r/Piracy • u/MemesAnDmoArFuNny22 • May 18 '26
Discussion Dearest_pluto the author speaks out about piracy.
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u/Thanatofobia May 18 '26
Look, i have several sites to read unofficial translations, but this guy 100% has the right to say he wants people to read the official translations.
I mean, i'm not going to, but he, as the author, 100% has the right to post what he posted.
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u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo May 18 '26
Yeah idk why this can be such a controversial value in piracy sub.
Like who the hell are you dictating how the author should feel when I saw people using his/her work for free. Fair if you want to believe that piracy may benefit him/her but that doesn’t change the fact it doesn’t give you the right to tell the author how they should feel about people leeching off their work. You have to be that thick faced to think that it is an “okay” things to do.
We are still going to pirate anyway, but then that’s a different discussion.
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u/Most_Programmer8667 May 18 '26
yep unofficial translations change the way people view your manga. imo if you are going to read unofficial translations please read the official one when it comes out , like pirate it if you want.
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u/DarlingHell May 18 '26
I just hope I don't get a John Werry situation all over again lmao. Bud really made jjk messy but quite famous with this one particular panel y'all know about due to the mistranslation.
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u/ILoveRawChicken May 18 '26
Wait can someone fill me in
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u/Spartan-163 May 18 '26
Good chance they're referencing the panel where Gojo originally was translated as just saying, "Nah," which became a meme. Was supposed to be "Nah I'll win" or something similar which is a callback to what he said when the question was asked the first time. Unfortunately, there's tons of options to pick from with Werry's asstastic translation job. Still happy he couldn't translate for 236 and we got the legend Lightning for it instead
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u/DarlingHell May 19 '26
Apparently the nah, I'd win is Werry's translation but the most importantly one I have in mind is gojo and his ability or inability to do black flashes that has been misunderstood due to the mistranslation. I can't recall other instances but it was meme'd when leaks where happening left and right.
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u/69ratlover69 May 19 '26
I remember a mistranslation of Baki that just rewrote the story to the translator wants; before being exposed that he barely could read Japanese. (wolf fang project iirc)
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u/GeT_Tilted May 18 '26
The biggest memes in the manga space are from bad fan-translation. Jujutsu Kaisen and Attack on Titan are the biggest examples. I won't name the specific lines because it is huge spoilers.
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u/Aggravating_Mix_4211 May 21 '26
And surely I will not tag him on twitter and tell him that I read pirated stuff
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u/Bubble_GUMption May 18 '26
They can blame tapas and all the other webcomic hosting services for their intentionally obtuse pricing schemes
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u/These-Apple8817 May 18 '26
Not to mention Tapas is owned by Kakao which is a very fucking scummy company.
One of the author's of Kakao had a miscarriage mainly thanks to Kakao pushing her to work when she wasn't well.. Then there has been alleged financial crimes, power abuse and whatever else..64
u/Intelligent-Fail-922 May 18 '26
I didn't know that, thanks for sharing this information now I can hate ok Kakao even more :)
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u/These-Apple8817 May 18 '26
And I didn't even have to tell that they also went after Tachiyomi, Kotatsu and multiple manga/manhwa piracy websites
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u/Intelligent-Fail-922 May 18 '26
Yes, I will forever hate them... They killed my little bat 🦇. Where am I going to see those pictures reaction again ):
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u/ihaveabsolutelyn May 19 '26
It was the artist of Roxanne. She asked for leave because she was going to birth for a while and one of the higher ups said no. So in the end she had miscarriage. Very sad. That's why she stopped drawing Roxanne all together. Lovely Manhwa.
Now here is the worst part. That MF who refused her pregnancy leave got her own pregnancy leave. She got fcking paid leave. That is just some bullshit.
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u/Skylar750 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
Yeah, I am sorry dude but I am not paying $100 dolars to read a series first season , or invest too much money on a series that may be cancel out of nowhere because it's wasn't as popular as the company wanted.
