Information:

Melora's Personal Note on the Posting of Doujinshi.

Update: Since it is now easy to buy doujnshi directly from the artist, and not have to go through auction sites, I will no longer scan new doujinshi. This site will only host the older comics that were on it originally.

Old Info: It's not like I'll have the first and only doujnshi scanlation site out there but... that doesn't make much difference to me. The last thing I want to do is disrespect or discourage the original artists. I admire these people, as artists and as fans.

 

At the same time... I hate the fact that most of the people who want to see this stuff would never be able to; unless they have a ton of cash and are willing to really fight over one old copy on ebay... which is pretty much what I, and all the contributors, HAVE done to get these volumes. I would have killed to see some of this rare material, and I know others would have as well. It's not something that is accessible otherwise. So...

 

I've debated this for many years already and I came to my own personal conclusion long ago: I'm going to try to stay as respectful as possible. I tried to do the same on the old History of Hyrule:

• I will remove anything any author wants me to,
• I'll only have small scans available,
• I wont post the full volume for anything that's under 5 years old,
• I won't allow my copies to be distributed on every other site,
• I'll only post stuff that was originally sold for money,
• I'll never try to hide who the creators are (who the credit really belongs to,)
• I will never seek to profit from any of my sites that have other people's work on them.

I'd also like to host them (when possible) in their non-native language. This change, the addition of another language, makes it at least seem like it's a little more of a reasonable thing to have done, to me. It might help keep the volumes more collectible in their native market of Japan.

 

Why I made some of the choices I did:

 

Hopefully, after 5 years, the original artist still isn't involved in the majority of their doujinshi sales. Small scans are all that is really needed for the basic enjoyment of a volume and it will, hopefully, still keep the same people, who were interested in obtaining their own physical copies, interested in buying from the current used doujinshi market.

 

I've always believed that the rare and unavailable should be shared and available for viewing. If it can't be found, if it's old and out of print: I hate for people to loose their access to material and I have the desire to to what I can to change that. But most of all I don't want artists to feel disrespected or unloved. Their wishes come first. I only added these because we were spending so much money fighting each other just to glimpse at what was inside.

 

Why you shouldn't ask to host any of this on your site unless you were directly involved with the translations or scans: The fact is, I see no real point in having other sites hosting the same content when a collection is already sound and presented in an easy to "read" (or obtain) format. (Like, just .rar's or .pdf's may not work for everyone. I think it's nice to have a page-by-page option.) Sure, it's nice to have all the official art in one area, not scattered between 20 sites but, for full volumes of doujinshi and manga: I have no problem linking to other's sites so, I don't see why they can't just link to mine. I don't care if you use the cover images, and stuff like the artist info for an info section of your site but, I hope what I'm really getting at is clear. The doujinshi doesn't need to be on every site out there. Besides, not every site is going to be respectful in the least by even crediting the original artists, and I don't always have the time to figure out which is which: If the original artist does contact me, and wants me to take something down, the content I was responsible for uploading stays my responsibility and that it should come down from every place that hosts my scans. The best way for me to keep track of that is if the content stays on my site. Plus, the smaller the distribution, I would think, the less insulting and worrisome it would be to the artists.

 

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