Response to A Marvel Writer's Plea to stop downloading his comics April 1 2007

My response to "A Marvel writer’s plea to stop downloading his comics" April 1st, 2007

“If the person downloading had no intention to buy before downloading, then no money is really involved either. Revenue can only be considered to have been forgone by the publisher if the download is of an item which would otherwise have been purchased by the downloader had the download not been available.”

If the person downloading had no intention of buying then they shouldn’t be allowed to read the comic.

So you’re saying I don’t have the right to let my brother/uncle/whatever borrow it and read it? Because they’re not willing to pay for it?

If they can’t afford it or it’s out of reach then they should wait for the trade. Yeah the system sucks and somebody should create an ITunes system for it or whatever Chris Hunter is describing but that hasn’t happened yet so you should just deal with it. It’s not the big events that are being affected here, it’s the smaller books that are always on the razor’s edge of being cancelled.

Maybe the reason that some of the best titles are so close to being canceled is that the comic buying population is so inbred without newsstands that all the majority wants to read is the moderate titles – those that are not great but not bad, also those that are squarely in the center of their respective squared universes (aka receive the most publicity, etc)and any way of garnering new customers (accepting the cash cow that is civil war/cap 25) is almost impossible.

And every argument that’s being thrown around about Slott’s download record isn’t changing the fact that if She-Hulk get’s cancelled then everybody who downloaded it, liked it, and never paid for it should be punched in the face. We’re not talking about royalties so much as whether people have a JOB next month.

Just because you like something does NOT mean that you would be willing to spend 40 dollars a year buying issues of it.

This doesn’t make it right, but it also is a reality. People download music and movies illegally.

They’re having the same issue, except for unlike those other two, comic book collectors/readers are collectors, not just readers, so it’d be near impossible to get rid of the written comic book (but i do see a future without CDs and once internet technology catches up, without DVDs)
I’ve been collecting comics since i was a child, and i can tell you i HATE the comic book format. It is flimsy, easy to rip and crinkle, etc. the stories are never long enough, and the ads these days detract majorly from the content. Not to mention that there has been a lot of junk put out over the last ten years.

Would i spend more money on X-men if i got a novel sized story every month? Without a doubt. But that’s not going to happen and waiting for paperbacks is painful since by the time you read it, the team is on their next storyline, moving forward without you.

Comic Books are books. You can go to the library and read about your favorite novelised heroes there. Is this copyright infringement?

Would there be less people downloading comics if they were available at their local library? Perhaps, but why is this library any different from downloading? Didn’t the author only get the revenue from that book once (just like if it were a comic book). Should we close down all libraries?

Plus it’s insulting to the people who shell out our hard earned money each month for a comic to tell us it doesn’t matter whether somebody paid to read it or not. We’re the ones who have to decide whether to add something to our pull list or drop it. So to tell us that it’s fine for YOU to be able to download whatever you want as long as you pay for what you can when you feel like is just a shot bird in the face. If you can’t afford it then don’t read it. Buy what you can. Deal with the way things are until the inevitable change finally comes.

Without any easy access to comic books today (where i lived when i was a kid, the nearest comic book store was in a part of the city that my parents would never go to) many people can’t get to a shop. Is that their fault? They could order online, but in my opinion, this brings to light a falsity in thinking. This is no ones fault but the publishers. if they really longed for those sales, they’d be available at more than just your local comic book store, which may be 25 miles away.

The perfect places to sell these comic books would be at places like Toys R Us, Best Buy, Gamestop, Barnes and Noble.

Book Stores
Video Game Stores
Movie Stores
Toy Stores

all places where their future base readership is quietly fading away due to lack of availability and mainstream presence.

If everyone just “deals with the way things are until the change inevitable comes”, then guess what, that change will not inevitable come. Do you think if Marvel and DC could be promised thats they wouldn’t have to deal with people trying to illegally download comic books ever again, that they would ever get to the point where comic books are a digital medium? No…the thing pushing them to make it digital would be the illegal downloads. Just like for music and movies, the illegal downloading is the push the industry needs to grow into its digital form.

“Infringing copyright. Not stealing. Not even illegal in many countries. ”

Whether you like it or not, “infringing copyright” by definition is wrong. Morally, ethically, and most of the time LEGALLY wrong. When your argument comes down to whether or not something is stealing of just infringing on copyright then you’ve totally lost the moral high ground and the point.

I submit that copyright infringement is breaking a US law. Do not, however, say that breaking a copyright is by definition wrong. Many countries have no copyright laws.

In my opinion, the copyright code has to be rewritten for a downloading age, it is so archaic that it can’t even work any longer within its own established rules and regulations.

And to the argument about sharing with a group of friends being no different: Well there’s a difference between 3 or 4 friends and 3 or four HUNDRED “friends” now isn’t there?
Only if any of those 3 0r four HUNDRED friends would have bought it otherwise, which isn’t always the case.

Many people see free, and read it anyways, even if they otherwise wouldn’t. Some of these people who download are the people that skim the books in the shops or wait for spoilers online, etc. None of those are illegal, and yet they have exactly the same effect.

In all these cases, no one without half a brain would say “this is bad for the industry” because it isn’t. It is helping the industry grow to areas where it otherwise wouldn’t – including online, places without access to shops, and don’t forget – if you read something for free and then enjoy it, you might just pick it up at the store next time you see it or heaven forbid search out more from this character or more from the artist/writer. and this time you may be willing to PAY for it!

Must be bad business when companies scare away profits. That’s what the music industry ended up doing by suing college students. What is happeining now? Itunes is slowly removing DRM protection from it’s songs…

All things in time come full circle..