Scanlation giant One Manga is shutting down; ComicBookResources.com, 7/22/10

Kevin Melrose, ComicBookResources.com; Scanlation giant One Manga is shutting down:

"One Manga, the largest scanlation aggregator and one of the world's most-visited websites, has announced it is essentially closing down next week following pressure from publishers. Although the forums will remain open, all manga scans will be removed from the site.

"It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!)," One Manga administrator "Zabi" writes in a message on the site's main page. "Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July '10)."

According to Google, One Manga is the 935th most-visited website in the world, with 4.2 million unique visitors each month.

In early June a coalition of Japanese and U.S. manga publishers announced it would take legal action against 30 sites that illegally post translated scans of their titles if the administrators didn't "immediately cease their activities." Within days, MangaHelpers began shutting down (while launching a platform for creators) and MangaFox started pulling licensed titles from its list. However, the closing of One Manga gives the coalition its biggest victory, by far, to date.

In the wake of the One Manga announcement, administrators set up a Facebook page, which already has almost 53,000 "Likes.""

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/07/breaking-scanlation-giant-one-manga-is-shutting-down/