Scanlations

What are peoples' views on scanlations?

Few are completely against it for various reasons but many view it as okay because they can't get the manga in their own countries. In this article manga is a reason why some people study Japanese in the first place. But for all the arguments, scanlation is copyright infringement - that is the copying, altering and disturbing to the public works that are not your own whether for profit or not. RAW distribution seems to becoming a problem for Japanese publishing houses with Japanese no longer buying manga for their RAWs.

Mangahelpers has decided to make an attempt at something new for the people looking for free but legal manga.

I'm very keen on the idea of Open Manga. I used to be part of the scanlation scene as a proofreader but began to feel that scanlation was becoming too big and moving away from the idea of getting manga out there to the idea that manga should be free and stuff everyone else including the artist. Some feel though that scanlating unlicensed manga is still okay as it is not available in English [or outside Japan] but if someone scans the RAWs will Japanese still buy the manga when they can get it for free online? It is a fractious issue and not a new one to the internet and downloading.

If you are interested in the History of Scanlation you can check out this.

Coming from a somewhat poorer background (POROPORO, queue tragic childhood flashbacks ), I can honestly say that I would have never read manga or watched anime if it hadn't been freely available via scanlation and fansubbing. If I hadn't read manga or anime, I probably wouldn't have developed an interest in Japanese culture and started learning the language either, wouldn't have met awesome new friends, etc.

So for me, I support scanlations and fansubbing. I fully acknowledge and recognize the difficulty of scanlations re: copyright infringement and taking possible revenue away from businesses, but shikata ga nai ne.

Although, as the argument as goes, many people are roped into reading manga/anime for free, and then later purchase it when they become real fans. In this manner, the distribution of free anime/manga also provides income where there would have been none. Whether or not this outweighs the loss of income from quote unquote piracy is another matter, though.

It's rather funny - I got into manga about a year after I started Japanese I'm a big comic reader in general so it's likely I would have come across manga even if I hadn't started Japanese.

But that aside - I do think there is some benefit to scanlations. As we all know, manga is pricey and empties your pocket fast. I like to read a couple of chapters before I commit to a manga so in that way, I really like scanlations. And then there are some that you just can't get in English even if you wanted to. There is also the issue of the level of quality in the official translations. Some *cough*TokyoPop*cough* are just so bad - makes you wonder if they used Google Translate.

I still read scanlations, of course - I just think it's got a little out of control with more people leeching than buying. It's a pity...

Nantalith wrote:

There is also the issue of the level of quality in the official translations. Some *cough*TokyoPop*cough* are just so bad - makes you wonder if they used Google Translate.

I lolled. You should make that your signature or something.