Comic Book Piracy(?)

[Decade]

So recently, Marvel has decided to let people download their comic books instead of just buy them in a store (which I think is a great idea, and if Amazon's smart, they'll find a way to put them on Kindle), but it made me realize something:

Before this, you could download comics from the internet pretty easily. My question is:

Is it so wrong to do so?


Now, this thread isnt meant to tell you whats available to download or where to find it, it's meant to discuss in cases such as this if downloading this type of media really hurts anyone.

If you think about it, the only people who would be affected by people downloading old comic books would be comic book stores themselves (most of which arnt actually owned by comic book publishers).

But if comic book publishers dont actually produce older comic books, how does it damage them to download a copy of it?

Now, I'll concede to the point they release graphic novels and reprints every now and then (look at the crazy amount of Civil War books they've released covering almost every corner of it), but its fair to say that most comic books are not reprinted in so many easy to find fashions, if at all, again.


On the other hand, allowing it to happen for older comic books makes it obviously allowable to get newer comic books as well, which hurts comic book publishers because their sales are directly affected by downloading of their new media.


But for readers, what choices do they really have sometimes? To go to a 3rd party comic book store and pay inflated prices for older comic books (or sometimes newer ones) that dont directly profit the comic book publishers, or just download them for free?

Im actually pretty on the fence on this one, how do you guys feel about it?

[harper]

I might be mistaken, but I think that Marvel is allowing people to read the comics online on their website for a fee, but not to actually have downloaded copies of the comics. Not that there aren't already illegal copies available on the net, mind you.

Personally, I'd rather have a physical copy of the comic, whether it is in the original comic or a trade paperback or hardcover collection. I'm not really a big fan of reading stuff on my computer, though I've read a few scanlations of manga that are not available in English.

I think if selling online or downloadable copies of their backlist makes the comic companies money and helps them stay in business then great. The back issue market is pretty stagnant in comic stores anyway since ebay became popular. Selling e-copies of older works might even help boost sales of newer material or of collections. I think that has been the experience with e-books for Baen Books, one of the top science fiction publishers. Heck, they even have a free library of over 100 books that people can download or read online for free and that has only helped their sales of dead tree books.

[Decade]

If comic book publishers began to actually sell downloadable copies of older comic books they have, then yes, I would agree that it should be seen as illegal to download older comics instead of paying for them (because now the comic book provider is trying to provide them again at a fair cost).

But if they dont give you the means, nor if they make any actual profit off of older comics, I dont see the point of making it illegal to download older comics. The only people it hurts are 3rd party comic stores who sell older comics for inflated prices over the original value. But none of that profit goes to the comic book publisher.

Its kinda like buying a used movie or video game. If you buy them, the publisher doesnt make any money off it, only the store selling it does. The difference is you can still buy the game new from the publisher half the time in one form or another, with comics a lot of them are buy it then and there or never buy it again directly from the publisher for its original price.

So, if it doesnt hurt the publisher, why would they care if you download it?

[PopCulturePooka]

It hurts the publishers potential Trade Paperbacks, Ultiamte editions, Absolute editions, Visionaries editions etc.

[Decade]

^I can understand that, but I think its fair to say not every back issue is always published in those forms, so it makes it difficult to get it again from the publisher and still give them a profit.

I think it gets to a point for publishers though where its just not profitable to publish any more copies of every comic anymore, so in a lot of instances it really doesnt affect them at all if people download some of their older comics.


I just realized I could extend this argument to back issues of most magazines as well (from Maxim to Time), but that depends if people really wanna go into it here or not.