Quote from -shiratori-
...the group doesn't host or distribute it theirselves anymore, probably because it's inactive/dead?
When a group is dead, the only "rules" I continue to follow are the ones about not sharing a licensed project they've told us to stop sharing, and not hosting their projects myself. I have no problem nabbing a copy of an unlicensed project from someone who ignores that second rule. I think it's a waste when a group closes with the "never share our stuff anywhere" rule still active. It's a waste of the time and effort of everyone who worked on those projects. That rule is usually made by the owner of the group, not every individual member. Just because the group mod decides to quit doesn't mean the translators and scanners and cleaners shouldn't be allowed to continue sharing the projects they worked on. The "no sharing our stuff" rule is only good to make people get the projects directly from that group. When that group stops sharing, there is only one reason for them to continue restricting people from sharing their projects - if the project is licensed and sharing it will get them in trouble. If the project isn't licensed then as far as I'm concerned it's better for people to start sharing it on the dead group's behalf than to force someone else to rescanlate that project when they could be working on unscanlated projects instead. I'm thinking of the good of the scanlation hobby as a whole here, not of the former-scanlators who worked on a project and then tried to erase it from existence just because they're not scanlation fans anymore. When you have a long project that was well scanlated once there is no sense in "respectful fans" having to redo that entire project just to follow a dead group's rules.
Now if we're talking about an innactive group, that's a little different. I go inactive all the time, taking months off depending on my schedule. I come back as strong as ever. If an inactive group had dead links, I would try to contact members of that group. I would then wait for months and even a year before assuming the group is dead. I think it's foolish when people talk about "picking up dead projects" after a group has only been inactive for a month. Those projects aren't dead any more than the group is. Who hasn't gotten busy for a few months? There's a big difference to me between dead and inactive.
Of course I don't host other people's projects no matter how long the group has been dead. I'm a scanlator. I can't do that if I want people to follow my rules (which concern not posting hardcore content on child-friendly parts of the net). I respect even the rules of the dead by not breaking them myself because I have to. But if I want to read that scanlation I will try to find a copy anywhere I can. And if I just can't find that project anywhere, then and only then will I consider buying the Japanese books and rescanlating it myself so I and other current manga fans will be able to read it.