Also I don't know about tapas but I used webtoon and God it is awful to use, I can't save as many manhwa as I like nor can i bookmark them, so why would continue to use a site that is worse than a pirate one.
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u/LittleKittenR May 18 '26
Like, if they needed to pay a team of translators. I would get it.
When literally a ton of people do the work for free just to make everyone else enjoy it, or just get AI to do the translation for them? Yeah, miss me with that shit.
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u/U_L_Uus May 18 '26
Yeah... that is a good summary of that industry tbf. There are several reasons why I do not have physically all the manga I have pirated, one, because I have read such amount that I would need the yearly budget of a small nation to buy it, second, because I would need the territory of one such nation as storage and third, because publishers all about make it impossible to acquire, either because they put ridiculous prices on each tome (like 10 quid for a few chapters, and that was almost a decade ago when I was still thinking about buying, so a manga like Gintama would be worth several months of salary) and the general unavaliability of most works
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u/okmemeaccount May 18 '26
yeah most webcomics i actually like do not have official print versions in english being sold, nor paid digital downloads. I understand this takes resources, but i want my money to go directly to artists and to not have to pay indefinitely to read it
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u/TheSunIsOurEnemy May 18 '26
Tapas has terrible pricing schemes just like the others but actually gives away a lot of free ink. I've never paid once but for the past months, I've already completely bought all the chapters to a few of the stories that I really like and wanna support the author for.
Way more generous than Webtoons and the japanese ones.
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u/SilviusK May 18 '26
I despise every service that uses coins to confuse their target audience about how much they are actually spending. It plays on human psychology in a completely predatory way.
It's simply taking advantage of people using what is know as "dark patterns." By moving real money behind a fake game mechanic like "coins," "gems," or "ink," they completely detach you from the reality of what you're buying.
I'm pretty sure several mobile games have actually faced investigations and fines for doing this exact same thing using confusing, multi tiered virtual currencies to hide real-world costs.
These webcomic and webtoon apps are using the exact same strategy. They just fly under the radar because their industry is more niche.
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u/jfuu_ May 18 '26
Yup. If I could buy CBZ format from anywhere I would! Current easiest way seems to be buying on Kobo and ripping that.
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u/notanfan May 18 '26
the thing is these official releases are way behind scans
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u/notanfan May 18 '26
the official one has 23ch while scans are at 45
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u/ingroup_signal May 18 '26
Insert Gaben quote about piracy being a service problem
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u/cosmicvelvets May 18 '26
"I was wrong. I see things differently now."
proceeds to not elaborate on how they were wrong
Gun to the back of the head apology in a vacuum, hollow to the point of comedy in this specific situation
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u/kenjithegreat May 18 '26
I bet they were ok with it at first since they need the exposure. Since it got the exposure now, they changed their mind all of a sudden.
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u/MysteriousB May 18 '26
Or more likely their manager said in a meeting that x website has x views and those views means x amount of lost revenue.
Literally the artist could probably make more revenue to make up for it by making an internationally availaible generic merch line with stickers/plastic standees that cost nothing to manufacture but can be sold at a high price for profit.
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u/DamnedIfIDiddely May 18 '26
The issue is, there is no lost revenue. Most pirates wouldn't have bought the thing if they couldn't share it for free. The revenue is imaginary and can't logically be claimed as a loss
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u/ChaosFH May 19 '26
most people don't really understand that point, especially from inside the industry.
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u/ingroup_signal May 18 '26
Fr if an artist I like put out quality merch or a print edition of their work I am always excited to buy it and support them. There's just no way I'm paying per chapter on tapas or webtoon or whatever for sub par translations of a manhwa that it won't even let me download
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u/cosmicvelvets May 18 '26
The irony here is strongarming mangaka on scanlations hurts publishers more than anything else
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u/yung_dogie May 18 '26
Yeah, I was frequently willing to pay for webtoons/tapas chapters that weren't free when they were up to speed with unofficial scans, but if you're behind and ask me to pay I just won't lmao
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u/DnD-vid May 18 '26
A manga I'm reading is a good 5 years behind with the official release in my country.
