups would pick up a range of series and the manga companies would come along to license the most popular ones, the scan groups would drop the series and everyone who wanted to read more could go buy them in English.

I mean, did we all forget the roots of scanlations, which is to make available a series you like to those who cannot obtain it because they can't read English? Scanlators and readers used to cheer when a series got licensed, and now in this age of Entitled, children who don't even know that manga doesn't originally come free bad mouth English manga companies, bad mouth scanlators who don't support aggregators, all the while NOT having a clue where this "free" manga comes from and just expecting more of it to keep coming.

I completely agree with the comments that Viz and other companies' business model needs revamping, but even if scanlation is a grey area of copyright issues, there is absolutely no good reason for someone to scanlate a manga that is already coming out in English. In this age of the internet, you can shop for manga online and have it shipped to anywhere in the world, so there is no excuse for demanding English scanlations instead of the licensed manga. (Buying raws is another story though, because that's still supporting the product.)

At last, the dying snake shows its fangs filled with poisonous greed, knowing that it may be the last time it shows them.

The business model is the thing that doesn't work; not with the internet, not with the increasing number of smart-shopping people, yet they don't seem to get it, do they?

Then they shall perish, since advertising doesn't change the people drastically anymore (oversaturation, what else?), nor does the government, SOPA was proof of that.

It's time for the "new" generation to take the reins of the business world.

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ミレニアム・マ スター１８

The intent of your comment is as obvious as your grammar is impeccable.
Perhaps rephrase your remarks in English.

"Viz as far as I can see did a good job already, releasing it 3 weeks after Japan."

That's nowhere near good enough. This isn't the 80's where they had to snail mail transcripts.

There's no reason why Viz can't release simultaneously with Japan right now, aside from a predilection for censorship (ie: Sanji's smoking).

If Viz is serious about what they're doing, they should beat the scanlators at both speed and quality. There's no reason that they should earn a premium over what they pay Jump, if a ragtag bunch of kiddies do a better job for free.

Now if Jump had half a brain they'd drop the foreign publishers, and set up an English Online Reader site on Japanese servers, charge an annual subscription fee with an extra premium to download.
If somebody wants a hardcopy volume, they can buy it and have it shipped, in english, directly from Jump's Japanese publisher.
Screw Viz, screw North American booksellers.

THIS so soo soo much!! I can't believe I had to scroll down so far to find someone who has any sense in this whole issue. Thank goodness there are people out there who aren't deluded, ignorant, or who don't choose to be so because they'd rather not accept the truth in the matter.

It's a shame that people think they have a right to get everything for free and instantaneously, and it's unbelievable that people want VIZ to lose money and for the manga industry to go to dust. I for one would never have gotten into manga if companies like VIZ hadn't existed when i went to that bookstore years ago and saw the manga section. They may not be perfect and they may not be fast (though honestly I think their speed is perfectly fine since they release at the same rate as the Japanese tanks do, albeit a couple of volumes behind), but I will always prefer to have a hard copy in my hands, whether the Japanese tanks or an English version from companies like VIZ.

I would be incredibly sad because then I wouldn't be able to read amazing but painfully obscure (and terribly hard to read in Japanese) series that VIZ releases like Kaze Hikaru and Ooku. T__________T