Legal Doesn’t Matter: More on Scanlation Sites

Posted in Manga News on March 22, 2010 by Johanna

For the last month or so, spinning out of the Nick Simmons plagiarism mess, various smart people online have been bemoaning scanlation sites like One Manga and MangaFox. (Probably the two best known. I know some will say I shouldn’t be linking to them, but plenty of people easily find them by typing “read free manga online” or similar into Google.) These sites post manga scans online without having the copyright owner’s permission. Some have been translated by fans — either the work isn’t published in English, or the series in Japan is running far ahead of what’s available in the U.S. — while others are scanned from published English translations. What torrents and rapidshare are to superhero comic piracy, these sites are to manga.

The reasons for readers using these sites are varied. Some customers are cheap. They can’t or won’t pay for all the manga they want to read. Some customers are limited. Perhaps they’re younger, and they can’t get to the library or bookstore on their own, or they don’t have a credit card to order online, or they want to read manga that’s rated age 18 and up without being carded. Some customers are picky. They want to try before they buy, and it’s becoming less easy to browse as bookstores realize they can’t stock everything. (This is especially true if you’re interested in books from smaller or less popular publishers, like CMX or Vertical.)

Some think that it’s a matter of education. For instance, Katherine Dacey recently posted in detail about how one of these sites is violating copyright law. The problem there is, I don’t think the users care. After all, there are plenty of laws that people willingly choose to violate every day, such as speeding. (When it comes to teens, there are even more, since technically, sending your also-underage significant other a naughty picture of yourself may qualify as child pornography in some locales. I think this is more a failure of law than of behavior.) Plus, fans have wanted to share things they love for free for decades. Home taping begat Napster, anime video dubs begat DVD burning, and so it continues.

There is minimal benefit to the user, in this case, for respecting copyright law (and what benefit there is, like the publisher not going out of business, is long-term), while there is plenty of immediate benefit in reading online for free. Is it any wonder that the scanlation user sees no reason to quit? If the publisher isn’t trying to shut these sites down, why should the customer take up their battle? The publishers may be trying, behind the scenes, to do something quietly, but if the reader doesn’t know that, and given the length of time these sites have been around, the obvious assumption is that they’re not.

All the customer sees is that the publisher (with the exception of Viz, and their SigIKKI and Rumic World sites) isn’t providing any legitimate alternative. In a way, the publishers have ceded the online reader to the “pirates”. As the iTunes store has demonstrated, it is possible to compete successfully with free. You can make the material easier to find, more reliable in quality, or provide extra features, for example. It requires creative thinking and understanding the audience’s wants more than calling them names and telling them they’re doing bad things, though. That approach doesn’t solve any problem.

Then again, maybe some of the publishers look on the bright side. Coming down hard on scans may seem anti-fan and turn off some customers, while silently tolerating them as “free publicity” might gain some customers who like what they’re seeing so much they want to buy their own copies and other merchandise. Plus, they can track popular, not-yet-translated titles as a kind of audience testing. Various people working at various publishers started in scanlations, so some see some value there. (I’m reminded of a superhero comic higher-up who refused to do anything about fanfic because he enjoyed it in APAs when he was younger. It’s hard to crack down on something you did.)

Anyway, I’m wandering away from my point, which is that fans are unlikely to change their behavior when it’s so easy and fun for them. Daniella Orihuela-Gruber tried to provide a list of alternatives, but all of them require more work or spending money and may not work for you after all. (I’d love to find a used book store that stacked more than 20 volumes of random manga, but I have yet to see one.) Badgering them isn’t going to help. It’s not a matter of ignorance, but of choice.

Similar Posts: Publishers Threaten Manga Scanlation Sites § Does Manga Have a Digital Future? § More Reaction to HTMLComics Shutdown § Manga for the Beginner: Chibis § Story Followup LinkBlogging

59 Comments

  1. [...] she explains why a aggregator site like Onemanga is illegal.  Johanna Draper Carlson replies with a post that readers of scanlations know perfectly well what they’re doing is illegal, and just [...]

  2. [...] provided her readers with a primer on copyright. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson responded that the way things are now, there are plenty of incentives for readers to use pirate sites and [...]

  3. [...] a book”, especially for titles they may not love or be uncertain about. In other words, reasons for reading free online manga may differ per person. (Disclaimer: I have reviewed a scanlated series before, [...]

  4. Shiny Noctowl
    07/16/2010 at 8:04 PM

    In America, Viz has only published the first 7 volumes of Pokémon Adventures (or pokespe, as it’s popularly called). I can get these volumes from my library without having to pay anything. However, pokespe currently has over 30 volumes, and the rest are only published in English by the Singaporean publisher Chuang Yi. Because Chuang Yi doesn’t ship outside of southeast Asia, I have to use eBay to buy pokespe volumes 8+. With shipping and the extra bit of money the seller adds on for his “trouble”, they cost about US$20 per volume!

  5. Wow, that’s a lot for a Pokemon comic! I admire your initiative in hunting down a legal way to get the material, but I can understand why a free alternative would be tempting.

  6. I like to read before I buy. I refuse to buy online ANYTHING that is a ‘opinion’ related item (Jewelery, books unless they’re HIGHLY recommended or by an author I trust, clothing, etc). Some things should be ‘tried on’ before they’re purchased. Considering a lot of the publishers want to SHRINK WRAP comics, the only way I’d be able to do that is to go to the Library. They don’t have many of the comics I like, and many I love aren’t even translated yet (Heaven knows, I craved the weekly updates of Inuyasha when it was in publication, and I HATE the American version of Sailor Moon), and since I can’t read Japanese (much less afford to pay shipping for comics FROM JAPAN) I guess I’m just screwed. You know, if they charged a reasonable fee, maybe I WOULD wait for the English publications. But 10-20 dollars for something that costs 200-500 yen in Japan is highway robbery. >.>; So sufi and die.

  7. Jabun the Wanderer
    08/17/2010 at 11:29 AM

    Hi, I DID have a huge multipage rant for you guys that was pretty much me agreeing about how no one is going to pay twenty bucks for something they can get for free, and then suggesting how the manga providers could lower their prices without cutting their profits too badly even with the economy bathing in the porcelain whirlpool of feces. my idea was that they could lower their prices by opening up more advertising space between panels, as well as hiring the very people whom they are trying to run out of town to do the translation work, instead of the big-time translators like say 4Kids, who has a reputation for metaphorically raping every potentially well-made anime and manga that they get their hands on. since these people are willing to do the translations for free, they would obviously be willing to work for less than those who will only tranlate the stories and subplots if you fork over wads of cash.

    these online “scanlators” also have another thing over the professional translators in that they do this job because they are passionate about their work instead of being ruled by the almoghty dollar. In essence, these people would honestly want to do a better job because they would have more respect for the hard work and dedication that the artist has put into the manga themself. In other words, while the artist and the scanlator are on opposing sides, they both have an equal ammount of respect of the product, as well as the scanlator having a high ammount of respect for the author and illustrators. they just happen to show this through the most basic form of flattery. (mimicry for thos not familiar with the addage)

  8. Lowering wages for those professionals who do translations (when that’s already happened) doesn’t strike me as a smart strategy if you believe in a fair wage for good work. Just because someone is willing to work for free doesn’t mean you should let them do it.

  9. I have to be honest, I never knew this was illegal! I always figured that it was fine because you didn’t own or download the mangas, you can only see them online (kind of like music and project playlist or a public library). I thought if it was illegal, you’d see something against it like all the anti-pirating stuff for movies and music. I feel really really stupid now, especially since I’m completely against the whole torrenting thing.

    Holy crap. :(

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