Raw Providers and Reading Sites Issues

[Ryuujin]

...what about the series that aren't available officially in English at all? Seems stupid to attack those...

[Lummie]

That law of a while back where they were aiming at restricting sexual content in in Japanese manga is turned down:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...n-in-committee

[DragoZERO]

Before they do something, they should have a counter-proposal. They can make money here (although it's a big risk) but they choose not to. They want to cut their losses and take the easy way out. We find this happen with so many companies and industries throughout time. You would think they'd learn after a while.

I think utilizing the internet and digital media is the best. I myself do not want a magazine coming to my house every month. It's a waste of paper. Having an online only would be great too because they wouldn't have to worry about paying for the magazine printing and distribution.

This is very similar to what is happening to the newspaper industry. You used to pay for a paper and read the news. But since it's all on the internet for free, fewer people purchase newspapers, and that forces the companies to raise their prices because they can't keep the same prices with less sales. The WSJ has a newspaper subscription, internet only subscription, or both to choose from. That is what the manga industry needs.

Oh, and it would really help if they translate and edit the manga properly. Don't be putting white boxes over stuff instead of re-drawing it, and using horrible blanket terms instead of proper translations.

Let's just hope that we won't get a site like CR with horrible quality that will monopolize everything.

[Arabesque]

Originally Posted by Lummie

That law of a while back where they were aiming at restricting sexual content in in Japanese manga is turned down:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...n-in-committee

Well, it had a high chance of being rejected after that entire outcry.

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Before they do something, they should have a counter-proposal. They can make money here (although it's a big risk) but they choose not to. They want to cut their losses and take the easy way out. We find this happen with so many companies and industries throughout time. You would think they'd learn after a while.

We are still unsure about what will they do. We know that they formed a union to take down aggregate sites, but what happens afterwards is still unclear. I'm hoping they do offer an alternative, and I can see signs that point out to that path. The question is how far will they go down it ...

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

I think utilizing the internet and digital media is the best.

I think that everyone agrees on this. The problem though is the how.

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

This is very similar to what is happening to the newspaper industry. You used to pay for a paper and read the news. But since it's all on the internet for free, fewer people purchase newspapers, and that forces the companies to raise their prices because they can't keep the same prices with less sales.

Your comparison with newspapers is a very loose one, because newspapers offer information that can be acquired by any other competition/individuals (with the exception of special interviews and editorials) and can be placed online by the publishers officially (and even if someone uploads a piece of it, that wouldn't make a difference because the paper doesn't own the information) while Manga magazines/volumes offer original content for entertainment.

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

The WSJ has a newspaper subscription, internet only subscription, or both to choose from. That is what the manga industry needs.

And who will offer this? The Japanese publishers? The Overseas ones?

[DragoZERO]

Originally Posted by Arabesque

Your comparison with newspapers is a very loose one, because newspapers offer information that can be acquired by any other competition/individuals (with the exception of special interviews and editorials) and can be placed online by the publishers officially (and even if someone uploads a piece of it, that wouldn't make a difference because the paper doesn't own the information) while Manga magazines/volumes offer original content for entertainment.

It's the perfect example of the internet's effect on printed publications.

And who will offer this? The Japanese publishers? The Overseas ones?

Both can, but I think it's more ideal for overseas where printing costs are higher.

[Tri-ring]

In case some of you who are wondering why there are not much RAWs posted, well here is a example why.

Teenage boy arrested for posting manga content on YouTube

A 14-year-old boy was arrested Monday for allegedly posting pirated ‘‘manga’’ comic stories on the video-sharing site YouTube, in the first police action against such a posting in Japan, police said.

The junior high school student from Nagoya, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, is suspected of posting contents of four popular manga series such as the blockbuster ‘‘One Piece’’ before their publication in weekly magazines from last December to February.

The boy, who has admitted to the charge, allegedly posted photos of the comics from magazines he obtained prior to their release dates in a form readable over the Internet on four occasions from his personal computer at home, without permission from copyright holders....

[Poetic Justice]

Manga publishers acting just as stupid as the MPAA in going after people.

Moves like this will not do much good for them.

[Netto Azure]

It's the DRM debate over copyrighted Music all over again.

Well the crackdown has begun and the Manga viewing sites have begun volunarily agreeing. The fact that they were featured in that article means that the publishers know their existance. I WANT MY POKEMON SPECIAL NOW!!! TT^TT

[X207]

mangafox took down thier liscensed manga for the moment too. they hope to put it back if possible but its not guatanteed yet.

