‘Pirate’ Site Manga Rock Starts Shutdown, Will Go Legal

[Matrix]

The massively popular manga comic scanlation platform Manga Rock is shutting down. Its Google Play store app has been removed and according to a published timeline the iOS version and site will follow. The site's operators say that they now realize how much damage piracy does. They are committed to relaunching as an authorized service, MR Comics, in the near future.

Manga comics and novels are huge. Not just in Japan but all over the world.

People used to read them on paper, but digital is the standard today. While that makes these comics more accessible, they’re also easier to pirate.

For years there has been an active ‘scanlation’ community. These are fan-made translations that are shared online. Sharing can begin innocently, by posting a copy on a message board, but sometimes things get out of hand.

Enter MangaRock. Most people who are not into manga have probably never heard of the site, but it easily dwarfs the most well-established pirate sites. According to data from MUSO, it’s more popular that The Pirate Bay, or any Hollywood-blockbuster streaming site.

In addition, SimilarWeb lists it as the 2nd most popular site in the ‘books and literature‘ category, just behind Wattpad. That’s rather impressive, especially when you consider that many users don’t use the site, but its dedicated Android and iOS apps instead.

Up until a few days ago, the site had been running smoothly, but apparently the operators had a change of heart. In an interview with J-Cast News, picked up by Animenewsnetwork, Manga Rock owner “Not a Basement Studio” recently said the site and apps would shut down.

Initially, it appeared that nothing much had changed, but today people started to notice that the Manga Rock app had disappeared from the Play store. The iOS version will reportedly follow soon.

And if there was any confusion left, a new statement confirms that MangaRock.com will shut down as well. “It’s official: We’re taking Manga Rock down,” Not A Basement Studio writes.

Not utilizing this type of traffic from dedicated manga fans would be a shame, a point not lost on ‘Not A Basement Studio’. Behind the scenes, they’ve been working hard putting together a legal alternative while negotiating deals with several publishers.

The original plan was to remove all unauthorized content from the site at once and present the new and legal alternative to its users. This appeared to be the best option for all, and could even work well for the rightsholders, as it would be an excellent setup to convert ‘pirates’ into customers.

However, this plan was scrapped recently, and Manga Rock has decided to shut down now and launch its legal platform named “MR Comics” later.

“As we made contact with more publishers and creators, we realized that by keeping Manga Rock around while developing the new platform, we are still inadvertently hosting and supporting the practices of piracy,” Manga Rock explains.

“Until we can fully make the switch to become a 100% official comics platform and convert all the free readers into supporters of legitimate content, creators and publishers are being hurt by our practices & all the other scanlations sites,” they add.

While ‘Not A Basement Studio’ doesn’t mention anything specific, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the shutdown request is motivated, at least in part, by requests from rightsholders. After operating the site for years, a few more weeks can’t make that much of a difference.

Whatever the motivations are, one of the largest ‘pirate’ operations online today is now folding. According to a timeline published by Manga Rock, the apps were to be taken down during the first week of September. The site will follow next week and this will redirect to the new but unfinished “MR Comics” platform.

The aforementioned site has a detailed overview of how the Manga Rock team began and how it grew to the point where it is now. It is rather apologetic to the publishers, as its closing words make pretty clear.

“Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years. Once again, we’re deeply sorry for everything,” they write.

The site’s users, on the other hand, are mostly shocked and disappointed. They will have to do without their favorite scanlation site. While some will be interested in trying out the new legal platform, when it arrives, others are already scouring the web for the next best thing.

 

 VIEW: Original Article.

[steven36]

People  not from Japan have no choice  but to pirate Manga  because crunchyroll host less than 0.1% of the manga you can find through pirate websites and apps  So this site suddenly getting morals wont make a hill of beans  they were all ready selling premium services when there free apps and sites with lots of manga.  

 

 

[debebee]

Irodori Comics CEO, On Takahashi, took to Twitter to lambaste Manga Rock back on August 27th, 2019, which was a strong impetus for the site to announce its closure.

Japanese Tweet thread explained in English.

For those interested in wondering what I wrote regarding @MangaRockApp , here are some basic points I translated into English. https://t.co/CRAxENMzvV

 

Quote

 

A friend showed me a link to your discussion about my posts.Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with reddit. So if you guys want me to answer questions etc, feel free to start a comment thread on the English Twitter post. 

https://twitter.com/OnTakahashi/status/1166752843916726274

Introduction

Name: On Takahashi (@OnTakahashi)

Who am I?: CEO of Irodori (@irodoricomics) https://twitter.com/irodoricomics

What do I do: Help Japanese doujinshi artists officially localize and publish their works overseas.

