With a heavy heart, I've come to the decision to stop sharing raws publicly. I didn't post raws with the aim of getting more views or downloads or for the sake of popularity, unlike the sites that have been stealing from me for so long. I'd just wanted to share something I loved with like-minded people and Yaoiotaku was a great platform for doing this. But for almost 2 years now, I've had to battle against the constant theft of my raws. Quite a few people have told me things like "this is the Internet and stuff will always end up being taken" and "if you're so bothered by it then don't share". I've always been well aware of these facts and I still shared... now I don't see any other option but to quit for good.
It honestly feels as though sites like 13DL have a vendetta against me. (Probably because I was quite vocal and public about my disdain for them and also exposed their profiteering ways.) No matter what I did: password-protecting files, watermarks, adding rude messages, even disabling downloads; nothing seems to deter them. Every single time my raws end up on their site, I sink into depression. I'd thought Google Drive was a secure method and it worked well for so long... guess I got too complacent and look what happened. (Read this post if you haven't already) Since yesterday, 13DL has uploaded 18 more of my raws and once they're on that site, it doesn't take long for them to end up everywhere else. One small consolation is that they only got their hands on the LQ raws with big watermarks on them, I never uploaded the beautiful, unblemished HQ raws so they're safe with me. However, I can't keep doing this, always on the look-out for my raws being misused/stolen/ending up where I don't want them, then going around in a funk for days when they inevitably do.
But if 13DL thinks that it can get away with setting fire to my house again and again, they're dead wrong. They're going to burn too. I've written to the manga publishing companies and METI Japan about how 13DL is a hub of piracy and copyright violations. They have links, screenshots and everything. So far, I've contacted 10 publishers, the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) aka Manga-Anime Guardians, supported by the Manga-Anime Anti-Piracy Committee, directly under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. And of course, I wrote to the METI itself. As time allows, I plan to expose 13DL to even more publishers in the coming days.
I know this is hypocritical of me, but these assholes deserve to be inconvenienced just a little bit for all the grief they've given me over the last few years. Unfortunately, this also means that I cannot be associated with the raws found on their site, which is why I've had to delete and disable almost all the files that I've posted here, both mine and the raws that were available for free online (English scanlation files will remain up, won't be deleting them). Since there are so many files and links, this might take me a few days and I'm pretty sure I may have forgotten the log in details to some of my file hosting accounts. All the Google Drive folders have been deleted, most Mega links are disabled, but mediafire/zippy and other file host links are still up. But I plan to remove them too, slowly and steadily.
You can go ahead and yell at me, say this is a bad idea, hate on me for depriving you of all these raws, tell me that there's no real benefit in doing all this. I agree with you completely and I'm really sorry too. But this is the only course of action left for me.
I'm extremely grateful to every YO member who supported me, left words of appreciation and thanks on my posts, all the friends who I had conversations with, some inactive now, some still active; the mods @Saga and @BRIDGET for their help, advice and patience all the times I bothered them and @Key for being not only a great admin but a wonderful person. I wish I could give each and every one of you a big hug now!
However, contrary to the reunion scene above, this is a farewell.
xoxo
Cruciatus
P.S. Hopefully, I'll still be active on Tumblr and Twitter, so if you want to stay in touch, you're welcome. (: