We all enjoy our weekly translated manga and anime. Although we are faithful to the work we aren't faithful to the groups that put the work. Should scanlation groups sell thier work for profit. And if they did could you really blame them since they do put in alot of work?

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"You just bleed there and think about what you've done!"

lol having fun with all these topics?

yes, its very wrong, since its piracy, and with piracy, there should be no reward.

btw, i swear I've seen this topic before...

lol what can i say lol i'm bored and i didn't see ne thing i wanted to tlk or read about.

i can dig the whole piracy thing but we only think that because so many ppl take up arms to translate so much of this manga and anime we watch and read. lets say we pay for an account or ne thing...i mean i would hate to do it but is it really wrong?

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"You just bleed there and think about what you've done!"

well, i see what your gettin at, but the way i see it is that, its illegal, so the people that are doing this, are putting themselves at somewhat of a risk, to bring us these things that we like so much, so to make money off of their hardwork is not right, imo.

But if it was its own site, and they did it themselves(the scanlation processes and such) and it was really high grade stuff, i could see people paying and i don't think it'd be wrong, as long as they did it themselves and didn't steal from others free works.

I wouldn't say it's wrong because it's their time that's wasted and not ours doing scanlations. Forgetting that they didn't draw/write the manga in the first place, translations are still worth something. At the least, they should be respected and not have kids bitching about the next release. At most, they should be able to get some money for something they do with their free (and not so free) time.

I don't see many scanlators doing this in the first place, with the exception of a couple of hentai scanlators.

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https://twitter.com/Hostile

It's not right for scanlators to sell their scanlations. No part of the manga was originally theirs to begin with so they have no right to do so. Sure they spend alot of time and work hard to scanlate manga but they did it so that we can all enjoy it. I think asking for donations would be okay but they do not have the legal rights to make money from it.

It's wrong to do it all if you ask me. It's not their work and they really have no right to alter and distribute it without permission. Most people know it's wrong, but either don't particularly care (amoral types like me) or they justify it to themselves in any number of ways. The most common justification is that they don't do it for profit, so it's ok. Profiting from it would be all kinds of wrong.

*Edit- All that being said, I'm still very grateful to the wrongdoers out there. Keep up the good work.

It dont take money to translate, it does to host a site and/or download servers.

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It's not all right to sell scanlations, scanlators/fansubbers should know that they are amateurs and not professionals. The ones who dont get that and think they are professionals (>.>) are the one who will likely sell their "work" (not even considered scanslations).

Donations for raws are an exception, but even this can be seen as a very negative thing. Though i have to say it's a fine way for people to show their appreciation for the hard work scanlators do.

The most common time when you have to pay for scanlations is when you go to f*cking sites like narutofan who take credit for things they never played a part in.

I think so many people have forgotten the meaning of scanslation/fansubbing.

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There will be bloodshed

First off stop the "it´s illegal to sell scanlations" talk, because it´s already illegal to host those files as well as to download them!(yes we all, to a certain extent, are criminals) now back to the topic...
I think it´s up to the scanlator wether he sells(accounts/volumes) his/her work or not. Noone is forcing you to "buy" these scans. On another hand sites such as naruto fan are simply wrong.....they make money off of others work(mangaka/scanlation group) !!
I suggest to not support sites/scan groups who charge money but then again it´s really up to you.
What I do encourage you to do is to praise the scangroups instead of bitching about the next release, a mistake in translations or the way a group hosts its files (I´ve seen bitching about IRC releases, about belated releases or spelling mistakes in a tl) ! And believe me it´s not a good feeling to get pricked at in your IRC channel like "WTF dude are you guys retards?! "well" isn´t written "wel" <insert random insult> " these things make one consider to quit this shit >>
AAAAnyways if you feel your scanlation group does a fine job (or you simply want to support em) donate a buck or 2
Greetz
Fizzle

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technically, there are a number of unwritten rules within the scanlation community, and one of the topic most frowned upon is the topic of profit. bluntly put, we are thieves, like it or not. but even so, there are still honors among thieves...

now, if its your own work, and your selling it, i doubt many will complain. you'll probably just get a few who find your policies unsatisfying. your main concern would be: how can i make it more special and different from the other scans done by the other groups of the same series, that in turn would require you to pay? (this is more notable on the popular series like naruto or bleach, etc.) they provide the same series as you are with exception of being free. your options:

1) a better translation/cleaning? theres a limit to how well the translation will be and how clean the scans can be. and even so, it will take you more time in this scenario, time that can be used to download faster and quality releases from other groups. not to mention, not a lot of people would pay just to get an HQ release. some are satisfied with MQ and even LQ.

2) a faster download server? i won't deny that will attract people, but consider this scenario: a single individual within your fanbase who's actually unsatisfied with your rules. he sacrifices his own financial concerns just so he can redistribute your work for free in another place (ie #Lurk), attracting more leechers than the amount of subscribers you would potentially have (an avenger if you will).

there's nothing that you can do there. pick a fight with the redistributor? not wise as this will only attract more negative attention to you. those who ignored you making profit would finally turn to you and slam you for being greedy. sue them? oh, they'll get punished, but you're facing the most punishment for actually trying to make a profit.

also to note is that, your not gonna get a lot of subscribers if you're just scanlating 4-5 series, especially popular ones. when it comes to sites with fast DL server, what people are looking for are the ones with a library of medias. now you can have a huge team (if you can even find that much) dealing with a library of series, but it will all fall from the inside sooner or later due to management difficulties. take the scans from other groups? then you'll be no different than than NF. pay for the scans from other groups? most, if not all, would disagree to it.

now after reading this, you'll probably realize it won't work out at all in the end. so how about less popular titles like GS Mikami, or Hareluya II Boy, etc? i'm guessing only for awhile till some group forms up and start scanlating it for free or the same avenger scenario as above.

TL;DR? your own work, it's not wrong. but you're not gonna make much, one way or another. there's no stopping people who want it all to be free. plus, you're just risking your own well being here.

Last edited by Diokhan at 4:54 am, May 14 2008

Some groups deliver such high quality work, that they should get paid.
But it's still wrong as long as THEY don't pay for the actual licenses.

rather than say they should paid, ain't it more legal and more of a better praise to say they should get hired by the publishers and such? i'd be really proud if my favourite groups were to come to a "promotion" like that. sure, we won't get it free anymore, but as you said, they deserve better...

Don't assume that everyone would want to work for a publisher. A hobby is a hobby, and is not to be confused with actual work, no matter how well you perform it.

Besides, taking money from people makes it harder to tell them to bugger off when they're being idiots. Which is a right I like to keep as uninfringed as possible.

well...they don't own it in the first place, so how could they sell it? but since we enjoy stealing, then why not let them enjoy selling what thet steal?

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