Not only is it copyright infringement, it's a far worse crime to sell materials to which you do not own the rights (can't think of what it's called)

Donations are a different story.

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Livin just to keep from dyin

How is asking for donations a different story? "We need money or we'll shut down." is just as bad as selling your manga.

i agree it's not so much as a different story but then again it's not like donations go to pocket. but then again how much of us really give donations. and imagine that you gave 50 cents for every manga chapter you've ever read online...lol how much money do you think that is. and imagine all the time andd effort that went into translating all those volumes

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

Donations to keep the hosting site open, to purchase raws, etc. Not for the media itself.

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Listen here
Livin just to keep from dyin

People purchase raws these days? How rare, I thought they were all pirates.

And it doesn't cost much to keep a site hosted, unless you host direct downloads. But who cares about those when there are other options. (torrent, irc, even shitty hosting services like rapidshare or megaupload)

Hypothetically speaking.

People can ask for donations, but that doesn't mean people need to give them. If one charges for a form of media, while withholding it from those who do not pay, that is wrong (in this context).

Asking for a donation while still providing the media to all those who do not pay/donate is different.



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Livin just to keep from dyin

they can't do that isn't because if there were arn't they selling someone property without permission? because even if it is translated we still seeing their work and i anyone would be piss seeing your stuff being jack.. so yeah

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~= Stress is what we Live FOR =~

/===~CODE OF CONDUCT~===~\
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Yes, it's sick wrong, guys who do that should be hanged from their genitalia while being smashed with sharp stones and then burnt alive (if they still are)...

seriously talking, besides being stupid, (specially those who sell popular series not even scanlated by them, like it would be hard to find another SL group) it's just worst than piracy, because you are not only distributing and profiting material that you don't have any intellectual right, but also modifying the original contents of it

I hope they wont ever do that..the scanlators I mean
It's very wrong IMO because they didn't draw the manga.
True they did put up a lot of hard work but crediting them should be enough.(>3>)
I'm sre you wouldn't be so happy to know that your work is being sold without permission at least I would anyway :/

In my opinion, they can sell their own scanlations for very very very low prices only.

I have a feeling that a lot of the posts here are reactions to Narutofan. Narutofan was wrong because they didn't scanlate anything themselves. If you scanlate something yourself, you can get something for it. But because the manga isn't your own work, the amount should be very limited. It's a fine line. I personally wouldn't pay for scanlations.

I have to say that it would be terribly wrong to try and make
people pay money for scanlations . Don't get me wrong I know
that scanlators should be thanked for the hard work that they do
but if you think about it they are doing it because they want to and
because they wish to provide scans for people. They should just stick
to what other sites do and make people register and make a certain amount
of posts before they are able to view or download their work. If they really
care about getting paid then they should try and reason with the companies
who's work they are scanlating. If they made people pay for that then I would
personally avoid their sites.

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the point is if a scanlation group puts work into sumthing...shouldn't they have some sort of compensationg for it?...cus since they can read the manga just fine or follow anime since most of the time some of them know the other language they don't really need it...

could u imagine if we all had to watch wattered down one piece 4kids version

how about helllsing with no blood

or gantz and ten ten with no echii

i'm not saying that they ban together and charge the hell out of us...i would hate that cus i wouldn't b watching or reading ne thing forgien....but if they did charge for thier services...is that so wrong?

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

Well... actually at least the spanish and mexican edition of gantz and ten ten have no censorship, not sure how it is on the fascist usa that supports censored stuff...

But actually all the fansub and scanlation scene starts from the idea of: Made by fans for fans. If you wanted to profit from it, you should have bought the license and sell and/or distribute it acordingly

Crap, read the question wrong.
Anywho, donations are alright but to sell no.

Yes, yes it would be wrong. Aside from some of other points that people have mentioned, let's not forget that some people don't do this for profit. Some do it to help promote manga that's otherwise not licensed in the US, some do it for the love of a manga, or to help keep other fans updated. It's done with the intent of helping other fans and not with the purpose of making money.

Besides, there's other ways of showing your appreciation for their work without actually having to pay them for it. Some scanlators seem content with just getting acknowledgement from fans on their home pages.