OneManga closes

[Logseman]

If you go to OneManga (http://onemanga.com) you'll find a brief post saying that manga publishers have changed their stance towards scanslations, forcing OneManga to close in one week or so.

Is this the end of scanslations? One could safely bet that MangaFox, MangaHut and the like will go behind. Or will scanslations go into the darknet?

[ardeegee]

Those sites are "darknet" (a silly term I had never seen before coming to Mobleread.) They simply got away with it until now.

[HarryT]

This was a blantantly illegal site. Hardly a surprise that the publishers are objecting to it. Copyright infringement on a massive scale.

[HarryT]

This could actually be looked at in a positive light, as indicating that eBook sales now constitute such a significant proportion of the marketplace that unlicenced distribution can no longer afford to be overlooked by the publisher.

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This was a blantantly illegal site. Hardly a surprise that the publishers are objecting to it. Copyright infringement on a massive scale.

Well, then I guess they are going to publish obscure works like Happy Negative Marriage and Shitsurakuen, if they take it away from OneManga...

Why do I have the feeling that it won't happen?

[tehKitten]

Originally Posted by Logseman

If you go to OneManga (http://onemanga.com) you'll find a brief post saying that manga publishers have changed their stance towards scanslations, forcing OneManga to close in one week or so.

Is this the end of scanslations? One could safely bet that MangaFox, MangaHut and the like will go behind. Or will scanslations go into the darknet?

Wooooh. Stop right there. End of scanlations?
I think you get the wrong idea, because the manga is scanlated by a scanlate group.
That group has someone in Japan, who buys the manga and scans it. Then there's a translator, a cleaner (to get rid of the ugly things, and remove the text) and a QC'er (Quality Ckecker). In some quality based groups, they redraw parts of the manga, and release it after hours or days of editing. They release it on their website, and sometimes DCC bots. Then onemanga grabbed it from them, and put it on their website. Scanlations were there before those site's.
Site's like onemanga just collect them, and give it to the people who aren't that deep in the scene of it. For the normal people to say it in a weird way Off course, onemanga had a few translations of it's own, but it didn't started that way. It's just a collection site.

Onemanga didn't start the scanlations, and Onemanga will not end it.

Scanlations were always there, even without you knowing it. Just like fansubbing, it even exsisted BEFORE the internets. (Well, they distributed it on VHS'ses back those days. xD)

[Logseman]

I know how fansubs work (I was/am part of one group). That question was merely a provocative one. However, I'm afraid this step will severely hamper the creation and upkeep of scanslations groups. Content storage services will be now under pressure to suppress fansub and scanslation material which until now was still untouched.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by tehKitten

Wooooh. Stop right there. End of scanlations?
I think you get the wrong idea, because the manga is scanlated by a scanlate group.
That group has someone in Japan, who buys the manga and scans it. Then there's a translator, a cleaner (to get rid of the ugly things, and remove the text) and a QC'er (Quality Ckecker). In some quality based groups, they redraw parts of the manga, and release it after hours or days of editing. They release it on their website, and sometimes DCC bots. Then onemanga grabbed it from them, and put it on their website. Scanlations were there before those site's.
Site's like onemanga just collect them, and give it to the people who aren't that deep in the scene of it. For the normal people to say it in a weird way Off course, onemanga had a few translations of it's own, but it didn't started that way. It's just a collection site.

Onemanga didn't start the scanlations, and Onemanga will not end it.

Scanlations were always there, even without you knowing it. Just like fansubbing, it even exsisted BEFORE the internets. (Well, they distributed it on VHS'ses back those days. xD)

Very interesting thread. I had no idea that this kinda thing was going on at all.

[GlennD]

In a way I hope it does impact scanlations - with physical copies and with the mass of titles that come out and are available only briefly, it's not economically feasible to have professional translations done. Maybe, with electronic copies sitting on a server and having permanent earning potential, that could change.

A larger market generating income is a win for the artists and publishers, and having more content readily available for purchase is a win for the consumer.

[Logseman]

I wouldn't actually mind scanslations being left as redundant. However, I am forced to think that obscure genres like the so called "Slice of Life" manga and, particularly, manga with homosexual topics can be severely decimated, as they are likely unprofitable outside of Japan due to the cultural abyss.

[athlonkmf]

Originally Posted by Logseman;

I know how fansubs work (I was/am part of one group). That question was merely a provocative one. However, I'm afraid this step will severely hamper the creation and upkeep of scanslations groups. Content storage services will be now under pressure to suppress fansub and scanslation material which until now was still untouched.

As if the scanlation groups ever had a solid content storage. They've always used to volatile irc to distribute things. Now there are those warezshare services like megaupload or torrents. How many groups really have and maintain their own storage?

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

As if the scanlation groups ever had a solid content storage. They've always used to volatile irc to distribute things. Now there are those warezshare services like megaupload or torrents. How many groups really have and maintain their own storage?

I'm saying that warez sites will now be purged (or tried to) of fansub material and scanlations as well. Torrents may well follow that way. How much content can be shared through IRC?

[Iphinome]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This was a blantantly illegal site. Hardly a surprise that the publishers are objecting to it. Copyright infringement on a massive scale.

Hardly a surprise? The Japanese are known for turning a blind eye to the sort of things that would make western publisher's heads explode such as being permissive of dōjinshi. Fanfic not just made but sold. Did you read the post?

It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July '10).

So what next? We're not really sure at this point, but we have some ideas we would like to try out. Until then, the One Manga forums will remain active and we encourage all of you to continue using them. OMF has developed into a great community and it would be a shame to see that disappear.

Regardless of whether you stay with us or not, on behalf of the One Manga team, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support over the years. Through the ups and downs you have stuck with us, and that is what kept us going.

As a certain Porky was fond of saying... That's all folks!

Time for me to go lay down and let this all sink in.

- Zabi

They CHANGED their minds, what would surprise me is if it wasn't VIZ who pushed this.

[Trini]

They CHANGED their minds, what would surprise me is if it wasn't VIZ who pushed this.

Hahaha if it's indeed Viz I wonder how theyre going to decide which manga to license? To me they have also benefited from the "underground" activity as a good bit of the manga they licensed appear to be the ones that begins to grow in popularity on the online manga viewer sites. Free market surveys at your service

Unless publishers quickly come up with a viable option that fans globally (please no country restrictions) can access at a reasonable price things will slowly pick back up. But can they compete? Scanlation groups are extremely efficient with their work, especially with the very popular titles.

[athlonkmf]

Originally Posted by Logseman;

I'm saying that warez sites will now be purged (or tried to) of fansub material and scanlations as well. Torrents may well follow that way. How much content can be shared through IRC?

Irc? Quite a lot. It's the main, if not the primary distribution source for decades. I don't like using it, but I must say i'm impressed.

Torrents, they have a long way to go if they want to stop that.. Scanlators could just use pirate bay and let them do the fighting.

Sites like rapidshare and megaupload are hard to stop too.