I think it's okay to distribute, like, the first volume of a licensed series. But no more. The reason I think that is because quite often I don't even know about the manga until I read the scanslation... Take Antique Bakery, for example. I only heard about it after it got licensed, but I didn't want to spend my money on something that I wouldn't like. So I downloaded the first volume's scanslation and read it. I really liked it, so I ended up buying the whole thing from Amazon.

Distributing an entire licensed series is wrong, in my books. But allowing us a brief preview? That's okay.

I'm a poor university student, and I can only afford to spend money on things that I know are worth buying. If I kept buying licensed titles without having any clue about how good they were, I'd go bankrupt! It's much better to be able to read only the start of a licensed manga for free -- that way, a person can decide whether or not to spend money on it. In fact, I know that if I wasn't able to preview a licensed manga by reading some sample chapters, I'd just play it safe and not buy anything at all. Yeah, call me anal or whatever, but I'm not rich enough to throw money around!

And I agree with Bikuki... If a licensed manga hasn't been published yet, it's okay to continue distributing it until it is published. Because seriously, far too many companies just sit idle for a long time before actually publishing a licensed title -- they should learn how to hurry up!

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"They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm." - Dorothy Parker.

someone actually knows we're a country? *cries in joy*
Indeed it is very hard to buy licensed manga here
A month or so ago i went to a comic books store and only found inuyasha and naruto which, btw, were still in the first 10 or 15 volumes.
whatever you guys say it isn't enough for us addicts.

*edit* i'm all for licensed manga scanlations *edit*


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There's no love in your violence.

-Kakihara

There's no way in hell I have enough money to buy the manga by store... so I'll just keep DLin

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Everyone has a plan till' they get punched in the mouth...

as for me i do both, i read scanlation and buy licensed manga, i like to build my colection with the mangas i like, of course that is till i go broke...

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God~! I'm the same but the problem is that I gave some cash /the truth is that I actually gave my poket money for a month T__T / to a friend who went to Japan to buy for me 3~4 vol. and reaally after that I was broke

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Blonds may have more fun , but brunettes remember it in the next day! muuuhahahahah

If you are a manga enthusiast then there is no way in hell you can afford all the manga.
And also, depending on your location, the manga available can be extremely limited.
Anyway, i treat unlicensed and licensed manga the same. It's not like i actually look up if the manga i'm currently reading is licensed.
I guess the only difference is that the scanners don't have to translate and edit, which saves them a lot of work...
For me, most of the downloads from the net is in the gray-zone. You can make it illegal if you want, you can make it legal if you want depending on your moral.

If i had to chose i would chose to support the scanlaters that scans licensed manga, because i'm a nice guy.
Even if what they did was illegal they did it with good intentions and did it for us in the end. I wouldn't exactly feel good if i did something for others and they hated me for that.

Same here

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Ahaha, that's what I was wondering about! Isn't is just completely illegal? I really have no idea why they're allowed to do that! I don't if they just haven't been caught yet or...

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This is Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny into your signature to help him gain world domination!

I think its fine to scanslate w/e manga whether it's licensed or not cause it being licensed in one place doesn't mean license in another. However, i do not support using the domestic releases and scanning them online.

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Quick Post;

Buying the physical copy of a quality manga is awesome.

When you have little money or the series is not great then downloading is even better.

Well, basically there's things like "International Copyright Laws" at work, it's not just licensing. Regardless where you live or what you do, distributing another person intellectual property without their permission is "illegal."
That being said, I personally have no problem with downloading licensed manga. The majority of the time it doesn't even stay on my comp longer than it takes to read it and decide if I like it or not. I generally buy the US releases of the stuff I like. A good book/comic/manga/whatever is something that you can read/watch/listen to over and over again, which ,imo, is well worth spending money on.









But man, it's gonna be a pain in the ass packing all that crap up when I move again. I just broke the 200 volume mark the other day.

haha, wow. That's really cool. ^_^ Me and my sister share our manga, and together we have about 16 vols. That's a lot of ways away from 200.

um... just to be on topic, yeah, I agree. If you really like it, buy it and support the manga-ka but I don't have a problem downloading because it is harder to get a hold of sometimes and its expensive. xD

I won't defend pirating manga, all I'll say is that the $13 manga prices at a bookstore half an hour away makes me die a little inside whenever I think about it.

I think it depends on your situation more than anything. I mean here in Dominican Republic, where am I supposed to get manga? Under a rock? Importing is out of the question, too costly. So I just download it and don't feel bad about it. If one day someone opens a store here, then I'll support as much as I can. Until then I'll just keep at it, just remembering what someone said once in the forum where i get my metal: "Don't forget how lucky we are to get sh*t for free".

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Step out of line
And I'll teach you how to fly
Then away we'll go, leave your mark
Leave your mark in the land of mine.

I think it's right no matter who you are, where you live, or how much you earn. In the end you're just downloading something without paying for it (and why the hell should you?), it's the same whether the manga is licensed or not, and it's just as illegal (yet there's a higher risk that they will sue you if it's been licensed). If you want to support the mangaka you can buy the manga no matter if it's been translated or not.

I'm no big fan of the copyright laws created by the big corporations that have no democratic footing, at least not where i live, i guess it's different in america...