What the hell! FUCK! And I usually don't swear! A couple months ago, the same happened with manga.anime.net and I couldn't read manga that was NOWHERE ELSE!!! I'm just like I'm not gonna pay for that even if I did find a pay site... WHAT THE FRICKING HELL! The next thing they take over is going to be mangafox and onemanga, isn't it, and then there will be NOTHING ELSE TO READ. Also, like other people have said, I wouldn't have purchased as much manhwa without online scanlations. I didn't know how awesomish, forexample, <> was without OM. Or how amazingtastical <> was without MT. Or <> was thanks to MF. I HATE ALL PRODUCING BUSINESS CORPS (mainly tokyopop) imma make an irc for my scanlation group

Let's just say Tarot Cards rule.

what the!! mangatoshokan was one of my favourite manga reading sites. Dammit, sites like them introduced me to the world of manga. In my country except for naruto,bleach you know the hardout popular ones that have been animated and are on cartoon network, none of the other mangas are sold here and tokyopop tends to stop some of the projects they take up. God better start reading all the mangas out there before the sites i know close down. Still i am gonna go and do this survey, i think people should do it too though it might be hopeless its better than doing nothing.

Angel Beats--best anime of the 2010 spring season

Wow, I'm not sure what I should think.
Should I be sad that people are so stupid, they know no other ways of reading manga,
or should I be angry that people are so unwilling to visit the scanlators themselves
to read the manga they are scanlating?

i do think its very sad that they would do this... i mean anime got me into manga and that anie i saw not on a tv-channel in my country but through the internet by chance (it was a sub fan-made) so these scans are accactly what got me into this stuff. My country doesn't even have any manga for sale in my laungage. Yet now i do own manga of my own. But lucky for me on the list publushed on MT there are only 5 series im reading atm and 1 that REALLY bothers me.

[img]http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww187/D_dragon/omfgpudding-1.jpg[/img]

i actually can understand the reason why they're doing this but it doesnt really help me come to terms with it. I'm still pissed that i lost a large amount of reading material. MT had so much more manga online than the other sites (OM MF) in my opinion.

If the publishers think that i will actually BUY the s**tload of manga i used to read, then they will be very disappointed. i guess that i'll have to stick to reading manhwa and manhua even though i personally hate most of the plot in them.such a sad day 😔

I most likely will resort to downloading the chapters onto my computer from a site somewhere and just delete it once i'm done. dont think they'll be able to stop all of that. but the saddest thing is.....

I DONT REMEMBER ALL THAT I WAS READING!!!!!!

(EDIT: i was annoyed. not by anyone here, but some kids IRL regarding the subject. so i hope there shouldn't be any misunderstanding of me finger pointing here, as i realize some words or phrases have been presented in other posts)

never read online, not in years, so this doesn't impact me personally. what i am worried about is that this may just be the beginning, as there's that possibility this will extend to scanlators in the near future. sure it has happened before, scanlators getting a C&D letter, but they weren't as aggressive as they are now with online reading sites, as only a few (that i could think of) scan sites got bitten back then.

another topic i'd want to address is the feeling of distaste some may have with the publishers. yes, i would be bitter as well if many a scanlating groups get shut down because of them. but understand they are a business. they are meant to make a profit, and guard said profits however they can. profits that would also help support the authors. you know, the authors? the ones that works hours after hours to bring you that manga that you read and enjoy for free, save for some, maybe most but definitely not all, among us who have the decency to go buy the tankoubons/magazine once they're available in our area? now you may tell me that you do feel thankful to them in your hearts, or that you write to them telling them that they did a great job and to keep up the good work, but gratitude in words rarely put bread on the table.

yes,some authors have been reported to liking the whole idea of scanlation, be that it helps by having fans demanding their local publishers to license their work, or simply because they get some artistic recognition. nevertheless, Van Gogh would still had died poor even if people only gave him the appreciation he never had in his life, but not the money to buy his paintings. sure, as with actors and singers, authors are still better off without us buying everything that we read online, but publishers, and in turn the authors are not taking the risk in the far fetched (if that's what you like to think) possibility that all this may go WAY overboard that there would be more leechers online than customers offline, the japanese included. heartbreaking, the idea of a series getting canceled, or a favourite author quitting or worse, committing suicide, over low sales. far fetched as it may be, but it's a risk any and every company would not take. yes, they can be charitable and post their work online, but there is no absolute promise they'll make it as big as Holkins and Krahulik (Penny Arcade).

