@firecrouch:
I've heard even translation scripts are a form of illegal activity.
Probably. I once read a news story that stated even posting song lyrics online is a legal gray area.
Anyway, with all this going on… I think I'm going to take current events as an opportunity to go cold turkey on scanlations, youtube anime, etc. In the past I tried to justify it by saying "oh, I never would have gotten into it if it weren't for scanlations," or "the US is too far behind in releases." Regardless, scanlations and the like are illegal. And I do live in the US where I have decent access to manga, and online streaming like Crunchyroll and hulu. If I don't have the willpower to save up my money to buy manga or keep my eyes off AP Forums to find out what are the latest happenings in One Piece, then that doesn't really reflect well on me. And I don't want to be someone who feels they're entitled to a luxury like anime and manga.
Would the industry do well to start making their product available online in some way? I think so (but I'm not really knowledgeable about business, so whatever). Doesn't mean we should take it upon ourselves to put it online since we didn't lift a finger to make the product.
Then again, I could just be talking out of my ass and relapse the second the new chapter of One Piece comes out. Still, none of the excuses I've read on this thread for reading scanlations have actually been good, unless the person lives in a manga-less country.