[stardrago]

Has anyone have trouble going on to onemanga.com yet?

[Poetic Justice]

The sense of entitlement people seem to have have over at MF after they took down all licensed manga is astonishing.

[Krono]

Originally Posted by Poetic Justice

Manga publishers acting just as stupid as the MPAA in going after people.

Moves like this will not do much good for them.

No, if the manga publishers were acting like the MPAA, and the RIAA, They would have been suing scanlations groups a decade ago, and online reader sites as soon as they tried to form. As it is, they tolerated scanlations for their upsides, and waited as long as they could afford to before trying to do something large scale about online reader websites.

Originally Posted by Netto Azure

It's the DRM debate over copyrighted Music all over again.

Well the crackdown has begun and the Manga viewing sites have begun volunarily agreeing. The fact that they were featured in that article means that the publishers know their existance. I WANT MY POKEMON SPECIAL NOW!!! TT^TT

Of course the publishers know their existance. Type "manga" into google. Onemanga is the first results, Mangafox and several others are on the first page of results as well. They'd have to be computer illiterate to not know their existance.

Originally Posted by X207

mangafox took down thier liscensed manga for the moment too. they hope to put it back if possible but its not guatanteed yet.

More accurately they've removed all titles licensed by Viz. Series licensed by other companies are still there. For now, anyways given that this seems to be the first overt move since the announcement. And it appears that some smaller scanlations groups decided they don't want their work hosted on target #1 anymore either.

Originally Posted by stardrago

Has anyone have trouble going on to onemanga.com yet?

And you don't check yourself because...?

But to answer your question, they're apparently untouched so far. Probably because while Mangafox is less popular, it's apparently managed to piss them off more.

[X207]

thanks, i didn't notice that all the dropped series were from viz. the change doesnt bother me much, i go to OM more often anyways. OM may not have as much variety as MF but MF still has some series OM doesnt host. im just guessing but maybe the larger variety of series on MF has gotten them higher on the list to crackdown on.

[Poetic Justice]

MF was hosting viz media scans, Not just scanlations. That probably pissed them off more than anything.

MF has now brought back the removed mature manga at the risk of removing google ads, I wonder how that will work out for them.

[Krono]

Originally Posted by Poetic Justice

MF was hosting viz media scans, Not just scanlations. That probably pissed them off more than anything.

MF has now brought back the removed mature manga at the risk of removing google ads, I wonder how that will work out for them.

Huh. I knew MF hosted some official english language scans, but I didn't realize that Viz was one of the publishers whose work they were hosting. That would help explain why they were first on the list.

Actually, looking at it, it seems that several of the removed series include Rumiko Takahashi's works. Given that One Manga removed those at Viz's request a while back, I wonder if MF was also balking at obeying more selective take down requests.

[DragoZERO]

MF will most likely follow any requests or C&D's they get because the site is owned by a for-profit company.

[Krono]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

MF will most likely follow any requests or C&D's they get because the site is owned by a for-profit company.

Well, yeah seeing as they followed this one. I'm just somewhat surprised that Viz removed a couple of series from OM a while back, but didn't remove the same series from Mangafox until they had everything pulled.

[Netto Azure]

Originally Posted by Poetic Justice

The sense of entitlement people seem to have have over at MF after they took down all licensed manga is astonishing.

Some of us depend on that place for our Pokemon Special Fix. >____>

[Tri-ring]

The publishers are becoming serious.

Japan comic industry threatens legal action against illegal U.S. sites

A group of Japanese comic book publishers on Friday called on U.S. and European operators of websites offering unauthorized scanned images of Japanese comics to stop making them illegally available on the Internet.

If the operators fail to comply with the calls, the Digital Comic Association—comprised of more than 30 publishers, such as Kodansha Ltd, Shogakukan Inc and Shueisha Inc—would take the issue to court, it said.

The association is considering seeking legal action against 30 or more websites, and will first zero in on operators in the United States in partnership with foreign publishers, it added.

Websites offering scanned images of Japanese comics—often with subtitles in local languages—without permission from their rights’ holders have proliferated in European countries and the United States, and many of them are profiting through ads and membership fees, according to the association, which aims to promote comic books in digital format and protect its members’ copyrights.

‘‘Illegal websites have mushroomed rapidly in the past one or two years,’’ an official at the association said. ‘‘We cannot sit idly by any longer now that we expect to see new gadgets like electronic readers become more widespread.’’

[Poetic Justice]

So they are doing this partially out of fear of the ipad, smh.