[Locked] FAKKU State of the Union 2016

This is simply not true. Especially obvious in case of physical books, but the digital releases of books are also yours forever, and come with various DRM-free options for downloading.

my mistake then - although it opens a way for piracy yet again...

I have no problem with people pirating our books, especially people who can't afford the books in the first place. And I do not believe that piracy hurts sales, in fact it probably improves sales in the long-term. But I think we are making a product worth spending money on[...]

The subscription fee is steep, yes, but consider what most of you pay per month on Netflix and Crunchyrol subs, aggregate Steam sales, and various other crap you fucking NEETs are into. If jacking off to high quality (and uncensored!!!) nakadashi means sacrificing a pack of smokes per month, so be it; I suppose I should also thank FAKKU for increasing my lifespan.

The subscription fee is steep, yes, but consider what most of you pay per month on Netflix and Crunchyrol subs, aggregate Steam sales, and various other crap you fucking NEETs are into. If jacking off to high quality (and uncensored!!!) nakadashi means sacrificing a pack of smokes per month, so be it; I suppose I should also thank FAKKU for increasing my lifespan.

A lot of people are saying it's steep but I really don't see it, not unless you live somewhere where the USD exchange rate is really bad, then I can sympathize. For me it's less than a fill up for my car, hell I spend more on coffee every few days, and I'm hardly rich. And it's not like you can't cancel or resubscribe if you need to.

[size=18]Why did you remove scanlations and unlicensed content?[/size]

A lot of people think hentai is free just because it's always been free. Given our history at FAKKU we've contributed to that misconception, and now it's time to fix it. Everything you've been reading on the Internet has been a scan of an actual book from Japan, something Japanese authorities are increasingly clamping down on. Piracy is not a sustainable business model, but more importantly, piracy has never been my goal with FAKKU.

Over the past year we have officially published over 200 individual artists. After going to Japan and meeting with artists whom we've published and have had their scanlations appear on FAKKU, I have made the decision to support them as much as I possibly can. It's heartbreaking to talk with an artist and have them explain that when they Google their name they don't see their website, or their Twitter, or any way to actually support them. All they see are pirated scans of their work that were uploaded somewhere without their permission.

This isn't a problem unique to hentai, it's an issue with the anime and manga industry at large and the reason why so many Japanese companies, publishers, and artists, blindly turn their back on their overseas fans thinking we're all pirates. Because for so many years that's all we've been to them, pirates. My goal with FAKKU is to change their perception of us and removing scanlations (and giving our users a way to support their favorite artists) is the next step.

As a result of this change you'll see more content coming to FAKKU from new artists and new publishers. We will be publishing all different kinds of genres, including things you don't normally see on FAKKU. I want to bring back all of the content that has been removed, but now legally and in collaboration with the artists that created it instead of via pirated scans. Right now we simulpublish two of the largest hentai magazines in Japan, Comic Kairakuten and Comic X-Eros, which together account for almost 1,000 pages of new content each month. The fact that we have been successfully doing this for six months is incredible, it's the equivalent of publishing two entire issues of Shonen Jump every single month.

We plan to add free content for users that cannot afford a subscription, but it's going to take some time. We are still legally figuring out how exactly to do this and how to do it in a way that's smart alongside our subscriptions. If you have ideas post them in this thread, I'll be reading every single reply.

[size=18]Final Thoughts[/size]

At this point whether we succeed or fail is entirely up to you, and we need your support now more than ever. If you can't afford a subscription, help spread our message and explain to people why we made this decision and why the artists deserve support. Get out there and tell people. Think of all the faps these artists have given us over the years, now we finally have the opportunity to give back to them in a meaningful way.

I hope you choose to stick around with FAKKU. If not, it's been an incredible 10 years and I want to thank all of you for being a part of it.