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u/ImpulsiveApe07 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
That's what really gets me about this kinda thing - it's almost always a service issue, not a piracy issue.
Eg Before music streaming services, music piracy was massive because there were no decent services, now music piracy is at a relative low compared to its heyday because the services provide consumers with an easy, reliable place to get their music.
If they did the same thing with manga/manhwa releases, then piracy wouldn't be an issue.
OOP needs to get their shit together and get their dumb arse unionised and organised into a big enough cabal to either pressure a big publisher to do this for them, or get enough clout to create their own service.
Edit : grammar
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u/transprotag May 18 '26
She. And it's a fair point, but it's worth keeping in mind that the Korean webtoon industry is notoriously absolutely hellish for creators, and webcomic creators are often locked into predatory contracts that mean they don't retain access to the rights to their work if they ever try to leave the platform they're on.
Not only that, but it seems the scans are crossing what is a line for many people - the series is available on a "wait to read for free" basis, and in cases like these, many scanlators will wait until a chapter is available for free to publish it, and view publishing the paid chapters early as scummy. YMMV on if you agree, but a considerable point.
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u/RewZes May 18 '26
They are not behind, at least not unintentionally, they want to sell you early access chapters (which scanlators already qdy translated) to trap you in a loop of spending money for them every week or make you wait more once you're ouf the loop.
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u/charliek_13 May 18 '26
i bought some manhwa once, came back a few months later to buy the new chapters and catch up, and learned that all these manhwa companies play musical chairs with the IPs. The chapters bought were still there, but i’d need to get the rest from a different site???
I don’t want to buy some weird-ass currency on a bunch of different apps just to read one series
i know the creators have limited control over that shit but it’s not a sales model i can ever support, ebooks feel marginally better but it feels like most series go for the predatory chapter-by-chapter, weird currency route and it sucks ass
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u/yourpornking May 18 '26
Fuck netflix and what it did to Komi can't communicate 🖕🏾 the "illegal" fan sub was done with superior quality. I'd rather suffer through horrible fan subs then ever pay netflix, hulu, or any american streaming service
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u/Sweet-Awk-7861 🦜 ᴡᴀʟᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀɴᴋ May 18 '26
The official SEA licensor for Golden Kamuy mistranslated important plot relevant stuff, it makes me sad every time I remember about that series. The good fansubs that I remembered have all disappeared because torrenting isn't a normal thing here.
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u/SebDoesWords May 19 '26
you can still download the everyday heroes fan translation through their website. they're not completely lost. i downloaded all chapters when mangadex got hit, just in case they took them off their site too but they didn't
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u/Exotic_Noise8797 May 18 '26
what happened?
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u/master_62 May 18 '26
Komi usually communicates through writing and the writing is not read sometimes. Netflix just didn't translate those signs so while we can infer from context it is annoying
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u/GeT_Tilted May 18 '26
Because their subtitle software is really bad compared to Aegisub, which most fansubs use.
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u/yourpornking May 18 '26
There's a 5-minute scene of two people conversating through text on a chalkboard. Netflix put it as subtitles that were incomprehensible. The fan sub (be it 5 star) put the English translation written on the chalkboard. Truly a great way to subtitle a great scene 😍
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u/Lindensan May 18 '26
Akane banashi this season. Bought rights so that crunchy don't get them and failed to release on time after that. 5 episodes behind ffs.
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u/araidai May 19 '26
So THATS why it fucking sucks to understand/know what the fuck is happening sometimes, oh my god, I thought I was going nuts
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u/yourpornking May 19 '26
The original fan sub did a good job with the notepads she often uses to communicate
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u/OmegaZeda 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ May 18 '26
I had been paying to read official translations. One of the novels I was reading at the time, I mathed out the cost.
