asdfMTV Geek > Digital Comics

The original title of this post was called "How We Can Beat Comics Piracy" -- but I think, unless you make really draconian laws and basically spy on everybody's Internet, illegal downloading is not going to go away. Indeed, draconian laws and heavy fines seem to only spur some people on, as a form of rebellion. But I think the key is to slow piracy down so it stops being a "commonplace" thing "everybody" does, and push it back to being a fringe activity. For example, when I say that I am buying a comic -- especially a digital one -- I'm often mocked by peers for "wasting my money." The argument goes: if it's so easy to get an illegal scan, why bother paying for the comic? I am in a comics field anyway, so I could just chalk it up to "research." I might even be "helping" the publisher of the comic I torrented.

But I just can't shake the feeling that Comics is too fragile an industry to absorb such a blasé attitude towards illegal torrenting. This is not to say that other industries and forms of media aren't also impacted negatively by piracy. I'm just saying that in a realm where selling 100,000 copies of a single issue constitutes a "blockbuster," 1000s of potential buyers who torrent make all the difference -- especially for critically-acclaimed but lower-selling books. Read More...