Scanlated manga - is it wrong?
18 years ago
Posts: 3
I find that, just as I feel in the case of anime, that companies that translate original Japanese works lose a lot of the comedy that one gains when reading the fan-translated versions.
For example: on more than one occasion I have seen anime's and manga's that have a slam bam thank you ma'am history or culture review so that as you read or watch, to bring you up to speed with the cultural jokes/puns/history that go one in the anime/manga that are important or fundamental to the work for the viewer to understand or take anything from the work. This is why I HATE american dubs. (I am learning Japanese so that I can buy the originals at this point--but even doing that, I still lose a lot of the history that I gain when watching fan-translations).
Digressing from my personal preference and heading toward the topic of the polls, it is unethical to download licensed works because copyright laws say that you can SHARE your one book/movie/licensed work, but ONLY by giving that one copy out so that you don't have a "back up." When you download off of the internet, there is still a hard copy and in a sense you are distributing MULTIPLE copies of something that you only own one of. (This is why libraries are ethical because once you check out their book, they don't have it).
Basically, blah blah blah unethical because licensed distributers aren't getting compensated blah blah blah, but they suck neway so until they get better, ***** them, they dont deserve the money for it 😛
teehee!
17 years ago
Posts: 33
Well, I voted a 'no', but after thinking it over more as I read the posts, I guess I'm more of an 'other'.
The way I see it, if you are honestly unable to purchase the legit manga for whatever reason, then I see no problem with downloading scanlations as long as you truly plan on buying the legit manga when you are able to. The biggest reasons that people seem to be unable to buy them seems to be either financial inability (which I can completely relate to) or the problem that the series has not been licensed or released in your country yet. I have run into both of these problems in the past with both manga and anime, but now that I actually have a semi-decent-paying job, I am actually buying the series' that I enjoy. One other reason that I think would be acceptable is cases where the series is licensed and is being released in your country, but (as is always the case) the Japanese releases are way further along than the releases in your country (I guess the one exception to this would be people in Japan, but I wouldn't think they would generally be downloading scanlations anyways).
17 years ago
Posts: 4917
eh, if they sold what i read, at a faster pace over here i might say yes, but with the peoples demands for more manga, sometimes you need to make sacrifices.
17 years ago
Posts: 641
As long as the groups actually did editing/translation of the manga instead of just scanning in the english version, whatever.
People will read it regardless of it being right or wrong, in some sense of course it's wrong, but when has that ever stopped anyone from doing wrong things? If people don't do thing simply because it's wrong, we wouldn't need prisons or wars.
Last I check most raws don't cost $500 per book, so the "taxes" groups collect goes more to maintain the servers than it does to buy raws. Plus, 1 volume of manga can last a group a good while if they go at a regular rate of 1 or 2 chapters per month, so it's not a huge spending on the raws if they choose it, that is if they actually buy the raws.
People will pay for things that are worth their money, that means quality, speed, and pricing. If those conditions aren't met with a satisfactory result, then people will gladly support scanlations instead.
In the end, just buy the works you like. At the very least it'll go toward the mangaka making more manga in the future so you can buy or download.
17 years ago
Posts: 640
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17 years ago
Posts: 37
I say no since barely 5% of all manga get licensed. There's no other way to get ahold of what isn't licensed.
Besides, why pay when you can get it for free? It's nice to hold a book in one's hands, but then, if I paid for everything I read, I'd have gone broke long ago and my shelves would have burst under the weight of all the manga.