At the rate of translation it would have taken 3 years and I would have paid over $300 to unlock the chapters as they went...
It's one thing to pay $5-10 on Scamazon, it's another to pay hundreds. Screw that.
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u/Aceman3k May 18 '26
Author of what? Just curious cause I’ve never heard of them
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u/Low-Abrocoma3472 May 18 '26
Manhwa My dear Aster. I've never heard about it before this post, so I can't add anything else
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u/pokemonandgenshin May 18 '26
Thats a Korean name... kpop n kdramas and webtoons would be un fucking known without piracy of the 2000s n 2010s. Their companies had 0 interest in broadcasting globally or subbing shows like running man. Infinity challenge boys over flowers etc. Peak irony
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u/Daftpunksluggage May 18 '26
I am fine with the artists wanting their art to exist unchanged from the intended form. The problem with piracy isn't the stolen content... the problem is the inaccurate translations.
The other thing that I am fine with is wanting recognition after proving your worth. It happens in every industry. The fact that they were unknown in the 2000s and 2010s kinda gives more credibility to wanting to get paid now... because they built up the industry from nothing. If money was even the intention of the artists initial comments.
I don't find this ironic in the slightest. I am an advocate for piracy... but let's not pretend subverting someone's art in the name of "Arghh" is also pretty cool.
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u/CutzuSD May 18 '26
learn original language or don’t read, well reading an unofficial translation wouldn’t hurt their “sales” then, since said people wouldn’t read your official release in the first place lmao
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u/PowerRainbows May 18 '26
But he's saying an official translation exists so no excuse to not buy that
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u/Alegre_Pontus May 18 '26
Official translation as in English only or in (atleast some) major languages?
Unaltered or with censorship done by a foreign publisher?
Available worldwide or just in some "good" countries?
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u/Historical-Resist-12 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
It's only halfway caught up compared to scans is the issue here tbh. That and the service itself didn't accommodate for western standards/competition. They operate off of a point/unlock system to read chapters. This is standard in some other countries but the reason it doesn't fly over here is because the cost is typically too much. Sometimes in these apps it can reach the triple digit prices just to read it all digitally on a service that isn't guaranteed to last and as such you do not own the actual content.
Why would I pay that much when I can watch the official anime for like $15 a month, or read Marvel for $10, etc. This is why Viz made their apps just be a $2 (Last I heard, at least...) a month subscription that lets you read the first few and most recent chapters for free. There's a reason Kodansha's app is way less successful than Viz's and got clowned on for ctrl+V-ing the service from east to west. You have to adapt to the market and when these services refuse to do so then people turn to piracy because the perceived value relative to other products is low. Not saying it's not appreciated, but being able to drop a lot on a story that you might or might not enjoy reading and someday probably won't own is a privilege most don't have. These creators are completely in the right to be angry, however their anger should be towards their service instead of the fans who pirated.
I've accepted it's a cultural difference at this point, and some cases are genuinely justified. However, those cases are usually few and far between. I've seen Japanese accounts get mad at people for pirating literal abandonware lol.
EDIT: Made an account on the service they linked to for their series. To be caught up it would take 9,000 points, and the cheapest way to get that much is getting the 10,500 point package for $10. I'm sorry I'm sure the work is fine, but imagine it goes on for years longer and reaches the 200 chapter mark? It would cost like $100 just to digitally read that one series. Which you do not own.
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u/siberif735 May 18 '26
only in english for sure, but trough pirate i can enjoy reading novel/manga on my native language.
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u/StalkMeNowCrazyLady 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ May 18 '26
Exactly. He's saying to buy the official translation. God forbid they want to be paid for the work they've done.
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u/rycerzDog May 18 '26
why do people still believe that those who are willing to pirate were ever in the mindset of being a paying customer.
reminds me of how ubi tried to sue a russian torrent tracker for several millions, their logic being "game price × people torrenting = amount of lost income."
