Ikr? They just don't give a fuck about all that drama that happened. lol Now waiting for people to complain to take it down in.......3.....2......1....
So a lot of the webcomics posted here are from an online webcomic publishing site called Lehzin, which pays artists by having you buy coins to unlock digital chapters to read. Lehzin has a huge reputation for protecting their works and artists by going directly to court to settle any issues with copyright and sharing or duplication that is not from their website. Unlike scanning and then translating work that are not published in countries outside of Japan, the drama that had been happening is that people are buying chapters directly from Lehzin and taking screenshots and uploading it here, which goes against the moral code that you do not post up something that's already under previous publishing copyright. Additional drama because people say this whole website is technically illegal because none of us are buying the original works. I agree, but there is a big difference scanning and translating and typesetting and cleaning to make a comic/manga available to read in your language where it wasn't before, and then just ripping it off from an online platform directly. They are not both looked well upon, but there is one worse than the other, I think. And although many people love the updates and encourage people to buy coins and support the artist, the fact is, is that sharing it on sites like mangago, myreadingmanga, etc is taking away money from the work and the artist would have been more likely to be spent on the Lehzin website. Lehzin has a few free chapters available to get you interested and sometimes release a free one, but a lot of the chapters are still locked that are shared here. There, is the drama! and mangago website does not even pretend it doesn't share the files, because many of them (heaven and hell Roman company, killing stalking, a lady and her butler, following namsoo to the bathhouse, why did men stop wearing high heels, etc etc etc) are featured on the front page in the top featured manga section, like, mangago do you have any sense of delicacy or sneakiness at all ╮(￣▽￣)╭ Following Namsoo to the BathHouse is already taken down bc people reported it as posted here, therefore, THE DRAMA! *rant over*
You can find out on any of the threads mentioning Lehzin--unfortunately I was blocked from telling you. Either way, we will all prob still be reading these great webcomics
ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~
Oh boi, the drama of Lezhin extends beyond what MissJenny mentioned. Basically someone tweeted one of the creators asking when the next chapter of their webtoon was going to be on Manga Go (obviously illegal). The artists looked up the website and found that it was illegally hosting a lot of webtoons and manga, meaning they weren't getting views and being paid for it. The webtoon comminuted erupted, with many creators even going as far as to tweet saying they hated certain western audience members for reading illegally as it would eat into their income. Lezhin became aware of Manga Go after their creators called for the website to be shut down.
It extends beyond this though, now Lezhin is facing criticism from the general public in South Korea and the government for their working conditions, not paying artists for sales on foreign apps (chinese ver.), not adequately compensating creators when the novel service was cancelled without a notice period, and also forcing late fees on creators who can't manage the workload. One creator, or so I heard, was diagnosed with cancer and received over $10,000 in late fee fines instead of just, you know, delaying payment TO the artist until it was done. That's assuming if the artist would be paid at all because they only get paid after receiving a certain number of views, which is why concerns were raised over illegal sites because it would literally hold their income ransom. So ironic when Lezhin and lots of fans always tweet about supporting the creators by buying legally.
So yeh, basically reading it legally or illegally, there seems to be no ethical way to support creators for their work. And I am someone who has poured so much money into my Lezhin account thinking a good portion of it will go to the creators, but how wrong I am -sigh-
So basically even after charging so much money for the coins and stuff, the creators are actually subjected to such hardship? Damn those greedy bastards! and here I thought the creators must be living one hell of a lavish life with the pay per episode kinda system Lezhin has. *sigh*
I wish that were the case, maybe it is for the higher ups like the CEO and directors or those who are on permanent contracts with the company (translators, marketing, programmers, etc.) but artists/writers are considered contractors with less pay and fewer rights. I heard Lezhin takes a large cut so creators only see around 20% of the money we pay for. I'll still use coins because I guess supporting slave-like conditions isn't nearly as bad as the creator not earning any money at all and becoming homeless, but it's so sad and I'm morally at odds with what to do with my money :C None of the creators have a ko.fi or patreon that I can support either. I heard some artists work day-to-night every single day and earn as little as $1500-$2000 a month which is obviously lower than minimum wage in South Korea, and seriously low for the amount of hours they put in.
If you want to help, there's a petition which you can sign in order to put pressure on the government to investigate working conditions at the company (its in Korean). Just follow the instructions from this kind twitter user:
https://twitter.com/dodorinuna/status/939171414023618560
As
Done. If it does lead to Lezhin changing it's terms and services that'd be great heh. There's a lot of people signing up for the petition though it has already crossed 50k.
Mangago is so bold XD