Wanted to let readers know here-one particular scanlator is trying to sell scanlations (even though another group is doing for free)

More info in this post: http://la-cruciatus.tumblr.com/post/182847577434/what-is- this-bs

"A “scanlator” leaks their releases on manga-reading sites. Then makes her projects private and imposes the condition that interested readers must make a “donation” to gain access to their translation.

Scanlation has always been considered a “grey area”, and the only way scanlators justify their actions is by claiming that they personally make no profit from it.

I can totally get behind groups not providing DL links or setting up their own readers. I can understand asking for donations when scanlators need to buy raws (which often involves costly shipping charges) and to meet web hosting fees. But this person, in my humble opinion, is cheating both the artist and the readers.

This person is not being commissioned for translations. What she’s doing is to take someone else’s intellectual property, modify it and then essentially selling it. What’s more, the projects she picks up - most of those mangas are actively being worked on by other groups - she just translates the extra chapter (omake). Welp, you’re free to work on whatever you want and I don’t really get the logic of doing only the extra chapter, but I thought I’d mention it anyway coz it struck me as weird. Maybe she doesn’t want to disrespect the original scanlator working on that manga, but then why touch that project in the first place?

But I digress. I know for a fact that this person lives in Japan and holds a job, so it’s not like she’s a poor student living in some distant or backward land where raws are hard to come by. I won’t take names because I’d rather she doesn’t get any more publicity or get harassed. Suffice to say that she used to be on the scanlation scene some time back, before quitting, and now she’s popped up again under a different name.

If you’re an artist or, in this case, a translator, it’s only fair to ask to be paid for your own work. But this person (or pirate I’d say) is not a licensed publisher, nor has she asked the mangaka’s permission to translate into English. What makes her think it’s fair to demand money for something that the original creator will get no benefit from?

Are we witnessing the birth of a new Tazmo?"

They are going by mayo1 on Ko-fi, so this is a fair warning.

why don't you get out of other people's business? if you wanna do manga for free, then do it. If you wanna put some donations into somebody's pocket so the person feels appreciated and release more manga, then go for it. But you are demanding that everyone should put the 3 days work it takes just for free. You know? I would damn pay to a group to do the manga that I want them to do, but still nobody does it.

I'm sick and tired of all the choosing beggars of the scan scene. It is already illegal to do it for free and MANGADEX.ORG takes GRAND and half daily just HOSTING SCANS (they haven't provided anything to the people that makes scans anyway, so don't be cynical saying that there are never instances where scans aren't traded in exchange of financial gains). You also got people paying in twitch to see other people play videogames.

We are already pirating from the japanese, scan readers have no right to tell people what to do or not to do. So, if you feel so inclined to work for free for a bunch of pig leechers, then show this guy you can do his scan work and translation for free, go on. But if you're not, then screw your rant. The Communist mentality is ruining the scan quality and speed of good releases.

How is mangadex making money if they don't have ads?

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I'd assume donations, though it's really not a big deal........I remember giving to batoto, it's just a personal choice that I don't see how really hurts anybody else in the big scheme of things (not getting into the whole piracy debate).

OP seems to be little overwrought about it/scan groups/whoever taking or asking for money, but again, it's just a matter of choice, if you don't want to give, don't give, if you wanna boycott 'em, then boycott 'em, if they poach one of your titles......poaching is just a fact of life in the world of fan scanlations, for-pay or otherwise........well, just drop the stupid thing. See? Not a big deal, live and let live and just go on with your own business.

Surely they don't make 1.5k per day from donations.

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Heh... "MANGADEX.ORG takes GRAND and half daily", I'd totally forgotten what they'd actually said........yeah, no, I wouldn't think so either, that sounds kinda like, you know, ranting/raving/aka bullshit 😀

If you google "how much is mangadex.org income"

https://www.mysitewealth.com/mangadex.org.html


https://mangadex.org.cutestat.com/

http://mangadex.org.cutercounter.com/

I see. From what I understand, these estimates are based on traffic. They don't mean a web site actually makes that much money. They get enough traffic to make that money IF they were to sell ads. But since they don't, this is pretty much theoretical.

