I wonder why scanlation groups make private releases only?

Because free translations aren't actually legal. Also aggregators like mangago make money from ad revenue. NONE of those dollars go to the publisher or the mangaka and they're not just making hosting fees. This is a business for everyone except the scanslators and only the publisher or the mangaka have any right to make money off these works.

Aggregators also make translations even more visible on the web. When the publishers start issuing legal threats the aggregators immediately go, "We didn't translate this. We didn't upload this. Not our problem." And then the person translating the work gets sent a legal threat.

By uploading onto aggregator sites, translation groups risk legal action from publishing companies because aggregator sites make money through ads on manga. The only thing really tying together the sites and the manga are the groups, even if the group isn't uploading it themselves. It looks like the groups are distributing copyrighted materials for profit, when it's not their's to profit off of.

However, when translation groups have private websites, the scans are only distributed between a group of people. It's like when you take a video communications class and your teacher assigns a music video project. Legally, if you didn't buy the song, you cannot upload it to a public website like YouTube. However, if it is shared in class, it can be viewed in a controlled environment and its proliferation can be limited.

This is very helpful! Thank you for this. Hope others will read this thread too so they would stop re-uploading without the translator's consent

Thank you!

The scanlator aliasanonyme.tumblr.com pissed off several translators and talked bad about other groups (then deleted her post when caught). So she made private groups to do just that and praising herself for doing better job than publisher.

she made 3-4 different groups already as time goes by but if you stick aliasanonyme.tumblr.com that her main one.

Thanks for the info!