Scanlation: Distributed Manga

IronicGrin writes "Just alerting you to a story I wrote for SFGate.com about the emergence of manga as a cultural and commercial force in the U.S.; in addition to discussing the fact that manga has begun to appear on national bestseller lists (volumes of Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin both cracked the USA Today Top 150), I also discuss scanlation communities--that is to say, distributed groups that use the Internet to translate and distribute as-yet unlicensed manga works--comparing this form of culture hacking to other open source development efforts. Do you think the comparison is apt? How many of you guys read manga (as opposed to watch anime), anyway?"

Comments

Manga?

[SpaceCadetTrav]

The guy from Saturday Night Live?

Mainstream.

[TLSPRWR]

Definately manga has begun hitting hard.
I actually saw a girl showing off some manga books she'd just bought to her friends... who were girls!

Re:Mainstream.

[0mni]

Were they speaking in japanese?, cause they may have just been guys dressed up in cos-play. I assume you didnt lift their skirts to check. OR DID YOU?!?!

DISTURBING MANGA???

[ferrellcat]

I first read this as "Disturbing Manga", which makes sense, given that I've seen LOTS of disturbing manga!

Re:I just don't get it...

[twofidyKidd]

Cmon man, this is slashdot! There's no place here for your opinions!

Gateway drug

[base3]

As a parent and Slashdot reader, I'm concerned that the obsession over Manga, particularly that obtained by violating copyrights, is a dangerous trend among teens and young adults. Once drawn into the hobby (the name of which is an only mildly concealed anagram for "GAy MAN"), young people begin to look for bigger and better fixes, until they're caught in the grip (pun intended) of Hentai tentacle porn.

The U.S. Justice Department should use every means at its disposal, including exporting obscenity laws from less liberal jurisdictions as well as the new criminal copyright infringement laws, to see to it that as few youth are affected by this scourge as possible. Thank you.

Riiight.

[BJH]

This sort of breathless fanboy tripe, that deliberately tries to blur the lines between legitimate activites (Free Software/Open Source) and illegitimate activities (scanlation) doesn't deserve space on /.'s front page.

For example, here's one paragraph:

The process is simple (now that personal scanners, Photoshop and the Internet are widely available, anyway): "Raws," or original copies of Japanese manga volumes, are scanned into digital formats; these are distributed via the Internet to legions of bilingual translators, who send rough scripts on to editors, who polish the language and then paste the translated dialogue into the word bubbles of the scans. After a quick quality-control check, the scanlation is ready for release via IRC (a worldwide chat network frequented by hacker types), peer-to-peer technologies such as BitTorrent or direct Web download.

Let's take another look at that in "translation":

The process is simple (now that personal scanners, Photoshop and the Internet are widely available, anyway, 'cause these three things were invented to let ignoramuses like me ignore copyright): "Raws," or original copies of Japanese manga volumes, are scanned into digital formats; these are distributed via the Internet to a few fanboys who learned Japanese off the back of an instant ramen packet, who send completely made-up scripts on to semi-literate 15-year-old editors, who trash the language even more and then paste the now unintelligble dialogue into the word bubbles of the scans. After a quick quality-control check, consisting of showing the result to their dog, the scanlation is ready for release via IRC (a worldwide chat network supposedly frequented by hackers, but mainly used by wannabes, script kiddies and leeches), peer-to-peer technologies such as BitTorrent or direct Web download - although direct Web download is actually client/server technology, not P2P, but P2P sounds 1337er.

Good heavens - Don't do it!

[CharonX]

including exporting obscenity laws from less liberal jurisdictions

Don't do it!
Last time the US exported obscenity laws to Japan we got Tentacle Porn
I really don't want to find out what we would get this time!

Read?

[irby]

Read Manga? I just look at the pictures!

Re:Donwload and Read

[vdoogs]

"that way you get the little nuances and side stories in the manga that arent in the anime." You're talking about the boobs, swear words, panties and nosebleeds right?

Re:One case where you don't get what you pay for

[aka-ed]

I think he's saying that supporting artists in other cultures will deflate our own, and he is quite right. Traitors who go to see Jacques Tati films are stealing food right from the mouth of Jerry Lewis, imho. Why watch a Jean Luc Godard film when we have an auteur like Jerry Bruckheimer? Why listen to Edith Piaf when Doris Day recordings stay ignored?

Apt-get

[Stevyn]

"Do you think the comparison is apt?"

My first reaction to this story was "apt-get manga"? Needless to say, this has been a long day...

Re:I just don't get it...

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

Your preconceived notions are amusing but invalid.

If you have no basis on which to rest your statements then there is no reason for you to read or post in this topic, other than to troll.

I trust mods will take note.

Do you realize you sound JUST LIKE "Comicbook Man"?