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Kind of a moot point anyway, ichido reichan........I personally agree with your assessment of, you know, not worrying about what other people are doing.........the OP seems worried about some of the for-pay "scanlations", they should pretty much just not worry about it and go about their own business.

I myself have a number of "groups" that I have quite a bit of disdain for........they ain't fan scanlators if they're charging money for everything they do......but it is what it is, I just don't have anything to do with them and hope they get hammered some day. Fan scanlations is one thing, republishing someone else's work for pay crosses a very obvious (and enforceable) line.

Just to clarify: mangadex definitely does not make a grand and a half a day off their site. They're probably making only a few hundred a month, and most of that money goes straight back into hosting and server costs.

I think we should discourage scanlators from paywalling series. The one thing worse than readers believing they're entitled to free releases is scanlators believing they're entitled to make money off of their releases. That's a pretty shitty thing to do.

Scanlators who think they're entitled to make money off their series often bully and harass groups that are doing it for free or faster since it takes away from "their" revenue. Readers should discourage this type of behavior too since encouraging it will just forever leave manga behind a paywall.

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Recruiting:
https://quicksandscans.wordpress.com/recruitment/

I agree with all the posts above. I myself see the "advantage" of people grabbing a bunch of scans of mine posting them on youtube and "asking for support, donations, and subscriptions" I can't defend the indefensible so yes, if they didn't do it, no need for the so-called "paywall" to be imposed.

But, personally speaking, call me old school but I come from the VHS era of fansubs. When people used to pool money to pay a translator to deliver a quality translation (I think each person pooled 20 bucks or so) and said translator wanted something in the tune of 30.00 per half hour or 80-100 per full 2-hour movie (which by translator standards is way poor a revenue) But fans pooled, got their VHS subbed and distro-ed it for 5 bucks a pop.

I tried to do the same with my manga system, it was a subscription system that will give you 12 books per year for 50 or so dollars. It went for 15 years but fans got...cheaper? I finished my run after 160 books released and some change. But I'm still not satisfied with the system. Everyone here swears that translation/scanlation/releases are easy, free and devoid of any effort if they JUST ASK FOR IT. I really want the latest 3x3 eyes (8 volumes) or the MAKAITENSEI series and so many more, but where do I go with my 50 bucks to see these completed?

The manga culture has regressed to the point that just a few willing souls are able to put out new content and 80% of the groups demand content for free, accurate and basically now!! so, every hobby has its costs. You don't demand free gumpla and free painting and decals. Japanese media is a hobby where we spend money to get more, right?

ty for your diligent work.
I personally benefitted from 300-400~ or so of those type of tapes, and got to see Berserk, Serial Experiments Lain, Card Captor Sakura and others in a time frame comparable to modern day, sometimes only weeks after broadcast
what a phenomenal resource this was.
there was a paywall even 20 yrs back; my local store would loan out subs on a 1:1 with paid rentals.

man, those were the good times, yeah!!

Old school fan translators do NOT ask for subscriptions nor payment. What you're describing is a bootleg subscription service. The kind that rips off translators work to resell and forced fan translators into putting in watermarks to warn people not to buy from.



Last edited by TheIro at 8:32 am, Mar 23 2019

Sure translations pay for themselves....

Sure skilled people in the target language of your projects will do it for free.

Sure people are making long lines outside your house to work on MANGA and ANIME that YOU WANT!!!

HAHAHAHA!!! Piracy😕 you're talking to me about PIRACY😕 in this site that reports almost a A MILLION PLUS title releases that I bet you for sure hasn't been approved by the original licensor.

I wanted money out of my hobby, so I decided to start translating videogames and sell the "repros" instead of making manga everyday. Sure I'm a pirate, but don't be so quick on judging since I'm sure you aren't here to read manga that you exclusively paid for. Dude, the history of this site is to report illegal releases, isn't it?

Calling the kettle black...the nerve of these millenials... 🤣