Website: https://www.irodoricomics.com/

 

Main points of this JP tweet: https://twitter.com/OnTakahashi/status/1166320355025117185

Tweet 1 

・Manga Rock is an aggregator app that is made available on the App Store and Google Play Store. 

・MR posts hundreds of illegal scans of Japanese artists. 

・Not a single dollar of the advertisement revenue goes to the artists. 

Tweet 2 

・NONE of the works on MR are uploaded with the artists’ blessings. They are all illegally uploaded without permission. 

・To rub salt into the wound, they have started a “Subscription service” using your works. Charging around $5 per month. 

・Make no mistake, MR is out here to kill artists and their livelihood.

Tweet 3 

・While countless manga authors are struggling to make ends meet, MR workers have a fancy office in Vietnam, decked out with Macs. 

・Vietnam is considered a close ally of Japan, and we have fostered very strong diplomatic ties with one another. 

・They also love Japanese anime and manga content. So it’s heartbreaking to see that a Vietnamese company is bringing suffering to the very Japanese authors that the Vietnamese people claim to love. 

Tweet 4

・So what can we do about it? 

・First, authors should check if their works are on MR. 

・If it is, encourage your publisher to request a takedown. 

Tweet 5

・If you don’t have a publisher, or you’re left to do it alone, there are two things you can do. 

・First is to send an email through their website to request a takedown. 

・Another is to call them out on Twitter/social media.

・If anyone needs English support, let me know and I’ll give you a template message. 

 

Tweet 6 

・Something else we should be doing is to call out Apple for having the app on the App Store. 

・Japan has one of the highest Iphone ownership rates in the world. In Japan, the definition of a smartphone is an Iphone. 

・Japan is a very important market for Apple. 

Tweet 7

・But because of MR, a lot of Japanese artists are suffering. 

・And Apple is pretending not to notice all of this. But with the help of Taro Yamada (Japanese Otaku politician), we might be able to launch a formal complaint against Apple. 

Tweet 8 

・Because MR is on the App Store and on the Google Play Store, many foreigners believe the app to be “official”. 

・This is a misconception we have to fix. 

・If the app continues to remain on those platforms, it’s only going to make life worse for Japanese artists. 

・At this rate, Apple and Google is complicit in killing Japanese artists. 

Tweet 9

・I run a publishing company that helps Japanese artists publisher their works overseas. 

・And I try to mitigate the impact of these aggregate sites and manga scan by providing an avenue for artists to distribute officially localized works. 

・But there’s only so much I can do on my own. 

・We have to work as a community, and involve artists, fans, and those with influence like Mr. Yamada. 

Tweet 10 

・So in order to spread the word of what MR is doing, and how Apple and Google is complicit in all of this, I ask that you RT this post and try to let as many people know. 

・The things I can do are limited, but I hope to continue sharing information to all of you in order to protect the culture and the industry that I love so much. 

Tweet 11

・Added Notes: 

・There are many foreign publishers that refuse to pick up works because they are already on aggregate sites and scans are already available. 

・So no matter how much a foreigner might love a series, they may never experience the joy of holding and reading a printed copy of their favorite work. 

Tweet 12 

・There have been cases where foreign publishers have told Japanese authors “Volumes 1 ~ 3 are available as scans, and since we can’t recuperate costs, we’ll only print from Vol 4 and onwards.” 

・So the digital scans do end up affecting the potential physical releases of works. 

・Physical sales are the bread and butter for a lot of artists. So not being able to sell overseas, because of existing scans, really hurts the artists. 

 

Tweet 13 

@AppStoreJP 

@AppStore 

@tim_cook 

@GooglePlay 

@MangaRockApp is an aggregate website that posts illegally uploaded content of Japanese artists and artists all over the world. By hosting the app, you're telling creators that their creations aren't worth protecting.

 

Tweet 14 

I really hope that you have a look into what MangaRock is doing. Because you hosting them is giving them legitimacy that they do not deserve. 

Many Japanese artists make their work on an IPad. It's such a shame if you are going to leave them to die.

The next couple of tweets

・Just instructions on how to lay claims of copyright infringement / takedowns to Apple and Google. 

・The politician Taro Yamada expressed an interest in the topic. 

