News Kuma Licensing

Every part. He is just looking for it free, and stretching goal posts and grasping at straws to "justify" that want.

There is a huge difference between the author posting on their account, and someone else posting translated chapters, especially since most translators only keep a series it they are getting patreon or add money to cover their time which has huge legal ramifications (the license holder can sue you and take all you earned on the copyright they own).

 

If you don't have written permission from the copyright holder, they can sue you even if you don't try to monetize. Of course, it's expensive and time consuming to sue somebody, so most will either ignore it or just sent a takedown notice if there is no license in that language. It's not getting money that makes it piracy. It's using the work without permission. In that sense the majority of web novel translations and nearly all light novel translations linked to on this site are probably pirated.

Telling people to stop asking for the series to be picked up is already pointless. Someone already has. It's not showing up since, for some reason, NU seems to think the chapter is adwalled (it's not).

 

honestly I think the only reason why this community still exists and hasn’t been cracked down upon is because TLers tend to not TL series that have been picked up. Plus it gives them an estimate of how many people might buy a prospective series. If I was with Yen Press or Seven Seas I would look at the data of the TLers sites and how many people have favorited the series to see if a series would be a good one to pick up. I’m surprised no company has picked up Death Mage considering how popular it is.

unfortunately if people continue to TL series that were officially picked up I wouldn’t be surprised if those companies start cracking down on all the TLers and charge them all with crimes.

 

I fully understand it. I just don't care.
It's not for you or Xant & Minions to decide what I get to say and what other potential translators get to do, so I'm not going to keep nagging until someone with some balls gets on it.

Let's be clear about something:
Who owned the copyright before? -- The author. Who owns the copyright now? -- The author.
Did the author grant them a license before? -- No. Did the author grant them a license now? -- No.
What has changed? -- Nothing.
If they're going to pretend they dropped this out of respect or support for the author, they're hypocrites. They were perfectly fine to translate and publish (a translated version of) his work without a license before, so why not now? The only person they're respecting, if any, is the person that is now being paid to translate it. It seems more like a laziness plot of "someone else is doing this now, so why should we."

What about licensing? -- Well, a license is basically the author granting someone permission to use his copyrighted work in a specified manner in exchange for a specified compensation. One could say the author grants Syosetu and any other sites he publishes on a license to the WN version as part of their TOS. (otherwise he could sue them and they'd refuse to host his work)
Then the author creates an alternate version to sell as an LN and licenses that to traditional publishers.
We end up with 2 different versions that are edited differently and differ in their visual presentation, but both belonging to the same author and distributed under different license agreements.
Just because another licensee was added to the print version does that now suddenly make the author worthy of having his web version copyright respected, but he wasn't before? That's what you're implying. That's what Xant & Minions are implying.

So what does Seven Seas own then? -- The work of their employees could be considered their copyright.
Is it enforceable against a WN fan translation? -- That would be frivolous as the fan translation is a different translation of a different version. Unless they're ripping the Seven Seas translation directly, they're not infringing on Seven Seas. The fan translator has produced a new original work (his own), albeit based on material he's not entitled to use -- But that's a problem between him and the author, not him and Seven Seas. He's infringing on the Author's copyright as he has been all along, not on anything Seven Seas has produced.
If we want to get into frivolous lawsuit territory, the fan translator should sue Seven Seas from ripping from him, since he published it first... (That's obviously pointless since he's on shaky ground with the original author)

So how about the notion that abandoning/removing an unofficial version will make more people fork out money for the official version, so that the author may receive his meager share of the proceeds? -- Studies have shown that pirates actually buy more music/movies/whatever else than the general public. Yes, you read that right. Pirates spend more money buying official versions than other people. When you think about it, it makes sense: they have a greater exposure to the content and the chance to preview it uninhibited. For much of the general public, it's a shot in the dark to buy an album, movie, or especially a book.
The music industry eventually realized this, and that's why we now get free previews and DRM-free MP3 downloads from Apple, Amazon, and Google. By offering paying customers the same level of access and freedom that pirates have, the benefits of piracy are reduced thereby disincentivizing piracy while simultaneously affording everyone greater access, increasing exposure and therefore sales.
That's why many authors keep publishing the WN editions. They know that their loyal WN readers will be buying more books than people unfamiliar with the series, so they try to keep their greatest supporters engaged.
It stands to reason that the same would hold true for the English readers. I am absolutely certain that the initial release sales rush will be fueled by fans like me that read the Xant & Minions translation.

