Well, I do actually buy those mangas which I specifically enjoy. But hadn't I known them beforehand I would've never bought them. I even bug the bookstores here about Vinland Saga, which has yet to be released in Germany. Without scanlations, the number of mangas I purchase will most likely go down (as I won't waste my bucks on stuff I don't know). It might be futile, but let us hope there are enough like me out there to make a meaningful dent in their sales once online reading closes, so that they will have made a wrong marketing decision.

It is still illegal, so it is better to close them up.

However, to guarantee our right to entertainment, Mangaka's should have an official website for publishing all their work, some for free, the rest paid with a subscription, with downloadable material and their own team of translators. Some mangas aren't spread worldwide, but Internet is. It is working with music and books, why not with mangas?

Well, I wouldn't necessarily call those sites heroes but I have to admit that it's still a great loss. Oh, well, back to flipping through the Manga section in bookstores and "borrowing" from friends who buy them from overseas.

Plus sometimes scanlators do a better job putting the Japanese into English than the translators hired by manga publishers.

Agreed.

illegal is illegal but it's hard to define the laws about it. take it as your "robin hood of manga" and yet, there's no prince john which means, no is at fault and every one is right depending on the point of view. for example, some readers may pertain to scanlation team as heroes and we do appreciate their work. they helped in circulating the manga's to remote areas where business ain't that good.

on the other, distributors fall so deep due to the scanlated copies in regions where they can buy original hard copies of the manga itself.

the only thing we can do is to appreciate both and hopefully they can settle their dispute in the manner where we can enjoy the manga in a fair share of our responsibilities.

If those types of sites were offered by mangakas and publishing companies, I would definitely pay to read scanlations.

Count me in, I'd love to see that happen. For one thing, I've shifted away from buying paper copies of books. Don't get me wrong, I love books and manga and comics--I just don't like storing them, organizing them or trying to keep myself from destroying them by accident. Book collections are lovely until you have to move, then it's like you're hauling lead weights around. I love the idea of being able to download hi-res, clean scans direct from a publisher's site, scans made from the original artwork instead of a muddy, cheaply-printed copy.

I'm kinda sad when OM closed down last month. Indeed, by closing OM and similar sites, the mangaka's rights won't be violated. But it'll also decrease the chance of getting new readers.

Eventhough I read several mangas in OM regularly, I also buy the printed version once it's released legally here. One of the case is Until Death Do Us Part. I thought no publisher here will be interested in publishing it. So I read it via OM. And last week, the first legal volume is out. Of course I buy it because I do respect the mangaka. The same thing with Meitantei Conan.

I've been buying manga since 20 years ago, so you can imagine how much books I have now. If one day publishers consider to release the scanlation worldwide (not just some exclusive for certain area release), I'd love to pay for that. This way, it'd help reducing space used to store my collection.

Yeah, i agrees, i think i'll be neutral on this as well because i can see both sides of the problem, its reminds me of the standoff with the music industry as well, its all about the money and i also agree that with the scanalations i would of never of know half the manga i do, i dont even know why it had to be now, was this all in the works for awhile? Cuz it seems like this all came out of nowhere to me?

Sure its a shame and a tragedy but dont forget that alot of people make their living off of manga production so its like a form of cheating but still its a shame, i really hope they can work out an agreement of sorts or something becasue i feel like i'm losing a valuable experience somewhere along the line

Actually I remember reading that Crunchyroll has it in the plans to work with the publishers like they do with anime and set up a subscription service for manga as well. I am a paid member for anime there and I would definitely sign of for the manga subscription as well. I think it will be great when they finally get it going. One of the sites administrators mentioned this in a thread there a while back ago. So I can't wait too see it happen.

maybe the publisher doesn't like sad ending,