What a bunch of rubbish. If you were honest and forthcoming about the DMCA claim, a lot of the drama could have been avoided. Yet you still persist in playing this silly game which only furthers the inquisitiveness of people.

I agree that it was mean, but I wouldn't go so far as say intolerable. Annoyingly the approach was logical. I have a pet hobby of researching, and went through a stage that copyright was my target of interest (ironic I know). What I can follow of this mess, I can see the reasons to use the method they did. Paypal and the host site are both easier targets for the lawyers. The lawyers also likely realized that the terms of use means all they would have to do is scare both these targets. Present even the potential that the law has been broken, and either/both companies can easily use the terms of use to terminate business with the potential offender (no innocence until proven guilty needed). Despite all of their dedication, MUs staff are not considered an organization. They are individuals and thus a harder direct target for the lawyers, also an unknown target, To them MUs staff could just as easily give them the bird. Rather they went with the tactic that had more secure odds for working. Heavy handed? Yes. Mean? Yes. The wrong move? Given the difficult nature of copyright enforcement, I have to say no.

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"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -Einstein

A simple thing to do regarding group links is create a script that can be used via greasemonkey/tampermonkey and update it for new groups.

I don't have an answer to your question but I think (or I'd like to think) if any group is working on something under the DMCA, then they will simply stop working on it. I don't know any groups that are or have been affected by DMCA yet (to my knowledge) but if something is dropped, it's probable that the scanlating group will explain the reason for dropping a project.

I hope this will NOT completely remove the group from your database, especially if not all of the scanlation are related to the DMCA claim.
Also, this probably mean that we will soon know who is this organization. I also second this motion
Or at least make a new tag (DMCA?) so I can filter them out. MU is basically doing them favor by giving free information to their current and future customer. They don't want it, you can remove it.
P/s: I'm still pissed off by their underhanded tactic

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i don't exist

Yep. Welcome to the world of "guilty until proven innocent." As one who's been hit TWICE with false DMCA claims, this whole law angers me to no end.

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AstroNerdBoy's Anime and Manga Blog

Did people not catch the bit where Manick mentioned the request was sent to PayPal and their host? If PayPal and the host don't want to play ball, then MU can't really do anything to fight this. I use manga updates as an AniDB of manga. The loss of group links sucks, but to me, the tracking of series, their reviews, and user ratings is far more important to me.

If they have to comply with a request, fraudulent or otherwise, in order to keep this info available, then more power to them. Even if they do "fight" and win, if the host decides the whole thing is more trouble than it's worth, MU will be dropped like a rock (a hot one at that). Not to mention the fact that PayPal sucks and will drop their account every time a new request is sent.

Well id sure like to know who filed it, cause they just pissed off a customer, and frankly i want to make sure i dont buy from them

I am a bit dumbfounded as to why IRC addresses were not click-able? Hopefully that is back as soon as possible too.

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http://rayout.org/ - ray=out anime and manga services

If you do want people to buy manga, you should make the licensing information more prominent put it above scanslations links. I know most people come here for the scanslations but a large percentage is also ignorant that a legal alternative even exist.

If you're honest about wanting people to buy manga, you should make that information more readily available to newcomers on the site. Maybe even look into Bookdepository and Amazon affiliate links if possible, a lot of publishers now offer their manga digitally as well.

There's a lot to be done, right now manga-updates as it stands is pretty much scanslation oriented.

Yes! This is an excellent idea! It should be clear which series are licensed and in print. And when practical, there should at least links to purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the license holders website for the series. This should be a manga information website and not just a scanlation directory.

Don't wait, just do it.
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=44044

I think it's a good idea.

Hopefully with the lure of free(?) advertising for their products, content owners back off MU for a bit. But I'm concerned it could also make content owners more "aware" of MU. Can anyone please weigh in?

Should MU also list legal releases (online publication or paperback volumes) in the Releases page, maybe highlighted even?

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If you were to go there and come back to me hurt, I will take your place.. and pull everything you hate.. into destruction...
I will erase anything that hurts you.. from the face of this world.

That is absolutely, horrendously ridiculous idea.

First of all, you cannot assume that everyone here is from USA. We're not. There are different publishers for different countries and regions, some ship internationally and some do not ship to specific countries. Most of manga here aren't even scanlated, not to mention they don't have ANY translations. They are only being released in Japan, so are you gonna link Japanese Amazon? Japanese publishers? There are better sites for that purpose and they do just that.

Secondly, this site is a manga database with updates on fan translations, not a price aggregator, publishers association or whatever. If you decide to go commercial, you are no longer independent and lose donations. You cannot decide anything. You might as well pack yourself, sell it and forget about it. Also, NO fans or groups are gonna provide information on this site which is about, what, 80%? 90%? 100%? That means you won't even know your favourite mangaka has started new manga in Japan as you obviously cannot read the Moonlanguage. Not to mention that if some company bought it, it would do it only for massive database and to take down the updates on translations. That means death to MU. Do you want to kill it? You cannot put in publishers links just like that, it doesn't work that way. What would be the purpose? To please publishers? To have revenue from ads? I have no goddamn idea.

I believe I don't have to continue, but I can still go on. Let me just tell you that it's you who is ignorant of the fact, that - if not for scanlators, manga sites and MU - there wouldn't be so many official international releases. It's companies role to make good product and sell it easily at good price and in no way it does become better by killing half of the whole fandom just for the heck of it.

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Do you miss group links? Click!