the only reason ppl were laughing was bc legal readers laughed at them during bato takedown, also the fact that a lot of them dickride kakao (also corpos in general) and kakao just because decided to shut tapas to cut costs and leave intl readers w nothing lol
kakao webtoon is also merging into kakaopage but the webtoons all transfer over
y'know the audacity illegal readers have these really is something. back in the days we understood we were illegal readers/watchers, accepted that with humility, stayed quiet about our illegal activities besides on some forums and just moved on. being chronically online really emboldens people's audacity.
i understand legal readers celebrating bato shut down. i cringe at the corpo dick riding because no corporations in this world cares for anyone be it their consumers or their workers but the c-suites(i'm looking at you, webtoon ceo earnings 40 mil in a year while their creators and workers are paid dust).
anyway, legal readers put their money or time into unlocking chapters to support the creators even though they are paid shit by corpo. but point is, they are also people who keep the comics alive. with their money, comics gets renew and won't be axed early(getting sad over hundreds of comics i love or like that were axed early, because it didn't make money for the corpo T-T).
legal readers are basically the whales who keep gacha games running for free for the f2p:s but for comics. some illegal readers are giving me the same energy as some f2p players who gloates about their f2p:ness while condeming the whales who keeps the game f2p for them.
Just a shower thought cus I've been seeing way too many people celebrating T-pas shutting down and laughing legal readers in the face, saying it's karma, etc., but...
Do people realize that once legal sites start shutting down for not profiting (be it their fault for being ignorant towards their legal readers like T-pas was or not), all you people who read only on pirate sites will be left with is AI slop translations (of mostly BL) given to you by "groups" like kaizen, paradise, or desire who lock their stuff behind a paywall (which is way more expensive than just buying it legally in Korean and running it through any basic translator, and still you'll get the same or even more accurate translations), right?
You think you’re sticking it to greedy corporations, but you're really just cheering for a future where you pay grifters triple the price for barely readable garbage while the original artists stop getting localized altogether.