MangaNews reports that Finnish manga import site Bemmu.com is offering free copies of manga to known scanlator groups. This seems to be an extremely odd move for an import site to support groups that potentially take money out of their pockets, but then again those Scandinavians do think differently than everyone else.

From the official press release:

“Bemmu.com does not and will not assist in scanlation efforts in any way.
The received books may be used in any way the receivers see fit. The
applicant may name one or multiple series for which they wish to receive
newly released books.”

Very, very interesting.

There’s an “application” process involved in order to get the free stuff. You have to send them scanlator credentials like the group’s website and email. Still, that’s a small price to pay for a bunch of FREE manga.

Scanlations are a topic of debate among the Manga fans. One can argue that scanlators have helped to make manga and Anime more popular, as I wrote about here in Anime Fansubs: Harmful or Helpful. Others feel that it’s stealing, plain and simple. When companies that make their living off selling imports start supporting the scanlators though, one really has to examine the impact that scanlations have on the industry.

View the post and discussion at MangaNews.net

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