 

 

・MR is region locked so it doesn’t show up in Japan. This is a dirty trick as complaints in Japanese caot be lodged against an app not released in Japan. (Everything has to be done in English. - The language barrier really hinders the process). 

・Many authors are unaware and caot check if their works are on MR. 

・Over 5 million downloads on Google Play (More than the population of NZ where I’m from). 

・On Apple, it’s a very highly ranked app. 

・While Apple and Google aren’t directly responsible, their reluctance to take the app down gives it legitimacy. 

Tweets about IP rights 

・Works caot be taken down unless an IP infringement claim is made. 

・In a perfect world, your works won’t even be uploaded without your permission, but morals are a very rare thing nowadays, and decency is something we shouldn’t expect from the people working at MR.

・So the onus is on you to file an IP infringement. 

・I’ve tagged and replied to MR. Hopefully they have something to say. *(They are yet to reply. Cowards.)

 

For those who want to know HOW scans HURT artists, you can check out this past post I wrote. (It’s very long - sorry for that.) 

https://twitter.com/OnTakahashi/status/1166477715379146752

This is a post by a former scanlator who went on to work for a publisher and her thoughts on the matter. 

https://twitter.com/alchimique/status/1167101239915503616

 

For those of you looking for OFFICIAL manga reading apps, check out the links below. The money you pay for these apps GOES TO THE ARTISTS. 

I have said this many times. “Capitalism” has screwed over a lot of things. The capitalist nature of the Japanese publishing industry is partly to blame for the rise of scans and aggregator sites. But artists REQUESTING TO BE PAID FOR THEIR WORKS is not capitalism. It’s common decency. So please support artists when you can. (Buying merch actually doesn’t help artists because the money goes to the license holder, but that’s a different issue I might touch upon in the future.) 

 

 

 

 

[KXR75]

The Japanese government is extremely sensitive about Manga's copyright.

Recently one of most bigger manga forums called "OJ" been closed down permanently.

[debebee]

 

[DKT27]

On 9/6/2019 at 9:28 AM, steven36 said:

People  not from Japan have no choice  but to pirate Manga  because crunchyroll host less than 0.1% of the manga you can find through pirate websites and apps  So this site suddenly getting morals wont make a hill of beans  they were all ready selling premium services when there free apps and sites with lots of manga.  

 

A lot of the legal options are not even available here. How can a person even buy it.

 

This man has always been completely right about it.

[debebee]

https://youtu.be/R0rAtdQOmj0

[Bizarre™]

I only have one thing to say: F**k The Police

[Olexijl]

Hello everyone,

 

Nice to meet you, I was for several months, maybe even more away. I find this notice disturbing. While I do understand that manga artist want to see cash for their creations, we should separate 2 things - stuff you can purchase offline or through online shops (like manga merchandise annd books) & scans of manga offered online.

 

Many of artists & creators wanna see cash for both those things, but they don't quite understand what's the issue w/ the scans here.

 

If I am able to read my favorite manga online either as text translation OR as a scan - I'd gladly spend my money on a full set of official books afterward. If I don't have the possibility to read it online free of charge - why should I spend money on it, if I didn't read it before?

 

Now especially abt scans. They're often offered online, and the legal sites either don't have the amount, OR can't offer a reading experience the same way illegal site offers. Talking about Mangarock, I'd wish the same thing to be made on Crunchyroll and everywhere else.

 

Mangarock offered:

 

- Best possible indexing & host of all kinds of Manga

- the app for Android / iOS

- syncing (via membership automatic)

- dark mode (app)

- landscape mode (app)

- autoupdate of manga

 

Instead of battling & taking down this service it would be best to cooperate w/ it officially. You can view Mangarock as Google with hosting capability for manga scans. Why not work w/ them together?

However the majority of creators is not capable to work w/ such a service, keeping their horizont small they rather battle to take the best site of the business instead of cooperation.

 

Crunchyroll & others - feel free to make the app the way Mangarock offered, refresh your catalogue and manga scan index. If you are unable to do so - kiss my *ss & watch me to support any other site who offer good amount of scans w/ good UI design. No matter if pirated or not.

 

Now abt Mangarock specifically. It is said, that the app & site will be taken down, however hosting system itself will run, until they go legal (or at least until ppl are paying).

So my advice on you: download the app until it is unavailable, and if you can support it, plz do so, to keep the systems on the run. While the app & site will shutdown, the index itself won't!