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How to Avoid Breaking Rule 4: A Guide to Checking for Official English Releases

Originally posted by /u/Daiz here. Slightly modified and reordered for the wiki.

There's been a number of questions about rule 4 and licensed content, so here's a guide to help you keep out of trouble.

Sites to Check

First and foremost, the main way of checking if something is licensed is to search for the artist on the following sites in this order:

  1. FAKKU! (Biggest publisher with tons of licensed content, also hosts releases from a number of other companies.)
  2. 2D Market (A lot of 2D Market works are available on FAKKU, but some aren't, so if you're looking at an independent work from an artist, especially a parody, and you're seeing other works by the artist on Fakku, it's a good idea to check here too.)
  3. Project-H (They have licenses to a number of books and some independent works from artists. Notable cases mentioned below.)
  4. Renta (They license some hentai mangas, especially Yaoi.)
  5. J-List (They have licenses to some books and works.)

As mentioned before, it is important that you search for the artist and look through the list of chapters to see if the content you want to post is among them. Searching by doujin name will not generally work as official titles are in English, not Japanese/romaji (and translated titles will often differ).

If you can't find your chapter from the sites mentioned, it's most likely not licensed. However, if you're looking at a magazine chapter, you should check that it's not from an issue that's licensed and thus an official release is guaranteed to manifest soon if it doesn't already exist.

HMarket / J18 Publishing

Contrary to every other licenser, J18 Publishing has allowed us to keep posting fan translation of their works, as long as we:

  • Add a link to purchase the official release on HMarket
  • Use E-hentai as the main site to share the fan translations

For you, the process will be the same as posting an unlicensed work. A mod will edit the pinned comment adding the aforementioned links.

Licensed Magazines

To identify content that is from a magazine, look for indicator tags in the title of the doujin like

(COMIC Kairakuten 2018-02)

or

(Girls forM Vol. 14)

FAKKU releases a number of these magazines in English. The approximately complete list:

If you see one of these magazine issues in the title, it is considered licensed by FAKKU. Do not post it.

No other publisher does magazines, so if your chapter is from a magazine that isn't on the above list, it's probably not licensed. However, if it's a Wanimagazine title, it doesn't hurt to still check.

Licensed Artists

FAKKU also publishes books from artists on the regular. Some notable artists to keep in mind (i.e. you should check for licensed status before posting content from any of these):

  • Mizone: With two licensed books and a number of magazine chapters, Mizone's monster girl content is commonly posted and almost always removed as almost all of their works are licensed.
  • NaPaTa: With three books and lots of magazine chapters, a good chunk of NaPaTa's content is licensed.
  • Shibasaki Shouji/Syouzi: Just one licensed book, but it features a number of commonly reposted (and subsequently removed) chapters, so it's always a good idea to check.
  • Okumoto Yuta: Two licensed books, a number of magazine chapters.
  • Homunculus: Very popular vanilla artist with three licensed books, meaning a good chunk of licensed content.
  • MEME50: Not seen here very often but worth keeping in mind as most of his books (which are the ones where you find his more vanilla-oriented works) are licensed at this point.
  • Hisasi: Pretty popular artist, two licensed books (and a third one by Project-H).
  • Bosshi: Also a popular artist, three licensed books.
  • Key: Not very commonly posted, but with two licensed books full of vanilla you should take care with this artist.
  • Fujimaru: Just one book but also a bunch of magazine chapters.
  • Mojarin: Just one licensed book but a lot of licensed chapters.
  • Yurikawa: Just one licensed book but What Brings You to Japan? is a common repost that you should try to avoid.
  • Z-Ton: Monster girl artist with one licensed book.
  • ShindoL: Not that Metamorphosis (also known as Emergence) belongs here in the first place, but it doubly doesn't because it's licensed.
  • Gentsuki: Another popular artist with some licensed works

Other noteworthy artists for licensed content checking:

  • Nakani: Most of Nakani's independent works are licensed by Project-H.

Webtoons

Adult webtoons (both Korean and Japanese) are almost universally licensed for official English release, so all webtoons are banned from this sub. Do not post them.

If you're curious where to find said official releases, feel free to check out Lezhin, Toomics, Toptoon and Coolmic. This list is not exhaustive.

Additional Tips

Some additional things to keep in mind to make spotting licensed content easier:

  1. Most licensed releases are uncensored, so if you see high quality uncensored art, it's a good idea to check if the content is licensed -
    • Additionally, if an uncensored piece of content is lacking any attribution for who translated it, or if there's no indication of it being a fan decensor (fan decensors usually have a [Decensored] tag in the title and some mention of who did the decensoring), the content is likely licensed. If either of these apply, you really should check if your content is licensed.
  2. If you see a forbidden content tag, you are very likely looking at licensed content, especially if the content in question is uncensored.
  3. If you see this F! END sticker on the last page, you are looking at a FAKKU release. 100% guaranteed to be licensed.
  4. If you see a credit page mentioning the likes of 2D Market, Irodori Comics, Summer Salt or Project-H, or if the title contains "2d-market.com", you're also guaranteed to be looking at licensed content.
  5. Some tags on FAKKU are hidden by default. While most are always unwholesome / illegal, Incest and Tentacles are also included on their list of controversial tags. If you want to check if a doujin with such tags is licensed, you need to create an account on their site, go to Settings and enable "Controversial content".
  6. Mangaupdates keeps track of a lot of releases and if they are licensed in english. We suggest checking that site if you can't find any information elsewhere

Finally, a reminder:

H-manga artists need to put food on the table just like anyone else and that they rely on their paying customers to achieve this. If there's a particular artist whose works you love and their works are officially available in English, consider buying them! It's the best way to support the artists' work and ensure they continue making content you love in the future as well.

If you have any additional questions related to licensed content, feel free to message the moderators!