To make things short, our official stance is that we consider all series licensed by the [sitelink=publishers.html?id=196]Central Park Media[/sitelink] division [sitelink=publishers.html?id=191]Be Beautiful[/sitelink] as still legal and valid (despite what [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink] says).

For the long story...
[sitelink=publishers.html?id=191]Be Beautiful[/sitelink] licensed some series from [sitelink=publishers.html?id=21]Biblos[/sitelink] (which was all perfectly legal), but then [sitelink=publishers.html?id=21]Biblos[/sitelink] became bankrupt and was bought up by [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink]. [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink] wanted to renegotiate all those licenses made by [sitelink=publishers.html?id=21]Biblos[/sitelink]. [sitelink=publishers.html?id=191]Be Beautiful[/sitelink] refused to renegotiate, so [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink] declared them as illegal.

However, because [sitelink=publishers.html?id=191]Be Beautiful[/sitelink] is an American company, it is governed under American laws. [sitelink=publishers.html?id=191]Be Beautiful[/sitelink]'s licenses are still in force under American law (because nothing is illegal of the original licenses). The gray area is because [sitelink=publishers.html?id=21]Biblos[/sitelink] went bankrupt, what happens? We are considering all the licenses on the series in question as still active.

Just to note something, [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink] can put whatever they want to say on their site (since it IS their site). Also, [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink] has not relicensed any of the series in question to another company. Nor has [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink] taken [sitelink=publishers.html?id=191]Be Beautiful[/sitelink] to court (and we suspect that [sitelink=publishers.html?id=249]Libre[/sitelink] would probably lose in an American court).

The last thing to note is that [sitelink=publishers.html?id=191]Be Beautiful[/sitelink] hasn't actually done anything with the licensed series since then...

(We thank the lawyer and publisher friends that we informally questioned for advice about this issue)

The original situation can be found here:
http://www.b-boy.jp/info17.html
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6428918.html

Interesting little poll suggested by Adi2xcl...
If you vote "Other", please explain your vote.

Discuss this on our forum here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=11405

If you got any interesting poll ideas, please submit them here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results
Question: Your favorite scene?
Choices:
Love scenes - votes: 2055 (17.5%)
Action scenes - votes: 861 (7.3%)
Bloodshed scenes - votes: 717 (6.1%)
Funny scenes - votes: 2186 (18.6%)
Hentai scenes - votes: 1143 (9.7%)
Flashbacks - votes: 135 (1.2%)
Touching, emotional scenes - votes: 2499 (21.3%)
When the character acts the coolest - votes: 2134 (18.2%)
There were 11730 total votes.
The poll ended: April 18th 2009

Wow, the sentimental people beat the ones looking for comedy. What a turnout!

Dani Filth writes: *If you are a Linux user, particularly Ubuntu, the popular distro, you may find this news interesting :

From http://distrowatch.com/
Finally, even if you are a fan of both Japanese manga and the world's most popular desktop Linux distribution, merging the two might never have crossed your mind. But it has for SEO Hiroshi, the author of the new free and open source manga, called Ubunchu!. The first chapter was released in Japanese on the 4th April, but now there is an English translation available. "Ubunchu! is a Japanese manga series featuring Ubuntu Linux. Three school students in a system administration club are getting into Ubuntu!" Where will this adventure go? Only time will tell! It's great to see free software users putting their skills to good use. Have you read the first chapter? Let us know what you think!

Source :
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090413#news
http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/ubunchu-the-ubuntu-manga-is-now-in-english/*

Note: Do not add this as a scanlator release to our database

For those of you that celebrate (including me) happy Easter~
And remember the true meaning, not just the bunny and the eggs...

