Manga creator Ken Akamatsu (Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Love Hina) announced on Monday that he is launching a "J-Comi" website that will eventually post out-of-print manga for free with advertising support. He is working with Ryusei Deguchi (Abenobashi: Magical Shopping Arcade ) and other fellow manga creators, in part to deal with the current situation of manga being scanned and uploaded without authorization.

Under the proposed plan, the site will distribute out-of-print manga with the creators' permission and with advertising. The advertising revenues will then be split among the creators. The site will use PDF (Portable Document Format) files without DRM (digital rights management).

A beta version of the site will launch on November 26 with 14 volumes of Akamatsu's hit manga Love Hina, and the site will tally the number of downloads and clicks as a test of the business model. The site will formally launch on January 10, 2011. Akamatsu will post more information on the official J-Comi blog and on his own Twitter account.

Sources: animeanime.jp, Comic Natalie