Yet, instead of Xant & Minions feeling good about the thousands of sales their translation will likely generate, they act like they've done something bad and will stop doing it now that there is an alternative. But as they were willing to do it in the first place, stopping now just makes them hypocrites.

Also, there still isn't an official alternative for newer chapters ant there won't be for a long time to come. Ironically dropping this series means a drop in reader engagement from people currently following it and may actually hurt sales.
People willing to buy it would buy it regardless, and people wanting to pirate would pirate regardless. Increasing the total number of readers would increase both - which is ultimately still an increase in the "people willing to buy" group.

Anyway, what I'm saying is: If you're going to respect copyright, respect it from the beginning; if you're going to disregard it, disregard it to the end. Changing your mind in the middle just makes you a hypocrite.
This entire site and community is built around people not respecting copyright. I'm just asking for someone who's not a hypocrite to keep doing what has been done all along.

I won't give up your freedoms or change my behavior because some hypocrite is butt-hurt over it.
Just like I'm not giving up my free speech to appease you, there will come a translator who won't give up his freedom of choice to appease Xant & Minions.

Why would you crack down on something that is literally fueling your sales. Sites like this and unofficial TLs generate the publicity that is necessary for official novels to succeed. We're a necessary evil that would harm the bottom line if it went away. That's why we go unchecked. It's willful ignorance, motivated by money.

 

incorrect.
it is locked (removed from view) because it is an unfinished translation. someone jumped the gun and submits it as 'full chapter' when it was actualy not (yet).. at the time i 'removed' it, it was only 20 or so lines of pastebin text. it is 90 something yesterday, but yet to be completed.

 

umm yeah I’m not gonna read that word salad as you’ve already proven you don’t care if the author gets financially hurt as long as you get to read a series for free. Oh and before you try calling me a hypocrite I actually buy the Japanese version of series when they get picked up in japan. I have an extensive collection of Japanese manga and light novels to go with my official English releases since I like supporting the author by buying both the Japanese and English versions of their series. My personal favorite would either be the first volume of the Death Mage LN or the entire collection of the Asobi No Ikuyu LN.

 

Because it’s a loss of revenue for them. Why would anyone buy the official TL if they can just read it for free online? It’s why the Overlord and Konosuba novels are no longer available via fan TL. There’s tons of series that used to be TL but were dropped because either the TLers don’t want to get stuck in the legal system or the TLers respect the series to drop it when it gets officially picked up.

 

It seems that you like to shit out posts without even reading what you're responding to. Or maybe your reading comprehension is also so poor that you can't understand what little you do read. (I'm being nice and trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here.)
Or maybe you just can't handle the truth! You're afraid to read something that'll tell you why you're wrong and challenge your prejudices. You're trying desperately to live in your own little world where facts don't matter.

TL;DR: Numerous studies have proven that piracy actually HELPS sales.
Here's just one, for example. There are many more like it. The results are the same, regardless of the country or content studied.

People who pirate often do so with a "try before you buy" mentality and often end up BUYING more than people who don't pirate. Cracking down on piracy would equate to shutting down your biggest marketing campaign that reaches your most loyal customers.
Shutting down piracy would be the real biggest loss of revenue.
You'd have to pay copyright trolls to intimidate the people giving you all that free advertising, lose sales as a result of lost exposure, buy more ads to make up for it, and still come up short after wasting a ton of money.
That's why they may publicly denounce it and spread the propaganda you're spreading, while in practice turning a blind eye.

Whenever an industry shill claims they lost X money due to piracy, they're trying to estimate the retail costs of purchases they believe they're owed for illegally downloaded content. It's an imaginary loss - there's no guarantee that those downloaders would purchase if the opportunity to pirate didn't exist. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
They're ignoring the fact that those same pirates actually spent more money buying stuff from them. Taking away the opportunity to pirate, will just remove their product from the line-of-sight of their biggest buyers.