maybe you're still not convince, thinking the publishers are only doing this for profit, overcharging us for a volume. now i'll admit i may not know the tedious manual and business procedures of releasing a series from the other side of the world to the states (taking the assumption that one is from America), but i imagine it takes up a lot of money to do so. well that's what a magazine i used to read said. but remember, they are a business. they wish to make profit. how about the idea that sales of manga on the US have been down by 20% last year, and have been declining for 2 years in a row?

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/17292.html

one factor that they blamed was scanlation. you may disagree with this statement, but with some american anime/manga company having gone bankrupt (CPM and ADV) , you can't blame them for being so harsh and desperate. with scanlation, the curiosity of what a series may contain is all gone. it was this curiosity that companies relied on for their next release to be successful in sales, as readers are eager to see more of what happens.as i mentioned, some, if not most, among us has the sense to buy the volumes when it's out, either out of respect or just as a collector, and i applaud you. alas, humans are inherently greedy; if it's free, and one wants it, there should be little hesitation to take it.

some of you may be thinking; as with the xerox, cassette tapes, printer and mp3, the subject will eventually be brought to court, and we'd all eventually win. though i'd hold off on the celebration preparation, as there is still that possibility that history may not repeat itself. if we're lucky, this may only affect online reading sites (and, i'm crossing my fingers here, the profiteers like you know who). worse case scenario, scanlators gets caught in the net as well, driven back to IRC, which personally, i'm very fine with. only way this becomes a personal nightmare is when they hunt us down even in IRC, the only sanctuary i trust.

some have stated this will all backfire on the publishers. how so, i am not aware, but with the print media industry slowly declining, it is plausible. hence, a word to these publishers from a leech, a thief; for those who haven't, go with making an online reading site. of course there should be a fair fee, i'd understand and piracy is still a problem (save image as..., or view image followed by ctrl+s, or even "prt sc"), but it's easily and more popularly accessible, plus, you cut a bit of cost on printing and paper (my apology to the printing industry for such a selfish statement). now i'll admit it's nothing new, and i wouldn't know how successful it'd be, but better i say something than nothing. oh, and also this: http://mangahelpers.com/news/details/377

we were warned before regarding online reading prior to it's boom (in what? '07? '08?), as some scanlators showed their disapproval of the idea, as it risked grabbing the attention of the long arm of the law, an event these scanlators, especially those working on licensed projects, wished to avoid. why? because they know what they are doing isn't legal, deciding to keep it at a low profile and we all should have done so as well. i'll admit if there are any flaws in my diatribe (is this a diatribe? i just want to use that word) so far, and i have no intention of offending anyone, though i may break that wish with this next statement, a statement i firmly believe in as of this current time: we are thieves. and as you may have heard before; there is honour even among thieves.

you may feel anger, sadness, or disappointment on what happened, i'd understand. you'd want to boycott the company, i won't stop you. you want to call them names, do so if it helps calm you down. you want to keep reading manga for free, never buying it when it becomes available, by all means. you tell me that i'm disrespectful towards the authors for not buying all that i've read so far and am ruining the industry, i won't argue. However, if you actually honestly think that these publishers have no rights to what they did and that you have been done wrong, save yourself from looking like a fool and either keep it to yourself or change that mentality of yours.

all i ask from the community is understanding. you don't have to like or agree with them. understand that these publishers are working for the well being of the authors as well. the very same authors who gives your fix of the manga you like so much. at least show some bits of respect to them by at least admitting you're a thief (if you don't buy their work). if you still insist on looking down on the authors, realize that by doing so, you are also looking down on yourself for enjoying their manga

why would they do this!!!? it is completely evil to get rid of mangatoshokan's manga collection! without so much of the manga that ive read there, i wouldn't have known about as much manga series that i do now! this is not fair! most of us dont even have places to go buy manga in our areas and im scared that the other manga sites are going to go down too. its not fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i just hope that the publishers know that we are not going down without a fight! because we may be otakus, but that doesnt mean that we are too lazy to fight back!!! >:-( >:-( >:-( >:-( >:-( >:-(

