Forum - View topicManga importing and unofficial translations: a legal question
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EpicLotus
 Posts: 187 |
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I enjoy collecting original Japanese manga volumes, even for series that aren't necessarily available in English. It helps that I have a Japanese bookstore about 30 minutes from where I live that sells me the books at the exchange-rated cover price. One thing I've been wondering, though, is whether or not it would be considered illegal to download a scanlation of a manga that I own.
Now, I know this goes into some of the mess that is copyright law in the United States. For example, I know that trying to sell a translation of someone else's work would be a violation of the law; however, since scanlations are available for free, this would seem to not be an issue in that respect. I do realize that scanlations, realistically speaking, are a violation of copyright law according to the Berne Convention. That said, assuming I already own the untranslated manga I'm downloading a scanlation of, legal or not? Would this fall under a "Fair Use" scenario? |
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Genet
Posts: 261 Location: USA |
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It's still probably not legal, though I'm not sure people would really care as much since you own the actual copy.
Though I envy you for having a Japanese bookstore so close to you. Aghhh. |
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