MangaHelpers and Viz partnership?

#1
As you may have already heard, we have received a number of reports of some sort of business proposition between Viz and Mangahelpers. At this point, it appears that the information was leaked in draft form, and hasn't actually been proposed directly to Viz.

Before getting into the details, we ask that everyone please maintain an open mind. The MangaHelpers community has been around for a long time, and before jumping to conclusions, please make sure to get all the facts.

The news looks to have been first reported via a negative analysis by the scanlation group FoOlRulez. At this time, this seems to be the most in-depth information source regarding the business plan.

The following are quick links to the proposed email and business plan, and the official response from mangahelpers themselves. ~From baka updates
So what does everyone think of the currant saga?
 
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#2
Wooo, the manga community is an uptight, elitist bunch aren't they? "OH NOES, HOW DAAARRREEE YOU GO AFTER THE MONEY" when in fact 'free service' generally means that the provider pays through the teeth in order to keep these cretins satisfied.

Most of the comments on this page make me sick. I hope MangaHelpers pushes forward and tells their detractors *ahem* ungrateful asshole members to eat a dick.
 
#3
XD

It was an event bound to happen at some point, if it was not mangahelpers then it would of been some other forum. Paying for servers point put aside for a moment, I find it rather amusing that most people are complaining about the "stealing" of manga translations done by scanlators when effectly they stole the orginal work in the first place....Pot...ketttle...black? Though, this is kind of to be expected, as the anime/manga community has always had kind of pseudo-elitist values. Back in the day, before net, you had to work your way into a closed nit circle of "anime fans" in order to get your grubby little hands on it. Now that anime/manga is freely available on the net, the same pseudo-elitist values have just taken on a different form.

Don't get me wrong, I love the work of scanlationers/fan-subbers and I'm very greatful for all their hard work, but not everything can be free, and companys ragardless of how large, need to make profits and if some Joe-Blog of so-and-so site is providing away to do that then I say, go for it. As with endless amounts of zero-day releases been scanned and posted on the net (of which MH was hit very hard when they where forced to stop sharing certain works due to it) free scanlations, and scanned copies of licenced work, in time the manga could became like the mahwa market if thinking in extreme terms. The times are changing, and if VIZ makes a deal with them, they are making a step into the digal era at lest.

If translators what people to access, their work for free then I'm sure their will be meny other sites willing to pay out of their own pocket, to host their work and share with no cost to anyone else but themselfs, for the warm fuzzy glow or whatever feeling they get from it, if their is not, then I'm very sure such sites will soon pop up. The scanlators not happy with MH could just post their work there.

Though, if done well it has provides a great position where cash can be made, at the same time as serving the market, it is not like it is the only site set up to produce profit from hosting manga scanlations by various groups, they just did not make the process public and messy.
 
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