You might’ve already read this, but for the sake of those who didn’t, I shall post it here. This one was posted by lambchopsil, one of KH’s pillars, our very own admin and proofreader, and who also happens to be an admin at Baka-Updates Manga.

20 Years in Prison for Buying Manga
(copy and pasted from here)

Yes, you read that right. Here’s the deal. Christopher Handley of Iowa, USA was arrested about half a year ago for buying manga. One day, he receives 7 volumes of manga from the post office because he ordered them from Japan. The authorities follow him home because they already investigated the volumes and deemed them “obscene” and “objectionable.” He is arrested, and they confiscate his whole collection: DVDs, manga volumes, VHS tapes, computers, etc. And now he faces a trial and up to 20 years in prison. All for ordering manga.

Now, it’s true that sources say that some of the manga in question are yaoi. Sure, he may have had some hentai in his vast collection. But that’s not the point. He was just going to read them in private in his own home. He didn’t commit some heinous crime and rape someone. The issue here is about freedom. Your personal freedom.

The point is this. You decide what you want to read. Some of you (including me) will never read yaoi. Or yuri, or hentai, or gory/bloody stuff like Elfen Lied. That’s our choice to make.
But what about this scenario? Your favorite series doesn’t have any of that stuff usually. But just one place, in say volume 7, contains a single scene of rape to get the plot going in an interesting direction (mind you, it wasn’t that graphic either). Now imagine the authorities busting into your house and arresting you because you own a manga series with that some obscene content here and there.

So how does this apply to you? Naruto has had some pretty graphic deaths before. Same goes for Bleach. You a shoujo fan? Ever read Peach Girl? Now read this news article. You can name many examples taken from your favorite series. I for one can think of scenes from Mahou Sensei Negima!, something I have personally helped scanlate for the last 2-3 years. Or even Gantz, which I know tons of you read. So who draws the line for what you read? You or them?

Now, I know what you’re thinking. All your manga is downloaded, so there’s no physical evidence of what you’re reading. But investigators can check your hard drive or the trail you leave on the internet for what sites you visit. This may just be the beginning to something broader that could affect you in the future. Future technology could make it much harder for you to get your entertainment. Who can say? (Or the unspoken question: When/Will the companies finally crack down on fansubbing and scanlating?)

Or you’re saying that you don’t read any of that “hardcore” stuff? For sure you’re safe… for now… With the current laws, you won’t get prosecuted for reading Gantz (at least I hope so). But things can change, possibly for the worst.

So what can you do? I realize that a lot of you aren’t even in the United States. But at least some scanlators are. And there are many manga fans here in the US too. I also realize that a lot of us don’t have much money. (Or else why would we download illegally for free?) If you feel willing to help monetarily for this court case and future similar cases, you can do so by donating. If not, you can still spread the news to all the manga fans you know. At least I got you thinking. We fans could use better unity.

Or you can totally ignore this and feel it doesn’t apply. Your choice.

For more information:
Donation Link
http://www.cbldf.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=2

Background Information
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-10-10/iowa-collector-charged-for-allegedly-obscene-manga
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-11-24/lawyer-indicates-manga-in-iowa-obscenity-case-are-yaoi

Other Editorials
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2008-12-11/christopher-handley/jason-thompson
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2008-12-11/christopher-handley/carl-horn

This news post does not necessarily reflect the official view of MangaUpdates. This was written by I, lambchopsil, admin of MU. This is meant to get dead fans thinking outside of their own little worlds. There actually IS a global fan base for anime and manga.

Although, most of us who are anime and manga fans think that this case is ridiculous, there IS such a case and it’s still on going. According to sources, this case has been pushed back until next year (2009).

We just have a lot on our hands right now, IRL.

We are trying to get by. Believe me, we do. We’re doing our best out here, so spare us the remarks, it doesn’t help. RL is more important to us, well, because it’s RL! Scanlation is a hobby, not a job, remember that.

That’s it. I just want to leave the message since I’ve been getting feedbacks that we’re, uh.. dead and uh, that we’re not literally doing anything.

XDXD

Happy happy birthday to one of our old admins, the lazy editor, backend guy, etc. etc, SELO!

Please don’t hesitate to give him your birthday wishes. you may also add a little hug or a kiss while at it. (You can curse him back again later when his birthday’s over. =P

And I just wanted to let you guys know, that I was blackmailed to make this image above and to post this greeting. =P

Happy Birthday Kiatsu!

Today’s our very dear owner’s birthday! Any birthday wishes from everyone?

(I’ll make your gift 2 days later, when I get back. XD)

–edited–

There’s this store called Mango-Manga near the place where I live (walking distance). This store is in the Philippines, btw.

They SELL CD copy of SCANNED manga that WE (the different scanlation groups) work hard for to give to people for FREE!

This is their website: mango-manga [dot] cjb [dot] net (I do not want to promote their site here >_<)

You can notice by the titles of the manga they have and by means of which are completed and which are not, that were indeed from different scanlation groups.

If in case you know the shop and you have an idea about it, you can defend it here. But as far as my investigation goes, they’re definitely from different scanlation groups.

I am posting this to let other scanlation groups know about it, that somebody is selling their hard work and all, and probably, people might come to realize that they could get them for free, so why buy them from people who just came to leech them for free too and is in fact earning for it?

