From Anime News Network:
In this year's 20th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on Monday, the editors are publishing an open letter about unauthorized online copies of manga. The editors say that unauthorized copying and uploading are against the wishes of the manga creators. They also emphasize that "the unauthorized online copies do harm to the manga culture, the manga creators' rights, and above all, the manga creators' spirits." They acknowledge that the amount of unauthorized copying has become so overwhelming that they are unable to deal with all of it. The editors ask their readers to realize that all unauthorized copying and uploading is illegal. They add that manga creators and Shueisha will be dealing severely with unauthorized copies on the Internet, and the editors ask for the readers' support.
Here is the actual letter:
_To all our readers
There are now many people unjustly posting copies of manga on the internet. These unjust copies are inconsistent with mangakas' feelings. They are also distorting the authors' intentions of "I want the work to be read this way". The actions of posting these unjust copies on the net, into which the mangakas have poured their hearts, are not only hurting mangakas in real life but are also against the law, even if done in a light-hearted manner. Every time we discover such "unjust copies", we talk to the mangaka and consider every possible countermeasure. But the number of inconsiderate people is great, and at present we cannot deal with all of them. We have a request for all our readers. The unjust internet copies are deeply hurting the manga culture, mangakas' rights, and even mangakas' souls. Please understand once again that all of that is against the law. Also, the mangakas and Shueisha will severely deal with any unjust copies found on the internet. We ask that our readers please continue to support us.
~Weekly Shounen Jump editorial department_
Apparently this was all started due to people posting on tite kubos twitter to congratulate him on 400 chapters when it hadnt been released in japan yet. Kubo made some sort of comment telling fans not to post spoilers or something which lead to SJ and Shueisha making the statement. Now as an avid manga reader and supporter of One Piece I feel like this will effect us. I know in the past people have talked about this issue and how if people read the scanlations they should buy the material when it is available in their country. I have bought every single volume of one piece that is available so far and as per the numbers in the NY Times list so have many others. I dont know to what extent this will effect us but I wanted to make the issue known to the community.