With the internet offering just about anything to people nowadays, it has also opened up a new crime: internet piracy. Scanlations are when people scan magna, translate them, and then upload them to the internet for anyone to read. A lot of manga does not reach localization, yet fans still want to be able to read it; therefore, they do not have a choice, but to read it illegally on websites such as MangaFox. Online readers hurt the mangaka and the publishers producing it.
I believe the most common argument used is that readers are protected by The Fair Use Act. According to Sean Thorsden, an attorney, the Fair Use Act has specific uses that “specifically states that fair use may only be asserted “For purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research. Unless the use in question is being used for one of these six purposes, fair use is not an applicable defense” (Thordsen). This act is often misused as an excuse to avoid copyright infringement.
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Calvin Reid writes that “sales of manga in the U.S. have declined more than 30% from a high of $210 million in 2007 to $140 million in sales in 2009” (Reid). He also explains that scanlations were good at one point because they got prospective fans interested and they would buy manga at the store. Now it has had an inverse relationship where sales are falling and scanlations are rising. Publishers such as Tokyo Pop have gone out of business, and many mangaka and others have lost their job within the past years, partially due to this problem. These artists are having their work stolen from them and they do not get a cut from