Kinda rushed today, so I had to choose quickly...This one's from our member linnil. Perhaps not the best poll I've chosen, but oh well

You can discuss this poll on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=11259

If you got any interesting poll ideas, please submit them here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Antagonist you prefer?
Choices:
Low class bullies - votes: 185 (1.7%)
Love rivals - votes: 1241 (11.7%)
Dictators - votes: 464 (4.4%)
Rabid fangirls - votes: 397 (3.7%)
Rich oppressors - votes: 453 (4.3%)
Rivals with dignity - votes: 4469 (42.2%)
Dishonest cheaters - votes: 317 (3%)
Unloyal traitors - votes: 533 (5%)
Anyone as long as he/she is evil - votes: 1694 (16%)
I hate all antagonists - votes: 847 (8%)
There were 10600 total votes.
The poll ended: April 11th 2009

First off, I would like to thank you guys for (mostly) complying with our wishes for a joke-less April Fools' Day (in the sense of no fake releases).
Hint: There's a simple little button next to every user that's labeled "ban" (and not just a forum ban)

Anyways, on to the poll! It was natural to choose another followup poll~ This particular one was submitted by our member ryuu-chan. Again, it's just a fun poll, so no complaining if you preferred trait isn't up there...

If you would like to discuss on our forums, visit here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=11124

If you got any interesting poll ideas, please submit them here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: What character traits do you prefer in a protagonist?
Choices:
Kindness and honesty - votes: 1324 (13.4%)
Burning desire to succeed/refusal to surrender - votes: 2613 (26.5%)
Emotionally weak/broken with lots of character development - votes: 1849 (18.8%)
Ingenuity - votes: 1441 (14.6%)
Heartless - votes: 1500 (15.2%)
Day to day courage - votes: 728 (7.4%)
Someone plain hopeless - votes: 399 (4%)
There were 9854 total votes.
The poll ended: April 4th 2009

As you can see, a lot of people like perseverance. So in your daily life, do not give up. Never surrender. Continue projects you start, and you'll become a more liked~

3rd post about this accursed day...Anyways, hope you guys don't get fooled too badly by stuff. Just to note, we as a site do not have a joke to play...Perhaps next year...

If you want to discuss April Fools' jokes or alert us to fake releases, you can do so here on our forums:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=11074

Site came back up a few minutes ago (from the time of this posting) after being down for approximately the last 12 hours. And no, it was not our April Fools' joke or anything similar. This was not planned. The official reason from our server provider was "migration maintenance"...
Anyways, we're back up now! (for now...)

And again, I would like to remind people that we are not permitting April Fools' joke releases to be announced on MangaUpdates. If you see such a release that somehow passed our vigilant scanners, please tell us via a Change Request Form or email me at lambchopsil[at]gmail[dot]com.
For more details, please read this news post:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/news.html?id=467

We need a fun poll once in a while...This one in particular was submitted by our member Col. Yes, I realize that the choices up there might not be your favorite, but just choose from that small pool. No complaining now! If you prefer some specific characteristics, you can tell us in the thread below:

You can discuss this on our forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=11024

If you got any interesting poll ideas, please submit them here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: In general, do you read series in HQ after reading in LQ?
Choices:
Yes, LQ first then HQ - votes: 2007 (25.2%)
I only read HQ - votes: 1802 (22.6%)
No, but I archive the HQ - votes: 2096 (26.3%)
No, LQ only since I only read a chapter once - votes: 1969 (24.7%)
No scanlations for me - votes: 94 (1.2%)
There were 7968 total votes.
The poll ended: March 28th 2009

If there was a "don't care" option, it would've won

In about a week's time is the infamous April Fools' Day (April 1st). At MU, we [color=red]WILL NOT[/color] tolerate any fake/joke releases being reported/announced to us. If we, by accident, allow a fake release to get through, please report the mistake to us (either via a [sitelink=submit.html?act=add_change]Change Request[/sitelink] form, through the forum, or you can email me at lambchopsil[at]gmail[dot]com if you are not a registered member here).

As you have been warned against doing it, if we discover a person still attempting to post a joke release here, that person will be dealt with. Severe action will be taken upon that scanlation group.

Thank you for considering our request to remain as accurate as possible for our members.

**Edit: Some people seem to think this news post is a joke or something similar. I assure you, I am being totally serious. Don't take it lightly.

And we can figure out if someone is trying to frame a group. We're not naive, so don't even try.**