Alice came to a fork in the road.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

^ .../facepalm

How are you going to fight against them?
You do know you're fighting against the Japanese publishers? The ones who bring YOU THEIR MANGA. Smart idea...smart idea...>___>

Also, Diokhan, I agree with you. I see that the publishers had their reasons to do this. Most of the people here who are complaining about it have probably never even thought of buying manga before this because they liked to leech and then they say they'll boycott which is pretty what they were already doing...

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

like I said, I do buy selected mangas but only to collect when the volumes come out. But the trouble is, I dont even read them, its only for my satisfaction to collect. But the biggest trouble is, they are so far behind most of the times and the other trouble is, most of the seinen/shounens I read and love are never even published legally into english and prabably never will. I mean a very few number of mangas are ever published.

Quote from JustPassingBy

Wow, I'm not sure what I should think.
Should I be sad that people are so stupid, they know no other ways of reading manga,
or should I be angry that people are so unwilling to visit the scanlators themselves
to read the manga they are scanlating?

both i guess

Quote from StarlightDreams

^ .../facepalm

How are you going to fight against them?
You do know you're fighting against the Japanese publishers? The ones who bring YOU THEIR MANGA. Smart idea...smart idea...>___>

Also, Diokhan, I agree with you. I see that the publishers had their reasons to do this. Most of the people here who are complaining about it have probably never even thought of buying manga before this because they liked to leech and then they say they'll boycott which is pretty what they were already doing...

u fight by not buying their sh1t, thats how its always been done with business stuff.

Quote from StarlightDreams

Also, Diokhan, I agree with you. I see that the publishers had their reasons to do this. Most of the people here who are complaining about it have probably never even thought of buying manga before this because they liked to leech and then they say they'll boycott which is pretty what they were already doing...

I don't think so. A lot of fans actually try and buy when they can, but why should we do that now when we don't even know what its about or how good it is? Not to mention how long it takes them to put things out, even if they have to print things it shouldn't take months to put out a single volume considering how quickly they can get things done elsewhere. They don't exactly spend a lot of money advertising or showing things off either, so I'm sure that's not too blame.

It's a shame what happened to Mangatoshokan, but there will be other ways. I don't think this will make much of a difference in the long run, it just means you need to try harder to find it or give in and buy things you know nothing about.

And before anyone says anything I do see why they did what they did, I just think it's a fucking stupid business move.

i will Just LOL... Shame not many mangas get sold legaly here... Good thing the japanese embasy lets ya read them for free.

I feel this is a "winning the battles but losing the war" situation.

Quote from Identity Crisis

Quote from StarlightDreams

Also, Diokhan, I agree with you. I see that the publishers had their reasons to do this. Most of the people here who are complaining about it have probably never even thought of buying manga before this because they liked to leech and then they say they'll boycott which is pretty what they were already doing...

I don't think so. A lot of fans actually try and buy when they can, but why should we do that now when we don't even know what its about or how good it is? Not to mention how long it takes them to put things out, even if they have to print things it shouldn't take months to put out a single volume considering how quickly they can get things done elsewhere. They don't exactly spend a lot of money advertising or showing things off either, so I'm sure that's not too blame.

It's a shame what happened to Mangatoshokan, but there will be other ways. I don't think this will make much of a difference in the long run, it just means you need to try harder to find it or give in and buy things you know nothing about.

And before anyone says anything I do see why they did what they did, I just think it's a fucking stupid business move.

I don't think a lot of fans actually buy stuff. Very few people that I know from scanlation goes to their bookstore and buys them.
(Not talking about the scanlators who buy the raws from Japan & uses them to scanlate.)
But it's not the end of scanlation, they can still go and preview the manga by going to the scanlator's website and DLing it. The end of online reading manga sites is not the end of scanlation...

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