An issue that has creeped up over the years (and because of the current state of the world economy) is what do we do about the series that have been licensed but the company goes out of business or discontinues the license. As you should know, each manga series has its own page, and two of those fields are "Licensed (in English)" and "English Publisher."

The proposition has been to mark them as the following example shows:
Licensed (in English): No
English Publisher: ADV Manga (5 Volumes - Discontinued)

But if the publisher did in fact finish the series before losing the license, it would be marked
English Publisher: ADV Manga (5 Volumes - Complete)

Your thoughts on this?

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Maybe 'kinda'?






I agree, this makes sense.


But this is confusing; can you still buy the manga if the company loses the licence after completing the series or a part of it? Also, I have read about a rule that forbids posting download links in releases (although I can't find them anyway) for licensed manga. How would that work in this situation?

Last edited by Seijurou at 2:55 pm, Dec 9 2011

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Hmm, I'd say to still keep the Licensed: No. If it's no longer licensed, then I assume they no longer print it? Then it'd be futile to search in stores. That way, readers would know to look elsewhere.

Argh, LIFE's translation has been discontinued for a while now. I went to BOOK-OFF's Japanese section and looked through the raws (despite not being able to read Japanese, I still cried--it was really powerful). Tokyopop is dead now, so I would appreciate being told it'll stop being printed. I could skip the process of looking.

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Well problem is even if the series was discontinued is that the license is valid, its just the publisher decided to not continue to publish further volumes of the series.

I would say the same happens even if the company dies if the licenses continue to exist as its being held by who either brought or inherited the company assents.

There have been a case were the license have been lost, Tokyopop lost several licenses and also there been cases were a series was announced as licensed but no volumes were published.

I would say the problem is knowing the state of the license, a series might long been out of print but in no way that means its no longer licensed or that it would not be reprinted at a later date, this can be a complicated matter, especially in the case of Kodansha Comics USA since its a subsidiary of Kodansha, even if they stop publishing they will still hold the license.

If its to clean up the defunct publishers or the cases were the publisher had lost the license then after the no a short explanation should follow (example: No - Publisher Defunct).

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What part of "Please do not put in huge images!" did you fail to understand?

If you're looking to clarify the definitions of Yes/No in regards to licensing, here's where I have a question:



You don't say whether this model is listed as a Yes or a No. I'm looking at some series that were completed by CMX, and they are still listed as Yes, they are licensed, despite CMX no longer being a company.

Maybe instead of a Licensed in English field, rename it to a Published in English field. Less room for confusion, since, as Drakron said, we don't always have concrete information of the status of a license. That way, even if the license is expired, there's still an accurate Yes that says the books are available in English somewhere.

I like the proposal. A simple yes/no for the licensed keeps it simple with regards to whether or not a series should be scanlated.

With regards to the publisher, though, is it possible to have a manga translated by multiple publishers? For example, volumes 1-3 by publisher A, and 4-5 by publisher B? Or, all volumes in English by publisher C and all volumes in Spanish by publisher D?

Yes/No would be good with the addition of unknown as a placeholder and to encourage people to look into the series.

um i think this is a good topic. its really good to know if it has been liscensed.

so lets say you take

Venus in Love
Liscensed in English - Yes
8 Volumes - Discontinued by Publisher.

Its always nice to know when a series you want to read was publised and has just not been picked up again yet. So one is not just aimlessly waiting... Tokyopop & CMX series were cases like these.

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I think skip beat is going through this process , it's frustrating i'm sure lots of other fans feel the same way, don't the people that license these manga's realize the read before you method, i know they only want to line their wallets ARGH i'm just pissed.

This doesn't solve the issue.
I would propose more something like:
Licensed (in English): Expired
or
Licensed (in English): Out of print (this would suites OEL better)
Both of them is also possible.

And then add an advanced search option: "Expired in English" and "All series released in English".

The proposition would make it impossible to find the series with an expired license in English in the database (you can still find these out of print stuff as second hand and leftover stock). I'm someone that search a lot after rare stuff.
Another problem would occur with the OEL, for example: Kasumi from Del Rey, you can't put up "Licensed (in English): No" for OEL as it is the original in English, those licensed don't expire as the author(and artist) is still holding the license.

So then you've got an extra option:

Licensed (in English): Yes
Licensed (in English): No
Licensed (in English): Out of print (this could also be used for Hajime no Ippo that was dropped by VIZ).



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Even after dead, we raise from the ashes for the sake of manga.

(Sorry for the thread resurrection)

Wouldn't the best solution be something like this:



The advantage to this method is that you still can search for all entries, but there is a bit more gradation as to the status of the manga and its suitability for scanlation.

Then you could add a brief explanation to the parantheses, like


or have a comment field added to the manga entry:





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"Reach for the stars. You may still fall short of your goal, but at least you won't shoot yourself in the foot."
--"Komarr" by Lois McMaster Bujold

I think this is fine. No need to use new terms or anything to over-complicate stuff. Simple is best.

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Maybe I'm incorrect, but one of the primary reasons the licensing is a big deal is because groups use it to decide if/when a project should be translated and/or distributed...

That being said, I would suggest that listing when a title is no longer licensed for current or planned English-language based distribution is a fairly large deal.

That is, (for the Tokyo-Pop example) something like Licensed (in English) No (Licensed by Tokyo-Pop until 2012) and English Publisher Former publisher ... v01-v07 (or whatever).

Simply thinking it's a yes/no question is more like trying to apply a binary answer to a more complex question. If and when a license reverts is important as well as when publication has ceased (something published until 2011 may well still be available commercially while something that ceased publication around 2005 can be considered off the market fairly safely).

I understand the limitations of the fields (most likely not being set up to allow multiple answers such as Tokyo-Pop 2002-2012, then the next line Del Rey 2012-...) - but I would suggest if nothing else simply listing that if/when some volumes were formerly published domestically in English should be listed as an addition to the Body description if no where else (simply since that field does allow more detail).

In that case, listing the "former" status in the Body description field could also make sense logically in that the "English Publisher" and "Licensed in English" fields could then be treated as "current status only" (since the Body field would list the information of interest to collectors while those concerned about the moral implications could simply check those other two fields quickly to see if something can or should be distributed).

Oh well, better Poll idea here than else where.

I just realized that we never finalized this issue... So any other opinions on this before I make a decision?

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

For the sake search results, why not change it to:
Licensed (in English): previously licensed
English Publisher: publisher (x volumes - Defunct)

Then it'd be possible to filter for currently licensed, previously licensed and never licensed series.