Scanlations are pirated Japanese comic books (manga). Fans scan and translate the comics into English and post them on the Internet.

Cross between "scan" and "translate"
Usually associated with scanning in Japanese manga and translating it for people who can't read Japanese (like me)

A scanlator is a person who performs scanlations, which are the unauthorized scanning + translation of a source work, usually a Japanese manga of some sort, into English for dissemination by e-mail or blog.

For more information, see scanlation.

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Scanlation, from SCAN (or 'SCANned') + transLATION, is the unauthorized translation of a foreign graphic novel, usually Japanese yaoi or other sexually explicit work, from Japanese into English. Typically the scanlator scans the hardcopy text into a computer, and electronically whites out the Japanese characters in the thought balloons to replace them with English text.

Illegality is the essence of scanlation, as opposed to authorized translations in which rights are granted, royalties scheduled, and chain of intellectual property is maintained. Many scanlators will argue that the more erotic or hardcore types of manga (yaoi, bara maga) are rarely translated into English, and that even a Japanese best-seller can sit untranslated for years. (Example: the graphic novels of Gengorah Tagame, like his three-volume PRIDE, which has as subject matter the training of a novice in BSDM techniques and includes very explicit sexual language and images, and scenes of torrture.)
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Scanlations are unofficial translations of comics, posed on the Internet. The name is derived from the process, as, usually, a scanlation is done through scanning a hard copy of the original, whiting out the speech bubbles, and typing the translation in its place. Scanlations can range from basic unjustified text copy-pasted from Google Translate to professional-quality localizations, though it is noted that scanlations are often more faithful to the original than official localizations. From the same source as "scanlation", the verb "scanlate" is also in use.

On top of its illegality, scanlation has a bad reputation due to a massive amount of scanlated material being erotic manga. However, it is a misconception that only such works are scanlated, or even only mangas at all; for instance, Franco-Belgian comics such as "Spirou et Fantasio" that never received English versions have been scanlated thusly.

Unauthorized translations of already freely available webcomics are sometimes lumped together with scanlations, although, since no scanning is involved, they may not actually qualify depending on who you ask.