*pokes at can of worms*

[jane_drew_]

Ok, unofficial poll/request for thoughts:

Manga scanlations: permissible or prohibited?

What, if any, is their proper/acceptable place and function?

Comments

[wombat1138]

The general stance I've seen for scanslations is similar to fansubs: permissible if the series hasn't been officially licensed for translation/distribution in your country and if the fangroup isn't making any money off it. If the series gets licensed after the fan version is already underway, most fangroups will abandon the project and move on to something else (unless the time lag is measured in years, as with the Inuyasha manga); in some cases, they'll pull their existing fan versions offline, but in others, they'll just leave them up somewhere-- and these days, even if the working fangroup yanks their own archive, someone else will have copies that'll end up randomly floating around the web.

[wombat1138]

(...though that still leaves the Google-Books-sorta legal limbo question about what happens if the series *was* licensed, but has been allowed to lapse from publication and is now only available from secondhand sources. In those cases, imho it's still optimal to buy the official versions if possible, so dealers will still get the basic idea that there's a financial benefit to carrying manga and anime. Speaking selfishly, I have to say that I really, really miss the wot-club text-only translations of the Inuyasha manga, though a lot of that is because of the process rather than the content per se-- since the translator painstakingly posted several working steps for each chapter, they were great for tracking down informal Japanese idioms as well as comparing the original text to Viz's final version.)

[ladyshiin]

Ditto what wombat1138 said *nods*

[mei_angiez]

hellos! no idea if you remember me at all... i used to comment on your Frozen Moonlight fanfic religiously (as angiez) hahaha.... btw, what happened to it???

like drama and anime subs, i live for the scanlations!!! but if i do love the manga, i'd still buy it when it is released... but where i'm at, it takes for-freaking-ever. ironic how things i'm willing to spend money on doesn't get released in singapore or takes a long time before it hits this sunny island. haha. anyway, i think scalations are good for those wanting to 'try out' the manga first, before deciding if it's worth the read. but i think those who really do enjoy the manga will generally prefer to purchase their own copies once the volume is released so i don't think scanlations are bad. but obviously if you pull in all the copyright issues then yeah, there may be a problem for those concerned. however, mere humans like me are always happy with nice free things done by fans for fans :p