Please DO NOT support them!

And yes, this is just another Naruto Fan thing. While I’m at it, please also stop supporting Naruto Fan!

IRC Channel

Firstly, with regards to our IRC channel (#kawaii-heavens @ Rizon.net), it has been re-registered under my name. With this, I would also like to thank ShiroganeAkane for remaining in the IRC all this time to XDCC our stuff *hugs* and the rest of the IRC regulars.

Se-chan and Continuing Projects

Heh. This is quite a topic, isn’t it? Seriously, I don’t want to blog about it, but I feel that it is necessary to let people know. Anyway, I would like to inform the remaining people who still aren’t aware, that Se-chan already left Kawaii Heavens for good. With the issue of Se-chan and all that past drama, there were a lot of people (especially staffs) that left KH as well. Honestly, it had been quite a pain. Aside from the fact that we are currently shorthanded, we are still filling up the small pieces of the puzzle that was once whole. We would like to let everyone know that even if Se-chan left KH, we are definitely not going down. We do not exist only for her. We existed before we met her, and we will remain so even after she left.

That being said, frankly, it had been months since she left and informed us of her leaving for good through PM. Even then, with the discussion of the remaining admins and staff, we decided to still continue our old projects despite Se-chan’s request of them being transferred to AQS. We already attempted to contact anyone from AQS and as we were told, their hands are quite full at the moment and they do not have enough staffs to shoulder our old projects. Therefore, we are assuming that we can continue on with our old ones, thus we are doing so now. This being said, we are continuing Happiness!, Shuffle!, Utawarerumono.

Dropping Projects

We are informing everyone that we are officially dropping Zero no Tsukaima, both manga and novel. The novel has been licensed, thus the dropping and with regards to the manga, we do not have enough man power to continue it. Anyway, it wasn’t originally our project (it is a joint one) in the first place so even if we drop it, you can still get them from the other group/s.

7-Post Rule

With regards to our old 7-post rule, we are removing it since we now have a sponsor who provided us with 2 servers. These servers, of course, have their download limits, since they are sponsored and all. Also, we are requesting everyone not to direct link stuffs from our download servers. If you want to host our files, we aren’t that great to refuse your god intentions but you are required to send us a notice about this and you have to upload it to your own servers

since they were asked for im working on uploading the doujins again(well what ones I have)
at the moment only kaze no haruhi is up since it was asked for im working on finding where i stored the rest
the page they are on will be made better to when i get the time
Kat’s budget Doujin Page

Ever since I tried overclocking my PC for some 100 MHZ, I hear strange loud noises from my PC box. Of course, for something that wasn’t happening in the past, I was curious of what it is.

I then decided to open up the box, and check what’s inside. As far as everything goes, everything seems to be in order. However, since it’s already open, wouldn’t a clean-up be done as well?

And so I did, picking up a nice blue brush to start dusting everything. That’s when matters began to go for the worse.

After removing the components, brushing them, and putting them back, I tried to turn on the PC. However, I didn’t get the usual bootup screen. What came up was “Bootblock Protection is Set. Please put switch to Open/Up position before rebooting.”

Ever since that fateful encounter, I wasn’t able to access the internet my files, or just about everything. DAMN…

So that’s pretty much the story. PC’s getting a checkup by wednesday, which means that I can’t access release, edit, or just do anything on the net since I’m pretty much done for in fixing it using the “do-it-yourself” treatment. I was supposed to release Shuffle chapter 10 on the 24th, but that was when the incident started to do its thing. Basically, I’m calling a technician to help me on fixing the thing, but that’s going to hurt my wallet unless he has some tab I can list it in…

Don’t worry though, before this week ends, the PC will be fixed, and I’ll resume normal operations on the scanlation side. I’m truly sorry for any inconvenience….

Se-chan out…. (but will be back soon!)

Latest Zero no Tsukaima Novel and Utawarerumono Manga chapters are on torrent already. It’s now on our KH Tracker.

Ah, by the way, we’re sorry for the inconvenience when our site goes on lockdown and says it exceeded CPU quota or something like that. Kiatsu and the other staffers are working on it right now, so we’ll be normally back up and running after a few days or so.

Ah, by the way, just for precaution measures, some people who stay here might actually try to send you offensive pictures messages, links or posts that are either staff-offensive, member-offensive, or site-offensive. If you encounter members or people attempting to post or send these kind of things, kindly send any active site staffer(a mod, or an admin specifically either Euri, Rasberry or me) a report telling the name of the person who’s sending these messages, as well as a copy of the message body. That way, we will know who to apprehend and what charges we can set up against the said user/person. Of course, due credit will be given to those who will help ^_^!

Thanks! Se-chan out!

Yes, the torrents for the following items are now on the KH Tracker:

Touhou Doujin: Chouchou Gentou

Touhou Fanbook: Missing Link

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Fanbook: GST

Well, if you’re pretty lazy on getting those on the tracker page, you can just click on the links I gave off. Ah, and don’t forget to seed for a day for those other people who want it! Thankees!

In other news, we’re currently still recruiting translators and editors for our projects. So in case that you want to be part of the team, you can register on the forums and go to the Workforce Recruitment thread.

You can also mail me at keichirohatsuki@gmail.com

We humbly accept all applicants!

Se-chan out!