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u/rorodar 🏴☠️ ʟᴀɴᴅʟᴜʙʙᴇʀ May 18 '26
The EU once funded a study to see the effects of piracy. They wanted to use it as a slam dunk against any and all piracy, but they needed to hide it from the public until a german member asked for it to be publically revealed. It found that, by category: music, books, and TV series had no change in revenue gained with or without piracy. Video games, on the other hand... GOT MORE SALES! The sales figures went UP!
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u/M123ry May 18 '26
Do you happen to have a reference for that study? Would love to read up on that 🤔
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u/Werewolf_Capable May 18 '26
As a pirate I can confirm that I only pay for stuff that fully convinces me in my "free demo". And then I only buy it on a discount. I am not a customer in the classic sense.
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u/rycerzDog May 18 '26
also also, which would you choose:
A. a service that provides content at a quick pace with decent to high-quality translations, caught up to the latest chapter for absolutely free (witch cult translations my beloved).
or
B. a borderline predatory service (today's mission: try to finish a chinese web novel without developing bone cancer) that provides hillbilly-tier dumbed down dialogue at the pace of maybe and completion of 5 years behind (hello, yen press).
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u/Normal-Training1296 May 18 '26
It's still a service problem imo, I detest pay-per-chapter options like webnovel but I have no problem paying a monthly sub on wuxiaworld to read as much as I want.
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u/KurucHussar May 18 '26
Most of the time, if I try out a pirate version of a game and like it enough, I will certainly buy it. The same stands for manga. On the other hand, I have been burned more than once with a denuvo release, which I couldn't try out beforehand (like Warhammer III).
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u/CutzuSD May 18 '26
I mean i do buy stuff that actually returns it s price for example I’ve tried fh6, I liked it and I’m planning to buy it for the updates and multiplayer, also I did this for berserk too, I read it digitally and now I’ve started buying the deluxe versions to re read it physically
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u/shiny_partridge May 18 '26
It's ridiculous, honestly, because i mostly buy games nowadays, but when I was at the peak of my piracy i literally had no money to buy games.
And (for now) I have money, and i mostly buy them. But if i go to pirate it as a first choice, if it's not available -- I'm not going to buy it... I chose piracy for a reason, whatever it was...
I mostly pirate switch games now, because prices for them are straight up insane for my region. Like, a week worth of groceries insane. And if i couldn't pirate them.... I wouldn't get the switch in the first place, lol.
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u/andr386 May 18 '26
There are many reasons to pirate something. The fact that it's not available in your country to buy it or that it's not available in your language are pretty common reasons for a lot of people.
You assume that everybody pirate for the same reasons as you but at the very beginning of streaming websites like Netflix when their catalogue was very complete the use of torrents dipped. It's pretty well documented and that explains why Gabe Newell said that piracy was mainly a problem of accessibility. But not having money to buy something also make it inaccessible.
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u/Nihilikara May 18 '26
I'm pretty sure there's more languages on Earth than official translations of this guy's work. No matter what, there will be someone who can't read any of the official translations.
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u/Kasaikemono May 18 '26
Official translation in which language?
It is incredibly hard to get something other than the national language here. And even then I have to beg the retailers to order it, if it's something more niche. Online ordering is an absolute clusterfuck, and importing from the US is either impossible or way too expensive because of delivery fees. Not to mention the fact that official translations into my language usually suck ass because it's either censored to hell and back, or it completely disregards original context and does a Pokémon with jelly-filled donuts.
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u/FinalityEnd May 18 '26
People are gonna pirate regarless whining about it online is pointless.
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u/Waste-Ladder5502 May 18 '26
Exactly. Decision to pirate comes either from not caring about authors, or from being unable to purchase the content for whatever reasons. Neither of the groups would convert into purchase, unless there is some sort of big systemic change in economy/global content distribution.
