Scanlation

Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done without express permission from the copyright holder. The word "scanlation" is a portmanteau of the words scan and translation. The term is mainly used for Japanese manga, although it also exists for other languages, such as Korean manhwa and Chinese manhua. Scanlations may be viewed at websites or as sets of image files downloaded via the Internet.

Process
Scanlation is usually performed by a group of incels collaborating over the internet. Many scanlators actively communicate with each other, even with those of other groups, some even belonging to several groups at once; others choose to avoid communication completely. One former scanlator, by the pseudonym Stephen, noted that scanlators often fall into three types of cliques: those who belong to prestigious 'old guard' groups that have been active for several years, to newer groups that established themselves through hard work, or to fringe groups that attempt to undercut other groups attempting to best them via larger download count. Much stigma exists between the old and new. Stephen stated that Old Guard consider newer groups as "trend- or fame-whores" and thus choose to work on series that have more cultural or artistic significance whereas newer groups consider the Old Guard bitter losers who are no longer popular and tend to work on the more popular titles. Many groups have their own webpage as well as an IRC channel or a Discord server. These platforms are an important part of the community aspect, as they allow for real-time interaction between the group staff and the target audience as well as allowing the groups to recruit new staff.

Much like their earlier predecessors, the anime fansub community, scanlators tend to organize into groups and divide the labor amongst themselves. The first step in scanlation is to obtain the "raws" or the original content in print form, then to scan and send the images to the translator and the cleaner. The translator reads original text from the raws and translates into the desired language of release, then sends the translated text to a proof-reader to check for accuracy. The cleaner removes the original text, corrects blemishes that arose from scanning, adjusts brightness and contrast levels so that the finished product looks like officially published volumes, etc.The process of cleaning may also include the removal of text directly over artwork and results in blank spots interrupting the artwork. Depending on the scanlation group, these spots may be left as is or the artwork will be redrawn (usually performed by the cleaner as well). The typesetter then takes the translated text and places it into the 'cleaned' raw, making the translated texts fit in the dialogue boxes and selecting appropriate fonts for effect such as emphasis. Finally the translated, typeset manga is sent to the scanlation group's quality controller who copyedits the final product before releasing it to the websites that it will be viewed or downloaded from.

Scanlators often use digital photo and illustration editing software such as GIMP (or less commonly, Clip Studio Paint) to clean, redraw, and typeset the scanlations.

Scanlation groups primarily make their releases available through their own sites or shared sites like Mangadex. The vast amount of manga released and multitude of scanlation groups – each with their own individual sites and methods of distribution, sometimes even competing scanlations of the same manga – gave rise to sites such as MangaUpdates that specialize in tracking and linking these releases. Jake T. Forbes, a manga editor and columnist, stated at a Comic-Con 2010 panel that scanlation aggregator sites that offer many different titles all in one place have recently become part of the distribution process.

Legal Considerations
Scanlations are often viewed by fans as the only way to read comics that have not been licensed for release in their area. However, according to international copyright law, such as the Berne Convention, scanlations are illegal. Of course, nobody gives a toss as long as they can get away with it.

According to a 2009 study conducted by Lee Hye-Kyung of the University of London, Japanese publishers felt that scanlation was "an overseas phenomenon", and no "coordinated action" had taken place against scanlation. Lee stated that a possible explanation for some of the lack of legal action is that scanlation groups always make sure to buy an original copy of the work and generally stop scanlating should the work become licensed.

Historically, copyright holders have not requested scanlators to stop distribution before a work is licensed in the translated language. Thus, scanlators usually feel it is relatively 'safe' to scanlate series which have not been commercially released in their country. Steve Kleckner, a former VP of sales for Tokyopop, stated that "Frankly, I find it kind of flattering, not threatening... To be honest, I believe that if the music industry had used downloading and file sharing properly, it would have increased their business, not eaten into it." However, this view is not necessarily shared among the industry, as some Japanese publishers have threatened scanlation groups with legal action. Since the 1990s, publishers have sent cease and desist letters to various scanlation groups and websites.

Due to manga's popularity steadily increasing in the overseas market, copyright holders felt that scanlators were intruding on their sales and in 2010, a group of 36 Japanese publishers and a number of US publishers banded together to form the Manga Multi-national Anti-Piracy Coalition to "combat" illegal scanlations, especially mentioning scanlation aggregator websites. They have threatened to take legal action against at least thirty, unnamed websites. The coalition has achieved some degree of success. The scanlation aggregator site OneManga, ranked 935 in the entire internet in May 2010 according to a Google listing and top 300 in the United States, announced its closure in July 2010 due to their respect towards the displeasure expressed by the publishers, while OneManga officially shut down its online reader in August, 2010.

Some scanlations leak before the manga is even published in the Japanese weekly magazines. As of April 2014, the Japanese government was looking into amending copyright law to more effectively target translated scans. A 2014 estimate was that lost revenue from scanlations amounted to "560 billion yen per year in only four major cities in China."

In 2020, a Haesin Young, a manhwa artist, threatened legal action against a piracy website asking users to stop illegally uploading the manhwa. In 2021, Lezhin said that they are working with law firms to bring legal charges against manga piracy sites, after accusations from several manhwa authors, including manhwa artist YD, that scanlation causes authors to lose money and motivation. Moreover, the Korean government and Interpol initiated a three-year-long cooperative investigation in April, aiming to arrest individuals engaging in illegal distribution of pirated and illegally translated comics, cartoons and novels.

External Link

 * Scanlation on Wikipedia.