Mahou Sensei Negima

I think it was a human error. It seems to have been fixed though.

People still use Manga Fox?

But seriously, I never go on the site anymore since everything I follow now is licensed.

We shouldn't really be discussing scanlation sites here anyway.

edited 7th Feb '13 10:27:06 PM by burnpsy

Unless they're official. So be sure to check out Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha, where you can read new WSJ chapters simultaneously as the Japanese releases (in America)!

My Twitch.

When trying to pimp the English WSJ (they dropped the "Alpha" weeks ago), it's probably best to just link them to the latest starter pack (currently this one). Much more efficient for showing what they have to offer (and has the first chapter of every series except Dragon Ball, too).

edited 7th Feb '13 11:15:38 PM by burnpsy

Whoops, my bad.

My Twitch.

I read way too much stuff for it all to be licensed. I also live in Australia, which understandably handles licensing separate from other countries.

I posit that that "In America" should pothole to No Export for You. :P

Whatever happened to the old TV Tropes where we didn't have to be afraid of every other thing we discussed?

Don't answer. I know.

edited 8th Feb '13 4:10:02 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

Well, in this case, I think we were actually threatened to have our ad income cut if we didn't kowtow to the demands of the anti-scanlation authorities, so it's not like the staff like it; they just don't have a choice. It's different from the last couple of years' Content Policy incidents/fiascos.

edited 8th Feb '13 4:21:35 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Err... Not to mention it's also, y'know, morally wrong to assist piracy.

But what do I know, complain away.

And no, the "in America" does not necessarily translate to No Export for You. One of their recent surveys was specifically to ask which other countries they should try to give access to it.

edited 8th Feb '13 8:03:11 AM by burnpsy

The problem is whether scanlation counts as "digital piracy" if the scanlators themselves don't make any profit from it at all, and when it's done to works that haven't been licensed to any non-Japanese publisher yet.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

...Err...

The pirates do make money. From ad revenue. This factors into which series they decide to keep running or drop, they just don't tell you. Did you think they ran their websites and servers on hopes and dreams? This is why scanlators hate most aggregator sites, for the record (they're stealing the stolen revenue).

And it's illegal whether there's a distributor in your area or not, so long as your country's signed onto the proper international laws. (As such, an obvious exception is China. Most of the world falls under it being illegal, though.)

edited 8th Feb '13 8:26:40 AM by burnpsy

If you say so.

Question for anyone who can feel bothered for checking it themselves, unlike myself: How much of Akamatsu's staff at the start of Love Hina remains by the end of Negima?

Probably the most tragic thing about the whole manga translation scene is that the volunteer scanlators are so impossibly efficient at their "job" that it basically kills all opportunity of.... Well, Legitimate translations from succeeding.

Its a free, almost instant short delay translation dealio. As long as we do not click download, we can't even be sued for viewing things this way.

I mean.... You would have to be rather foolish to use legal manga translations as your primary means of reading manga. The Pirates are just too good.

They are much better at pandering to our tastes, being.... Basically... One Of Us.

They usually work without demanding we pay up (Albiet, some groups go beyond the others in greed by basically demanding a commission fee in order to pick up dropped series, ETC. Most do not pull an EA - Dead Space 3, though.)

I mean... Official translators really haven't got much going for them when facing scanlators down. A lot of people who have the money will buy a physical copy out of kindness when stuff comes out... But... The piracy that is rampant with manga is pretty strongly routed, for strong reasons. I would say they are neither good or bad. Just... Messy.

Most of the scanlators do it for the love of it, or so I would like to think. I would like to see some method of them earning revenue for the original manga creators come out. Be it an adservice, or other form of program that allows them to pass on profit to the original creators and publishers as volunteers, instead of as pirates.

But, Such a legitimization is a long ways away, and unlikely at that. Regardless, blaming someone for taking the easy route is hard when the easy route is so much easier right now, with the only reason not to do so is... Morality and legitimacy.

Happens to be known as Walrus Jones in other circles.

Definitely right about the pirates just being too good at what they do. Hell, if memory serves by the end of Negima's run Red Hawk Scans had improved to the point where they could crap out clean quality skillfully-translated scans withing 24 hours of the Japanese grabbing it.

BUT there is a solution: beat the pirates to the punch. When it first came out, Kyoukai No Rinne split itself off from the competition by having online English translations released simultaneously with the Japanese. And you know what? Scanlators didn't touch it. Sure, you had to pay a bit to have access, but it took enough of the demand away that the only scanlator who was translating RINNE was doing it more out of personal amusement, and eventually stopped. The only reason scans exist today is because Viz eventually stopped with the simultaneous release, and even then the scanlator group only recently finished up the holes and still has a long ways to go to catch up.

Now that doesn't mean something like Shonen Jump Alpha is going to suddenly make scans of the Big Three stop. Those have gone far too long. But it's definitely a step in the right direction.

edited 13th Feb '13 9:57:20 PM by Watchtower

The English Shonen Jump, however, has successfully thwarted any attempts at scanning Cross Manage past chapter 5, so it might just work out for the series they pick up fresh.