I certainly wouldn't buy Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear if I hadn't read it online first - I wouldn't even know about it. You probably wouldn't either. Neither would most of us here.

What's so bad about wanting to continue to read new chapters until the option to buy them actually exists? (and it still won't for quite some time)
The hypocrisy of being okay with it before, but not now is stunning.

Of course, a TL is free to drop a series at any time for any reason. It's just that their reasoning here makes them a bunch of hypocrites with no integrity. It would be more respectable to just say that "We don't want to do the work because the option to buy this will eventually exist and we're wasting our effort". Putting on the whole act about "respect" at this point, is meaningless.
What's worse, being arrogant enough to tell others not to pick up where they fell short - as if they feel entitled to have others play along with their hypocrisy.

 

oh so there also cat who agree xant and minion is funny
yup copyright after such long time

pe I mean kuma still on syosetu or is there news it move alphapolis or something? if still on syosetu then rime to google translate again if on alpha then I give up

 

At this point i just didnt care anymore. I cant buy, i cant read, let it go. (3rd world country anthem in the background).


Time to finish my holo-ism

 

a meta analysis of studies shows that piracy hurts and doesn’t help. Here’s an article that talks about it
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...ts-the-filmmakers-and-artists-you-admire/amp/

“is so low” I literally told you I didn’t read your word salad so it sounds like someone is lacking in the reading comprehension department. It’s funny how you accuse me of what inflicts upon yourself.

 

Putting aside whatever VBS is saying I’m really looking forward to adding Kuma to my collection. It’s always a joy to me to add series I love to my collection since it helps the author of the series

 

I see. Sorry, I misunderstood because the mouse-over text on the chapter in my reading list said "addwalled."
I think it had 90 lines when I first saw it. I thought the "unfinished" at the end referred to editing. But, looking at the raw, I see it is still missing about the last third of the chapter.

 

Tbh, its just killing a still breathing series.
The author still updates the WN.
No e-mails was sent by the author to stop the translation or anything. Even Seven Seas arent doing anything to the WN as of now.

Its not similar to Arifureta wn where they messaged the translators to remove the initial chapters.

Also dont say "Just Buy the LN".
Most are just leechers here. Its free to read so we read what we have.
I can afford it if I want to but thats atleast 2-3days worth of work just to buy something I already have read.
Copy pasting it to MS word to print is way more cheaper, which is really a dick move so i dont try/recommend doing it.

 

i will just read the raw and try to translate it in MY OWN LANGUAGE. problem solved. i thank GOD english was not my homeland official language.

 

The Japanese LN only catches up to where the current translation is in Volume 13 (The latest volume).
That will take SS anywhere between 3-7 years, going by their history on other long-running LN series.
Most of what lies ahead is still WN-only content at this time - even in Japanese.

 

it takes 2-3 days for you to make $14?. Does you job pay you very little or something? I already read the entirety of Shield hero, Death March and Tensei Slime Web Novels but I still have bought every volume that’s released. I guess it just depends on how much you like the series. Plus LNs typically have tons of content the WN never had. As an example The latest volume of Death March (vol 9) was completely new content and was very enjoyable to read.

 

$14 x 50 = 700. Thats what I'm earning part time, 700/day. Minus my commuting expenses and food budget for the whole day will leave me with atleast around 200-300. Deduct also my cellphone load. It will really really tight if i ever tried to buy a book.

Now that i look at it... I could buy it after a week without eating dinner and lunch.

Yey someone picked it up.

 

Uh, is that USD or something else since that's like $21,000 every month if you make $700 A day, $9,000 every month if you're left with $300 after expenses which sounds like bullshit when you say you can't afford a $14 book unless you don't eat dinner and lunch for a week.

 

umm if you can’t live off of $700 a day you might want to seek help. I make $850 every two weeks and I’m still able to get tons of books. If I can live off of 425 a week I’m 100% sure you could live very comfortably off of $700 a day. How is it possible you’re unable to live off of $91,000 a year? I’d love to make that much money a year.