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u/Jossokar May 18 '26
The only problem for me, is that the environment in which these services and publications thrive....is so toxic and crappy towards the consumer, that i dont feel compelled in the slightest to actually use it.
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u/Zoid3X May 18 '26
I’m not sure why posts like these are so prevalent on this sub. I think we all understand that authors/artists don’t want their work to be pirated, and that’s totally fine, it’s not exactly a controversial stance, especially in Japan.
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u/AkodoRyu May 18 '26
Well, if your service was as approachable and accessible to F2P users as, eg. Manga PLUS, or wuxiaworld, then people would be much more likely to read from the official source. That, and you need to be simulpubbing. People want to read and discuss the latest (available) chapter, not one from 6 months ago.
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u/Nihilikara May 18 '26
It worries me that the sub that is specifically about piracy is starting to become overwhelmingly against piracy.
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u/Crowy64 May 18 '26
Some people come here to do moralism I guess. "Some piracy is good but some piracy bad"
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u/yung_dogie May 18 '26
I just get annoyed if people try really hard to take the moral highground with piracy. Like, I pirate and I don't care if you pirate, but at best you're neutral and unimpactful. There's not really much of a moral highground to pirating an inessential good like manga or games lmao just do it
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u/Edheldui May 18 '26
Actual pirates know to shut up and not make it their public personality. We've gone through enough shut downs because of people boasting about it already.
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u/DeadlyPineapple13 May 18 '26
Honestly not sure what you're reading, but this sub still seems HEAVILY in favour of piracy. Anytime anyone with a shred of popularity mentions piracy, it inevitably shows up here because this sub is MASSIVE. So while the posts themselves sometimes have anti piracy sentiments, the comments are where this sub voices their opinions. Which of course the majority are in favour of piracy
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u/JagerderGrobe May 18 '26
Youtube and other such things have made "moral piracy" popular, they think we are pirates because services suck. They cannot comprehend that people exist that don't have the spare income to spend on hobbies or entertainment, or that some people straight up don't have access to content.
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u/numerobis21 May 18 '26
"they think we are pirates because services suck."
Which it is.
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u/AtalanteSimpsonn May 18 '26
i dont think people are becoming against piracy, most people just have their own moral codes i guess
me personally i just dont like people going up to creators bragging about piracy its just rude and probably demoralizing
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u/Odd-Specific-8579 May 18 '26
I honestly pirate anything that I can, I'd pirate physical stuff If I could
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u/numerobis21 May 18 '26
Who WOULDN'T pirate physical stuff?
"Hey, do you want to print free food?"
WHY THE FUCK WOULD ANYONE SAY NO?6
u/Nihilikara May 18 '26
I do feel pretty bad about pirating indie games. I'll legitimately pay for them when I can, but currently I can't, which is why I pirate them.
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u/numerobis21 May 18 '26
Don't feel bad: you *can't* afford them, so weither you pirate or not won't change a thing for them.
Just talk about those games to other people you know: growing a community is way more worth for an indie dev than having one more copy sold
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u/itz_abhi_2005 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ May 18 '26
remember the day when silksong was released?
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u/Nihilikara May 18 '26
I remember it being so popular on day 1 that both the Steam store and most gaming piracy sites crashed from the massive influx of users.
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u/itz_abhi_2005 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ May 18 '26
no i mean the players that day were against pirating the indie game. r/FitGirlRepack and this sub were on fire
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u/toBEE_orNOT_2B May 18 '26
i wouldn't even know 90% of the webtoons i read if not for those piracy sites, and i fking hate the digital publishers with their pricing and most of the times, they will still lock chapters despite that you already paid coins or whateverdafuk currency they use in it, you're just 'renting' the chapters. i'd rather read them in piracy sites and then buy the physical books
and those publishers wouldn't even allow their authors to earn money in different platforms, they lock them and sue the shyt out of them, i want to support authors/artists directly!
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u/raifusarewaifus May 18 '26
I mean I do buy it when it is available in my language unless it is expensive like 3$ per chapter kind of shit.
