yes as long MangaUpdates still intact it's not that big of a problem mmm...
scanlation group(i don't want to give more clue), torrent, IRC, etc (that i don't use until now) mmm.,,

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I will change this world mmm...
So the world can change me mmm...

I agree completely, comply with takedown requests but do not shut down sites,

This is all an attempt by the JDCA to scare sites into shutting down.

Hell maybe it's time for the entire scanlation community to start using IRC for distribution entirely. It would make it a nightmare for them to catch anyone in the act.

Agreed - on both the price point and quality. I buy manga of my favorite series that are available in English to support the mangaka, but I never read the actual books. Even when I buy them, I read the scanlations because their quality is much better. The worst is when they drop honorifics and/or reverse names (to make it given name then family name)... it's confusing, and a lot of jokes, drama, etc. are based on reactions to dropping honorifics or changing the way one character addresses another. It just doesn't make any sense without the Japanese details (anime is actually worse about this in official English releases).
Maybe the Japanese industry just needs to license some scanlator groups to distribute (electronically) for very small fees. I'd gladly pay a small fee for quality scanlations in which the fee went directly back to the mangaka. ¯\(-_-)/¯

Completely agree with you.

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Because sales are more important than revenue.

This is just another obstacle to be countered. In the end scans will be the winners, even if we have to wait for a time and resort to more underground methods. I agree with their decision about reading sites -- this ones attract too much attention from unwanted people and sometimes this sites earn profit from showing manga, of course there are some that just host for hosting and even don't accept donations neither have ads. Well, regarding the piracy, I'm more than happy in my country! I live on Brazil and here is more easier to win the lotto than getting arrested for buying/selling/downloading/etc illegal copies of anything. Even our president watches pirate DVDs! There is millions of downloading sites [direct link or torrent] and uncontable people and places that sells illegal copies, with legal licence to do that -- I mean, the places, here called "camelodromos", buildings that even do commercials on TV. So why not? In my opinion, books, magazines, manga and newspapers mustn't be protected by copyright issues, 'cause they are meant to be read and to expand peoples knowledge, fun and mind, not to sell and make profit to companies -- here on my city there is a big newspaper that's tottaly free to the population, being supported only by the ads and the yellow pages and their classifieds.

This is a good point, but think about it this way. For your average good manga scanlation that I produce, I have a translator, who takes anywhere between a day and months to translate. Depending on the translator, translation is either very quick or time consuming. Raw scanning is skipped for publishers. Editing is the serious drain here: a chapter with extensive redraws can take hours per page. I have often had singular pages on which I've spent around a month (of course, I'm on the slow end). Good editors generally have years of experience; something the publishing industry is not willing to invest in.

From what I've heard, manga editors are paid minimum wage. If you're going to ask me to redraw all those pages in absolute high quality for minimum wage, I'm quitting on the spot. Increase their pay? But then the already-high manga prices will increase. This is a lose-lose situation for US publishers.

Costs are impossible to avoid: the printing, the license and royalties, the labour; these all drive up the price. If you want these companies to print at no profit, they sure as hell won't stay in the market.

Requests to decrease manga prices are simply uneconomical and illogical. It is IMPOSSIBLE to achieve higher quality and lower cost.

Which manga scanlator is stupid enough to pick a fight with a large company like that for scanlation? Forgive me if you've noticed this already, but we're all volunteers. My only gain from a victorious court case is the right to continue scanlation; in case you haven't noticed, there's no real world benefit to even engaging in a costly and probably impossible battle.

Comply with the takedown notices based on morality not fear. It is funny that this post was actually made considering not long ago (almost) everyone voluntary took down licensed material w/out take down requests because it was felt to be the right thing to do.. The real issue here is that the material to be pursued is not just material licensed outside of Japan but all media; blanket take downs that will do nothing but harm to the scanlation community.

Scanlation is already seen as a cancer and it is being pursued. They say scanlator but they really mean pirates. Onemanga's dead, Manga Toshokan ain't got any manga anymore and MH is a dust bowl now because of it. They want to see all online hosts dead and wouldn't mind seeing the scanlators go with them. To hell with any freedoms the scanlators enjoyed.

One must remember though that media companies do not control said freedom. They may think pirate when they say scanlators but they will never say it to our faces for fear of being labeled as ungrateful rat bastards. They are already fucked with their fans and will do anything to avoid going to court because they know doing so won't unfuck the relationship.

Scanlations cannot be stopped, only curbed. The scanlation community has the power because it meets demands for instant gratification, gives uncensored unabridged translations and promotes exotic obscure titles; something the media companies is only now beginning to understand.

File sharing is far from dead. Every time they beat down one method another took its place. We never hear about Kazaa anymore but we sure as hell hear a lot about bit torrent. When that dies, the file lockers, IRC and any number of other methods will take their place. They can catch a few hundred or even a few thousand but billions more will go on pirating if all they do is litigate.

On the other hand, a whole lot less people bother waiting to DL a fansub if they can see it on Crunchyroll. As much as I hate CR, if the companies are smart, they'll follow this model since it is the only way to compete against the scanlation community where it counts, access and speed. If that were to happen, scanlation can go back to what it was meant to do, the promotion of obscure series and occasional uncensored translations for true dedicated fans.

in the US, manga sales dropped by 15% in '08, and 20% in '09, followed with 2 companies that i know of, filing for bankruptcy the same year, based on an ANN report, sourcing from the Ivc2 website. a big blow for a relatively new industry (it may have started in the late 80's/early 90's, but in relation to other media, overlooking it's relation with comic books/graphic novels, it's new)

in japan, sales dropped by, in their view, a historic 6.6%.

so surprised with this news.
i haven't read online manga about few weeks, when i opened one manga today i got the announcement....
so sad...
i'm from 3rd world country, and manga is quite expensive here.. and most series don't get published here....
i really like manga.

how about reading on youtube?

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prior to the coalition, to my understanding, the japanese publishers never liked the idea of scanlations even on unlicensed material. of course they could do nothing about it as their jurisdiction was limited to their country. with the coaltion, they have the help of the US publishers.

their reason for the hate on scanlation of unlicensed materials is that it hinders any plan they wish to make to bring the series to the foreign market. you can reason with them all you want about how scanlation helps promote the series, promising sales once it's licensed, but it doesn't assure them that a good chunk of the community does not consists of people reading online just because it's free and quick.

Impossible to achieve higher quality at lower cost? I'm pretty sure Japan as a whole would disagree with that since that is how they became an economic powerhouse in the first place. While the US was pumping out trash cars in crap factories, Japan went the TQC route and left the big three in the dust.

Produce a better product and more people will buy. Paperbacks are dinosaurs and electronic books are the future. No printing costs, availability is limited only by your internet connection, entire libraries can be stored in a server and distribution costs are lower. That's why scanlations are now serious competition in the first place. If media companies selling manga aren't ready to go electronic, the general public isn't going to wait for them.

People could find scanlations with just google and wiki. The only thing that would happen if MU dies is that a new one will take its place and everyone would be pissed off at the companies who killed it.

It's my fear about the time when publishers and copyright issues will take into actions. I enjoy reading scanlated manga/manhwa because for the matter that it's free, it's in high res, the added TL notes and most fans can discuss about certain manga/novel easily. I hope only licensed copy will be taken down and not those published in english yet. Also, I do hope this will not discourage or stop scanlations group from what they have been doing since. Because of this news since then, I don't think I will enjoy reading manga like before. Buying a copy is expensive here in my country (yes, I belong in the 3rd world countries). Cons of geographical location is also the limited availability of titles plus I am in remote area that buying means going out my way to the capital and it means expenses even if compare to have them ordered.