Today is a bitter sweet day. My favorite website was taken down last night, thanks to publishing licenses they had to stop. It was a website that was by fans for fans. It was a testament to the better parts of human nature. Most people don't even take time to smile when walking past others one the street, but then people on onemanga go out of their way to scan, clean, translate, and typeset manga so that fans in other countries could read the most recent chapters. It is a great community that, hopefully, will continue to be a welcoming place to all manga fans.
As an avid manga reader today is a very sad day. I can understand the legalities, but the communication major in me wants to know why a different solution couldn't be worked out. I want to know why the publishers weren't even willing to discuss different alternatives. The best way for a disagreement to be settled is for everyone to sit down and hash it out. There has to be a better alternative than just shutting down the site. They obviously don't understand the first thing about the fan community.
Onemanga wasn't doing it for money, they weren't doing it for personal benefits, they were doing all that work because they wanted to share something they love. Because being a manga fan means being a part of something bigger, it means being a part of a diverse world were the only thing that matters is a mutual love of a great story.
Thank you publishers for not taking the fans of your work seriously. We really appreciate it.
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