I thought this post would be relevant to "Manga General" because the subject relates to "current events in the manga world".

It happened before with Napster, file sharing, and the music industry. Artists and record labels suing people for distributing music("art") for free.

I don't know if its something recent or if its been happening for a while, but I and many of you have probably noticed something similar happening with manga. Publishing companies and the like going after manga sites which host manga and allow people to read it for free. I'm not very clear on the legal aspect of it so I won't even touch upon that.

I'm just curious what other peoples' opinions are. Since this is a manga related website I'll probably get a number of biased answers, but I'll ask for them none the less.

For a mangaka, which should be more important? Recognition and exposure or profit?

I mean sure, a professional mangaka needs an income to be able to live, but does money have to be everything? As an artist wouldn't recognition for their work and having it exposed as much as possible be as gratifying as a wad of cash?

I can't help but compare it to traditional art. I mean no one is suing art gallery websites for displaying digital copies of famous works.

Feed your head.

Regardless of the mangakas' preferences, the publishers' goal is to make money and they'll do whatever they think will facilitate that goal.

"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

The publishers only see money. They want the most possible income. I think that the mangakas want money to live, but they also want their works to be read. If they didn't want that, they wouldn't respond to the fan letters they get (they often answer to the letters, usually at the last few pages of a volume).

I wouldn't have problem with the publishers opinion, that "You must pay, so I can be rich!" if they did two simple things... Quality, and availability... So far neither of these are present.

"Thus is our treaty written, thus is agreement made
Thought is the arrow of time, memory never fades
What was asked is given, the price is paid"