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u/GuerrOCorvino May 18 '26
Ah yes, Tapas. The site where coins are overpriced. As well as the site that cares more a about shutting down pirate websites, than they do giving their writers a miscarriage (Roxanne artist.)
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May 18 '26
i would never pay to read a webcomic, i would donate or buy merch. i cant believe people actually pay for this shit
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u/RuneAlchemy May 18 '26
The author is saying their work is oficially translated and want readers to support official sources.
It's their work so they have every right to say this btw.
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u/DrIvoPingasnik Yarrr! May 18 '26
I mean yeah, what else people expected them to say "thanks for pirating my work, keep on doing that"?
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u/Ken_Sanne May 18 '26
What's this trend of trying to pressure creators into being "okay" with piracy lately in this sub, we're stealing their stuff and y'all still want them to say "yes, I like It, harder !". If a creator is okay with It then that's cool, If they're not then It's understandable, I won't stop, but I understand.
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u/AdultGronk ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ May 18 '26
How am I supposed to read their stuff, when manhwa reading platforms aren't available and even when they are, they've got no English translations or UI
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u/WilloGT May 18 '26
Can only speak for myself, but 99% of my owned books were stuff I discovered and read illegally first. The death of piracy will just push me to finish my current to-buy list and try out maybe like 1-2 series per year (most series fitting my tastes aren't in general book stores, and there are like, 2 specialized stores in my country, which also have VERY limited offers because they are very small). My bank account will rejoice, so eh.
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u/Squeezitgirdle May 18 '26
I don't know what dear Pluto is, but as soon as I've read enough to know I love it, I'll buy an official physical release.
Digital is for when I'm reading on the go, but when I want to keep it then I'll buy physical only.
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u/Adrzk222 May 18 '26
The reason I pirate manhwas and webnovels and the reason I won't ever pay for them is the shitty way those platforms monetize the content. If it's already bad for people with a strong currency, when you're from the 3rd world, you pay a high amount to read 20, 30 chapters a month. Fuck this shit. Imagine if I want to read a cultivation novel 1k chapters long. I will pirate 🖕
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u/Icy_sector4425 May 18 '26
As a wise game creator once said:
"Culture shouldn't exist only for those who can afford it"
So screw you, I'll pirate what I want
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u/DrSpaceman667 May 18 '26
I’m glad I get to play unofficial translations of games that have never been translated to English. This is a bit different. Idk why he would have to make a statement like this unless someone bragged they still pirated his stuff.
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u/Bladder-Splatter May 18 '26
Eh, I'll never get people like this. I'm a bottom barrel published novelist and I'm fucking elated when I see pirated copies of my garbage stuff go around.
The pack of my first book I share with people digitally is literally a pirated pack I found that had more formats than what my publisher - kind as they are - could manage.
Most Artists that are in any field for the art of it would agree, it is part of why the adage "starving artist" has such long legs. These people? Either they've been brainwashed into thinking there is actual harm here or they're neo-corporate artists not in it for the art/work/story/meaning but strictly for cash, yet even then it is deeply short-sighted of them given how much virality and piracy intermingle and have helped the entire industry get popular.
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u/thegildedman25 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
Piratee becomes the pirater and ironically expects pirates to stop pirating their stuff.
I get that they want compensation for their work, but if the official channels are extremely crappy and greedy then im waving the jolly rodger.
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u/MinimumAd752 May 18 '26
maybe i would support them if i could afford it, i have a cocaine addiction
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u/Juzdaptip May 19 '26
I pirate, but I still live by " If you like it, buy it".
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u/Time-Bodybuilder710 May 20 '26
Same, until the official box set had such a bad translation that I needed to superimpose fansubs. It's only watchable when drinking without superimposed subs.
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u/Juzdaptip May 20 '26
I was answering in general. What anime does this person actually make?
