Well, this is definitely one way of dealing with internet piracy: Co-opt the pirates. Digital Manga Guild has announced that it is looking for “groups and individuals” to help it bring hundreds of previously officially untranslated manga to online readers. According to the newly-launched website, the online publisher is looking for translators, editors and letterers amongst the fan community to adapt manga from “six [unnamed] major Japanese publishers” for digital distribution… In other words, doing exactly what fan scanslators do anyway, but doing it legally. Those who sign up for the program will also sign up for DMG’s “revenue share program,” although the site it upfront when it says “no party — Digital Manga, Inc., the Japanese publishers, or you (the localizers) — will get paid until a sales transaction is made.”
DMG is calling this a revolution in the way that manga is made. I’d settle for “an interesting way to deal with bootlegged manga.”
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