Still, Crunchyroll exists and fansubbers still translate all anime, so it's not as if this consistently works even remotely close to consistently. I'm still waiting to see how long it takes before someone does a rip of the English Jump like they do for Crunchyroll.

edited 13th Feb '13 10:14:18 PM by burnpsy

Anime distribution works differently to manga translation, in fact, this holds up with most video streaming.

The way video streaming handles adds is obnoxious enough that many people are willing to simply skip out, or pirate to avoid being interrupted five times per video, and even more progressive advertizing programs (Beginning of video only,) can tire someone out on a streaming binge.

With manga, its pretty obvious that advertizing doesn't hurt manga distribution when it is handled well, as scanlators occasionally run sites off of add revenue without issue, and even more importantly, the scanlators advertize themselves before and after the credits of their to the sound of them receiving....

No contempt whatsoever.

If pay up front programs started becoming large scale for individual manga, we might see piracy return, but as long as it was handled in a mature way.... A single, simple service that covers a large number of manga, one would see a vast drop in piracy despite the pay up front model. More importantly, such a service could be used to gauge outside interest in a series when they are out to decide what should get overseas publications...

Regardless. Some element of allowing scanlators to drum up funds for the original author/publisher sounds like the most effective solution to me, due to the above doubts that scanlators might persist despite direct, and almost immediate translation due to potentially annoying advertizements, and/or a pay up front service chasing potential legitimate customers off.

There is very little reason to not to have such a system, as if they ever decide they need said scanlators to stop, nothing stops them from asking the scalators to stand down.

edited 13th Feb '13 10:43:13 PM by Roraborialis

Happens to be known as Walrus Jones in other circles.

For Crunchyroll to be simultanous with Japan, you'd have be be a paying customer instead of a free one, which means no ads period.

It is also worth noting that several of the free video players used for pirated anime online pre-roll ads.

Try "scanlators already make money by not doing this, so they have no reason to comply".

—

This topic is a rather huge one, and way outside the purview of this thread. I'd suggest cutting it off, or making it a separate one.

edited 13th Feb '13 10:52:25 PM by burnpsy

Another thread could be befitting.

Regardless, I think the scalators would jump at the chance to be less likely to become victim to a cease and desist order.

You know, they do get shut down.

You forget that there are more honest scanlators who do their jobs straight out of their own pocket, who would gladly jump at the chance to obtain some legitimacy.

edited 13th Feb '13 11:00:30 PM by Roraborialis

Happens to be known as Walrus Jones in other circles.

I remember when they tried to C&D Manga Stream after they started Jump Alpha. Manga Stream then sic'd their entire readership at Viz and did not comply.

Yes, there are honest scanlators. There are also malicious ones.

edited 13th Feb '13 11:32:20 PM by burnpsy

Wait, what? I didn't know that! DETAILS, PLEASE!

---

Also, big discovery: You know how Ku Fei has "Youjinbou" (用心棒) as part of her Boss Subtitle in Chapter 300? Well, while it normally translates to "bodyguard", I have never been satisfied with that interpretation, given that there's nothing about Ku Fei that suggests that she's a "bodyguard" to anyone more than any of the other fighters. Today, however, I had the whim to look up the meanings of the individual kanji that comprise that word.

• 用: utilize, use.
• 心: heart, mind, spirit, vitality, inner strength.
• 棒: rod, stick, cane, pole, club.
• 用心: guarding, caution/cautious.
• 心棒: shaft, axle.

So basically, "youjinbou" here might actually be meant to be taken more literaly, as "pole(arm)-user", or more appropiately "staff fighter".

edited 14th Feb '13 9:33:09 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Viz asked them to take down several series that they held the license to. MangaStream then released a statement painting themselves as the little guy who didn't do anything wrong, and got their fanbase to flood Viz's Facebook and Twitter, complaining about how Alpha was an inferior product that was "three weeks behind"^note It was actually only two weeks back then, but scanlators get manga a week before Japan so public perception was three weeks. They are currently simultaneous (down to the day), but scanlations are still a week faster.. MangaStream then, as I said, did not comply with the order, as evidenced by how they're still scanning every single one of those Viz series they were told to take down (that hasn't ended, of course).

If I were Viz, I'd sue their asses.

My Twitch.

That might be too costly, depending on where their members are are. If MangaStream's members don't not live in the US, they'd have to go through the process of hiring a new set of lawyers and such in that other country and then start the process over there, which is several degrees more expensive than if both parties are in the same country.

Or they might be in a piracy law haven like the Pirate Bay is.

edited 14th Feb '13 12:21:36 PM by burnpsy

Oh, I do remember that notice they put when they temporarily halted their scanlation work... but I never heard of that Facebook/Twitter-flooding!

That said, they didn't completely ignore the demands, from what I can see; they compromised by adopting what can be best described as "only have the most recent handful of a work's chapters available at any given time".

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.