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NEWS: App Puts Unauthorized Manga Scans on iPhone, iPad

Correction. I was referring to the companies not the thieves themselves about charging for goods and services. I was saying the companies should not give their goods away without charging even if it is online. I agree that companies should nail these guys and anybody who steals their intellectual copyrights who make it theirs and do as they please with it without the copyrights holders permission. The law is slow in catching up with the thieves.

[ I think we'd see more official stuff if people weren't so supportive of the illegal, unauthorized stuff.

However, saying that new technology exists and USING said new technology are two completely different things. Its easy to say that companies can make money by transferring to digital media formats, and it WILL happen eventually, but companies simply can't jump into a sink or swim into a brand new business model haphazardly. Now people would accuse them of being behind the times, but looking at ad revenues from online sites, and the fact that they make little money if at all, any business worth its salt would realize that the conditions aren't right, and a responsible businessman won't risk the futures of his employees and himself without some hard data to back up the decision.

Unfortunately, the Internet has given birth to an entire generation which has grown comfortable with never having to pay for anything they can find online. By no means do they have any entitlement to those free products, but two things are clear: A) Some of them absolutely will not pay as long as a free option is available, and B) The rights holders will never be able to completely eliminate the piracy that makes their products freely available. More law-breakers will simply crop up in their wake and continue to provide the same service.

To return to your previous point, the companies are being, "forward-thinking," with their attempts to make their products available for "free," (Although, to very little success) as a way of roping in the crowd who is never going to pay. There is a higher possibility some of the freeloaders might start generating ad revenue via the Official, "free" alternative, as opposed to attempting (and failing) to crush the pirates and then ask those same people to begin paying.

They've been hitting the fanfiction sites too like fanfiction.net. From what I've heard they're mainly funded by google ads. Makes you wonder if google has rules against supporting illegal sites or not. Apparently google made demands that they take down all yaoi and sexually explicit content in order to continue funding it.

instead of ask for the take down of this app, like petrifiedjello said, lead by example and compete with the app. i would much rather have a manga app (even if it doesn't have a large library) that is official rather than ones that aren't. especially if the manga was cut up and tailored for ipod viewing.

Nothing is free even the fansubs and scanlation sites knows that because they ask for donations all the time to keep the site going.

The people who donate to fansub or scanlation knows those sites are impossible to be free without a nominal charge if they want the fansub and scanlation from the site.

The manga, manhaw, and anime should have cater to the customers who would pay for a service and products.

sdhd wrote:

The people who donate to fansub or scanlation knows those sites are impossible to be free without a nominal charge if they want the fansub and scanlation from the site.

No they don't. Most of them are quite clueless.

Most of the *readers* are clueless. But the people who *donate*, as sdhd said, know that those sites need financial backing - otherwise they wouldn't donate.

I have to think that those who give money would be willing to give it to legitimate apps or sites instead, provided they got something similar in return.

I think a lot of these fans are naive and think they are donating to something legit. When they're actually being frauded by some tricksters.

sunflower wrote:

Most of the *readers* are clueless. But the people who *donate*, as sdhd said, know that those sites need financial backing - otherwise they wouldn't donate. I have to think that those who give money would be willing to give it to legitimate apps or sites instead, provided they got something similar in return.

I think you misunderstood bayo- The people who donate *think* these sites need financial backing (when often they don't), and are tricked into donating (and participating in an illegal act) by people with questionable ethics asking for "donations". These aren't charities, or even legit businesses, and I think a lot of these fans are naive and think they are donating to something legit. When they're actually being frauded by some tricksters.

It is upto your volition to donate or not, but if the work in question is available in your region, the "right" thing to do would be to purchase the legitimate copy. Of course, it would all depend on various factors for people.

To be honest, it's their choice, so who cares?

If the fansub/scan groups are 1) buying their own materials to achieve higher quality of the releases or because it's the "lost treasure" that never got overseas, and 2) hosting their own servers for fast DDL, it amounts to a hefty cost that individuals are paying out of their own pockets. It is upto your volition to donate or not, but if the work in question is available in your region, the "right" thing to do would be to purchase the legitimate copy. Of course, it would all depend on various factors for people.

Here's why that doesn't matter: There are still plenty of multi-comic manga apps on the iTunes store, and every one of them is a mobile reader for a scanlation site. All of them. Some legitimate comics reader apps carry a smattering of manga, but so far the manga publishers themselves have stuck to the older model of publishing each chapter as a separate app. That's an expensive and clumsy way to read comics; the paradigm has shifted, but the manga publishers haven't responded.

Here's why that doesn't matter: There are still plenty of multi-comic manga apps on the iTunes  store, and every one of them is a mobile reader for a scanlation site. All of them. Some legitimate comics reader apps carry a smattering of manga, but so far the manga publishers themselves have stuck to the older model of publishing each chapter as a separate app. That's an expensive and clumsy way to read comics; the paradigm has shifted, but the manga publishers haven't responded.

It looks like Manga Rock developers have taken some steps to remove manga titles from Yen press. Here's what those developers announces on their blog: http://blog.notabasement.com/?p=48

Nonetheless, we would like to apologize the Hachette Book Group for not having realized that Manga Rock streams their contents from onemanga.com without their consent.