The reason why Chinese Danmei is licensed across the world through Seven Seas and other companies is because of pirates.
Meanwhile Korean novels are EXTREMELY hard to find. Multiple translators stopped work on Korean bl because it's not worth it.
Far too easy to just do the webtoons.
The main reason why Reaper Scans went down was because they also did novels and Kakao went after them for that.
Now only certain works get translated while tons of other web novels are left on the wayside to never be translated, neither by official licenses (because they have no idea if it will be popular and sell) nor pirates.
But ai is working on that. So good luck on them stopping that. Mtl was the beginning.
I used to purchase Lezhin comics, but several series disappeared off before I could complete them. I still have access to those purchased chapters (but not the free chapters)..and it turned me off.
Not to mention the horror stories from authors.
I prefer Japanese companies. They know pirates are free marketing. They know series that become insanely popular through pirates will sell well because many pirates will purchase what they pirate if they feel respected and like the product. And they especially pay for merch.
I found Yuri on Ice through pirates. Fell in love and now own it on blu-ray and digital. I also own some merch.
And I now own like 60 books of various series of Chinese Danmei.
Pirates don't pirate everything and Japan knows that. And they also know that pirates are free marketing, we BUILD their customer base for them.
We actually save them millions and millions in advertising. Because we do it formerchandise. We are there testing ground for series to license overseas.
Kakao is all about control. And they are destroying their brand.
People are less likely to actually pay money for their products.
People will put up with ads and maybe a subscription, but they won't purchase individual products. Because why support that horrible company?
Why do I doubt they actually found the dev and started legal proceedings? They’re sooo specific about everything else and proudly show it off, but they won’t say what country they started legal proceedings in? I call BS.
Yeah, how does this article know who the dev is when not even the batoto mods knew their real identity? Also, most of this article is just a summary of everything we've been known so far. P.cok can throw its weight around but that doesn't mean the legal cases will actually hold up.
It seems extremely likely to me that this whole thing is made to try to scare people into taking down their sites, abandoning uploading, etc.
And I get why it's working - it's obviously very scary to get a cease and desist and think some giant Korean corporation is coming after you. So I don't begrudge moderators or developers from backing down. But I don't see this actually going anywhere unless the targeted individuals live in South Korea or Japan.
I doubt those claims from kakao too, they just hit the mod of Reddit and discord but we haven’t seen any information support the claim for kakao about caught the owner , bet they maybe hit the surface infrastructure and call it a win
People say the US worships capitalism but all seriousness, they don't take it nearly to the degree of corporate worship that S. Korea has. The reason why Korea LN is generally abouts gates and stuff, is because it's about the reset of society where individuals take power and old corporations lose theirs. A restructuration of society. You have Novelpia on the KR LN scene and Kakao on the manhwa scene, they just nuked all their overseas goodwill this last year.
Their entire country from birthday to death is under corporations.
Almost 80% of their aspects of life are also owned by Samsung.
But for some reason these people would rather spend time on gender war bullshit or shit like this instead of actually blaming the real culprit that destroys their life.
The more they do this, the more people will forget about them. Sooner or later, like all the piracy sites they shut down, they too will disappear into obscurity.
These Koreans are 10 years behind the west. Have they not learnt from Spotify and Netflix (from 10 years ago, not the current greedy corporation) that the only way to beat the pirates is to offer an easier way for consumers to access the content, at a reasonable price point?
If kakao login is not that complex I would read there....like needing kakao id/ nickname which I had forgotten just to reset password seriously?My account also got deleted by them after 1 year inactivity making me read at bato.Now they pull this move where the hell can I read 😭😭😭😭
And after deleted I still can't register new account...if they want gatekeep to koreans just don't bother going global man
I'm ngl there's no reason to have a bato subreddit nor a discord. The bato twitter would blatantly post on social media too, right in front of the authors. All these channels are unnecessary. We have a comments section on the comics themselves already, no reason to have 'official' socmed pages. It's a freaking piracy website.
With all the money they're spending on legal pursuit, they could pay the authors and illustrator a better wage, offer better working conditions, and invest into making their product more accessible in price and with an app that is actually easy to use, and updates as fast as these scanlations (so people are actually able to read from official sources).
Idk that's just my opinion, tho. Anw fk kakao, fk pcok, and fk yd. All this just to appeal to a group of people who will not ever be your customer base because they can't afford/access kakao to begin with. It's just gonna make them hate kakao even more. I hope people just stop reading webtoons so they become redundant since they're just recycling the same plot in different packaging over and over again.
For those of you who say things like “don’t host manhwa”, what are you guys even thinking? If you just give up and accept defeat to these greedy corporations, it will only encourage other greedy corporations to go after piracy sites as well. Are you then going to stop hosting manga too? The only way for the internet to prevail is to make them think there are simply far too many “tough enemies,” so that it’s not even worth spending their money going after those sites. And to be a “tough enemy,” you just need to learn proper opsec. If there are enough sites like that, they will eventually give up. And even if they don’t, it won’t matter. Because they can't take all of those sites down.
Kakao really destroys their own brand.
The reason why Chinese Danmei is licensed across the world through Seven Seas and other companies is because of pirates.
Meanwhile Korean novels are EXTREMELY hard to find. Multiple translators stopped work on Korean bl because it's not worth it.
Far too easy to just do the webtoons.
The main reason why Reaper Scans went down was because they also did novels and Kakao went after them for that.
Now only certain works get translated while tons of other web novels are left on the wayside to never be translated, neither by official licenses (because they have no idea if it will be popular and sell) nor pirates.
But ai is working on that. So good luck on them stopping that. Mtl was the beginning.
I used to purchase Lezhin comics, but several series disappeared off before I could complete them. I still have access to those purchased chapters (but not the free chapters)..and it turned me off.
