Overseas Distribution And Piracy Forum

 As a scanlator myself, I can say that  what I do is definitely in a huge gray area, but there are certain times when it is justifiable to a certain extent. For example, the series I work on are all not officially available in English, so the projects we work on help fans of the series we work on have access to what they want to read. However, should a publisher come forward and announce that they are working on a series we are covering, I would have no qualms with discontinuing the project and requesting sites hosting the project to pull their links/take the series off their online viewer. I do heavily suggest trying to support the author in some way. For example, I import extra tankouban for the series that I scanlate despite having a digital copy and being quite horrible at reading Japanese because it would be a shame for me not to support what I like anyways. For series I read scanlations of that do get licensed, I do end up buying it once it's released in the United States.
 
Scanlating a licensed series is an even grayer area. There might be some points where it would be seen as okay to work on a project that is about 100 chapters behind in English, but that in and of itself isn't a proper excuse, though it does prove that we're all really impatient. For one, you're damaging the profits of the publisher working to translate it into the language you're scanlating it into, which may mean that the series popularity will plummet and then possibly cause the publisher to stop translating, hurting the revenue for the original Japanese publishers and the manga-ka as well. Of course, scanlations might hurt Japanese sales as well since a number of raws for bigger series like Bleach, Naruto an One Piece  are posted online before being scanlated, giving Japanese readers a chance to read scans of what they have readily available. Though, for most groups, the raws remain private and within the group itself and their release has a lesser chance of being read of by a Japanese person who probably doesn't have fluency in English [or French/Russian/Spanish/Portuguese/Tagalog/etc...]  I see it as more of a tool to help a series gain popularity so that a publisher can gauge whether they can profit from officially releasing the series in a certain language. Doujin scanlations are okay too, since there aren't really any professional Doujin circles outside of Japan, though support by actually buying the Doujin is better too. Of course I know that many people don't buy manga after reading scanlations -- there's the problem of scanlators not stopping their series once it is licensed or pulling a specific chapter/volume after the official release is available. Additionally, there's the problem of the fans and their tight purse strings nowadays. If they can get what they want for free, why should they go and buy it? It's the sad truth...
 
All in all, I know that what I do cannot be 100% justified and that I [and other scanlators] do deserve quite a large chunk of the heat we get from a number of people as well. However, I do stand by the fact that I have pride in my work and by the fact that it makes a series available to others who would otherwise never have had access to it. It's a shame that most people won't go out and support their favorite series after becoming fans through scanlations -- it really doesn't feel like you're a fan till you go out and actively support a series with your own hard-earned money. I would like to say that I want to see this change somewhere down the line -- possibly having official publishers provide official online reading sort of how anime has started to enter the age of simulcasts/official streaming sites. Of course, old habits die hard and it will take more than just that to convert "scanlation purists" into full-on supporters.

Saw this on another site.