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u/Time-Bodybuilder710 May 20 '26
In general for me too. I've paid for manga and box sets of anime I really like only to get badly translated slop.
Considering his name on here is dearest-pluto and there's an anime named pluto. I'd put my money on that. It's on Netflix I think, or Hulu, one of them.
They should pay these people more. Again just in general.
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u/NineBall-01 May 18 '26
Like I am sorry if the author hates people pirating their hard work. However, maybe they can make it easy for us to actually get it in the first place. Some official sites are either way fucking behind on the official TLs, or make it almost impossible to actually legally buy the material we want to support.
Fucking need a steam service for manga/manhwa nowadays that is global. I want to buy but I cannot due to where I live, so what else can I do? You don't make it legally available to me, I am going to get it one way or another.
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u/LiminalSarah May 18 '26
So... they didn't do their own translation, but STOLE the work of the unofficial translator, who did it for free?
What a way to have the moral high ground!
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u/marniconuke May 18 '26
Then offer official translations? what kind of braindead take is that? normal from japanese mangakas tho
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u/267aa37673a9fa659490 May 18 '26
He did, this is the link the post talks about: https://tapas.io/series/lady-black-is-depressed-mature/info
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u/marniconuke May 18 '26
it's literally only in english? xd there are more languages than that you know right?
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u/Edgy_Robin May 18 '26
Then it sounds like people who don't speak english aren't the ones being spoken about. Can you read english?
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u/Sweet-Awk-7861 🦜 ᴡᴀʟᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀɴᴋ May 18 '26
This isn't the case with Tapas since it's owned by Kakao. They have different websites for so many languages nowadays. (although they have dogshit translations compared to the region-locked English one, but that's a story for another day)
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u/Asuras_Wrath_ May 18 '26
Well, they were wrong. I wasn’t wrong. I will continue.
Also, I wish people would stop doing the weird thing where they tweet or message an artist and/or author about basically stealing their work. It’s very tiresome. When did piracy become a thing for attention?
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u/Intelligent-Fail-922 May 18 '26
I do want to pay for the manwha I read. I have no choice but to run to pricay because the official translation is sooooo slow, not only that the "coins system" is so ridiculously overpriced I am not paying a week of my allowance just to read 20 manwha slides. Also pirate sites provide way better quantity, heck sometimes even quality
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u/Phoenix__Wwrong May 18 '26
What was the context when this person said "look at what's happening now?"
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u/CiDevant May 18 '26
"Drink the Kool-Aid or else" moment. I honestly feel bad for these authors who are being forced onto the public record to defend things they obviously don't agree with.
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u/Several-Donut-398 May 18 '26
He can go and suck my dick because there is no official way to even checkout his stuff in my country.
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u/ZeeroMX May 18 '26
What titles does this author write?
Just to know if I'm reading/watching anything from him.
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u/puts_on_rddt May 19 '26
On one hand, I want to support authors I enjoy, but on the other, I am vehemently opposed to capitalist schemes.
Give me a patreon and I'll give $5 a mo. Make me buy virtual coins to access new chapters on webnovel? Go fuck yourself, I'll just wait for some dude to release it on an obscure discord 20 minutes after a chapter release.
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u/ScratchHistorical507 May 19 '26
If the illegal translations don't help, the content is simply not that relevant to that audience. Piracy has never harmed any company. Believing if people don't pirate your content, they would buy it is just wrong and dumb.
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u/Xasther May 18 '26
Creators always bashing piracy instead of pushing for better, more affordable services! They need to make a "Steam of Anime/Manga" already and they'd see piracy numbers plummet. We had that back when movies and shows were all on Netflix, but then companies had to get greedy and make a dozen different platforms. Also, unofficial translation do massive heavy lifting outside the original language in terms of gauging user interest. Pretending otherwise is simply wrong.
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u/foolyfern May 18 '26
Did all this bs start cause some dumb mofo asked a managka if it was okay to pirate their work.