Find a noose?

More seriously, I would keep track of which series I was following, from which scanlation groups. If they got taken down then... I'd cut my wrists?

No, I think I would just go reread my favourites over again, since there'll always be probably SOMEWHERE you can find older scanlations.

If I can find actual volumes somewhere, the translations are decent, it's a literal translation (not a localization/interpretation) and it's not too expensive I might possibly buy it. Or get it from the library. Except most of my favourite manga haven't been brought to the U.S. (or if they have they were dropped).

I won't stop reading scanlations.
But I won't stop buying manga either. Nothing good would come out of it. Yay, let's destroy an industry and make people lose more jobs!
It'll be harder to get information about manga and release updates, but I'll manage.

Also, MangaUpdates isn't in danger of being shut down. There's nothing illegal on here, the publishers can't make them shut down even if they wanted to.

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♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

I doubt that publishers have any legal reason to get this site shut down. It's merely an archiving and tracking site. And as far as I know, it doesn't host any illegal content. That being said, if the operators of this site ever received a cease and desist letter from some bully publishers, I would sincerely hope that they would consult a lawyer and the community before making any decision to close the doors. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of us in this community of thousands was a lawyer who could do a quick consultation pro-bono. (If anything, they could do it just to keep their manga fix flowing)

Legalities aside, I believe this publisher backlash marks the beginning of the end for an outdated business model. P2P, fan scanlation, and media piracy of all kinds will continue despite the wishes of the big corporations and their teams of lawyers. Business and creative people of all disciplines need to stop thinking of piracy as "expensive losses" and start thinking of it as "free publicity". I think the next step is learning how to merchandise a creative property effectively. Anyone can download an mp3 or scanlated comic for free, but they can't pirate a ticket to a band's live concert or download a t-shirt with a comic's characters on it*. For now, I think the best course of action is to carry on scanlating as we've always done. Those of us going into the creative industries (including myself) should use our abilities to create innovative methods of generating income through our work.

Smart newspapers are already accepting this fact and are moving to a primarily digital distribution method, the dumb and/or stubborn ones are going out of business. It's time manga publishers did the same. Don't get me wrong, I'm not out to kill the publishers. Nothing digital can replace the feel of a high quality printed Tankobon of my favourite series and I will gladly shell out $20+ per book for that experience. However, I don't think every series I read deserves that honour. Instead I'll gladly buy the $5 poster or wall scroll for those other series instead. After all, you can't really pirate a wall scroll.

- Oak

Thanks for reading my first post. I know it's a big one, but this is a big issue in the scanlation world and it finally prompted me to post something.

Last edited by oak at 12:03 am, Jul 26 2010

I'd buy it and run it behind 11 proxies.

It just... wouldn't.
I don't put too much thought into impossibilities.
I'm sure something just like it would pop up.

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An hero.
But really, I would have to keep track of about 100 mangas on paper if I couldn't find another site.
Not to mention with the demise of the online readers like OM, I wouldn't know when my series updated, and it would be a pain to go to so many different scanalators' sites every day just to check. I would prolly stop reading a lot of series, just stick to my favorites and the popular ones.
But yeah mU doesn't host manga or anything, I think it's fine.

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Forever lurking...

I would seek revenge on those who shut down MU!!!!!!! THEY CAN't SHUT MU DOWN!! IT IS SO GODDAMN GREAT!!!!
Without mangaupdates, it would be seriously hard to find good mangas... So I would just keep re-reading the same mangas over and over again.

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Simply another normal human being...

oh please! God forbid.
MU is really really helpful.
it made my life easier!

when that happens, i don't know what i'll do.
i'm still recovering from the news that some websites for manga reading are closing down soon.
so MU, pls stay! there are no other sites like u. you're just the greatest!!!!!!!!!

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I'ld crawl into a hole and die (just kidding. I mean I would probably die of shock before being able to find a fitting hole, much less crawling into it^^)
without MU i wouln't be able to know when my mangas are updated, i wouldn't even know what mangas i was reading. before i found this side i even wrote them down on a piece of paper (which i lost after two or three days).
But i also don't think that MU will have to close down, after all even the publishers must realize that they won't earn a cent by closing down a pure information site(probably the opposite would happen, as i wouln't know which super-special-awesome new mangas there are)

I don't know if I'd cry, but I think I'd stop reading pretty much all together for a long time, except for the favorites I downloaded. I forget so many series and this site helps me keep track of them.

But then, one day, I'd get off my lazy ass and browse through wiki or something until I found something new or something I remember. I chose the first, but I guess I should have chose the third. Life goes on. But I won't boycott. That'd be stupid. (:

To be honest MU is really helpful to find [m] that you are into. Not only that, but they are well organised because it shows which [m] are being translated, which group are translating and scanning it. In short, if MU gets shot down that will be the time that the end of the world will start

I would cry and then commit suicide

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They have no reason to shut it down.
It's only an information centre, so I don't think they'd be stupid enough to shut down something that would actually help their sales.
It would prove my point if they did.

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I'd kick a puppy. Well, not really. But I'd feel like kicking a puppy. Don't think there's much chance of MU getting shut down though.

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"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

I will commit suicide

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"we are people because of other people"
"I am who I am because of who we all are"