Not to mention the horror stories from authors.
I prefer Japanese companies. They know pirates are free marketing. They know series that become insanely popular through pirates will sell well because many pirates will purchase what they pirate if they feel respected and like the product. And they especially pay for merch.
I found Yuri on Ice through pirates. Fell in love and now own it on blu-ray and digital. I also own some merch.
And I now own like 60 books of various series of Chinese Danmei.
Pirates don't pirate everything and Japan knows that. And they also know that pirates are free marketing, we BUILD their customer base for them.
We actually save them millions and millions in advertising. Because we do it formerchandise. We are there testing ground for series to license overseas.
Kakao is all about control. And they are destroying their brand.
People are less likely to actually pay money for their products.
People will put up with ads and maybe a subscription, but they won't purchase individual products. Because why support that horrible company?
They rather just donate money to the authors.
God I STILL have no access to a manhwa I bought on Lezhin years ago.... I'm livid.
Which one?
To all devs, be safe.
To kakao, fuck you.
Why do I doubt they actually found the dev and started legal proceedings? They’re sooo specific about everything else and proudly show it off, but they won’t say what country they started legal proceedings in? I call BS.
Yeah, how does this article know who the dev is when not even the batoto mods knew their real identity? Also, most of this article is just a summary of everything we've been known so far. P.cok can throw its weight around but that doesn't mean the legal cases will actually hold up.
The bato dev is known to go by the name Larry in the community but that's probably a pseudonym/not his real name
They’re just summarize what kakao claims, I bet this one could be written into a top comedy show
It seems extremely likely to me that this whole thing is made to try to scare people into taking down their sites, abandoning uploading, etc.
And I get why it's working - it's obviously very scary to get acease and desist
Exactly! They’re just trying to scare people.
I doubt those claims from kakao too, they just hit the mod of Reddit and discord but we haven’t seen any information support the claim for kakao about caught the owner , bet they maybe hit the surface infrastructure and call it a win
No way 😭
assholes think they are knight in the shining armour or some shit taking the credit for shutting down the sites
Fuck Kakao
I pity the bato Devs. I pray to God that they are safe, protected and lifted from any hardship.
People say the US worships capitalism but all seriousness, they don't take it nearly to the degree of corporate worship thatS. Korea Novelpia
Squid Game takes place in Korea for a reason
Their entire country from birthday to death is under corporations.
Almost 80% of their aspects of life are also owned by Samsung.
But for some reason these people would rather spend time on gender war bullshit or shit like this instead of actually blaming the real culprit that destroys their life.
It's funny when they haven't take down that particular korean raw site, which ofc in south korea itself
Kakao can takedown bato but not the korean raw sites that just change the numbers in their name and keep it moving? I call bullshit
The more they do this, the more people will forget about them. Sooner or later, like all the piracy sites they shut down, they too will disappear into obscurity.
the problem is thatKakao
More like meta
Let's be real here, even despite all the scandals with the Roxana Author and all that, the users of Kakao/Tapas just keeps on increasing.
These Koreans are 10 years behind the west. Have they not learnt from Spotify and Netflix (from 10 years ago, not the current greedy corporation) that the only way to beat the pirates is to offer an easier way for consumers to access the content, at a reasonable price point?
Fuck, so that's it then? Not even the new site will be back?
How about dedicating all this time and resources on self improvement?
If kakao login is not that complex I would read there....like needing kakao id/ nickname which I had forgotten just to reset password seriously?My account also got deleted by them after 1 year inactivity making me read at bato.Now they pull this move where the hell can I read 😭😭😭😭
And after deleted I still can't register new account...if they want gatekeep to koreans just don't bother going global man
ka-cucks.
The korean company did this?!
I'm ngl there's no reason to have a bato subreddit nor a discord. The bato twitter would blatantly post on social media too, right in front of the authors. All these channels are unnecessary. We have a comments section on the comics themselves already, no reason to have 'official' socmed pages. It's a freaking piracy website.
Alright. I’ll stop reading all together. It’s been a good run.
With all the money they're spending on legal pursuit, they could pay the authors and illustrator a better wage, offer better working conditions, and invest into making their product more accessible in price and with an app that is actually easy to use, and updates as fast as these scanlations (so people are actually able to read from official sources).
Idk that's just my opinion, tho. Anw fk kakao, fk pcok, and fk yd. All this just to appeal to a group of people who will not ever be your customer base because they can't afford/access kakao to begin with. It's just gonna make them hate kakao even more. I hope people just stop reading webtoons so they become redundant since they're just recycling the same plot in different packaging over and over again.
Yeah go ahead operate your manhwa business in your measly declining population till no one gives a shit about you
Thing is, they pat themselves in the back for the success their story has when their platforms almost never contribute for the titles to be known.
They make it difficult for non koreans to have access to their sites (let alone have some translations for the content) for God knows what reason.
So does Kakao want people to engage into their websites or not? They don't offer any alternatives either.
this better not be what I think it is, because if it is, I need all these sites to remove manhwa and only leave manga and hua
For those of you who say things like “don’t host manhwa”, what are you guys even thinking? If you just give up and accept defeat to these greedy corporations, it will only encourage other greedy corporations to go after piracy sites as well. Are you then going to stop hosting manga too? The only way for the internet to prevail is to make them think there are simply far too many “tough enemies,” so that it’s not even worth spending their money going after those sites. And to be a “tough enemy,” you just need to learn proper opsec. If there are enough sites like that, they will eventually give up. And even if they don’t, it won’t matter. Because they can't take all of those sites down.
Piracy will continue - you simply cannot stomp it no matter how much you try
Unless better services pop up it will always find its way to pop up one way or another