Missed It: LAT Digital Piracy Article

I would imagine a lot of people have been talking about this article in the LA Times about the digital piracy of comics. The on-line dissemination of comics by third parties is one of those issues that's hard to discuss because 1) there are a lot of gray areas regarding intent if you move the argument in that direction, and 2) some participants have to constantly suppress their desire to beat the crap out of those on the other side of the issue.

My personal feeling is that the ethical question comes down to respecting the wishes of the creator, or those to whom they they cede control. If a creator wants you to disseminate the material on-line for free, great. If they don't want to, well, even if you think you're doing them a tremendous favor (by posting) or not doing them any harm (by sampling), you still shouldn't participate. "Me wanty" is no reason not to be polite.

It's going to happen anyway, of course, and it's sort of curious that the bigger comics companies haven't been more aggressive in pursuing on-line dissemination programs of their own, as a lot of people think such programs mitigate the appeal of the third-party efforts. I agree with the article that comic books seem to have specific concerns in this area. A lot of people are discouraged by the price point on individual comics, and a lot of what drives mainstream comics appeal these days seems to be the progression of soap opera reveals. That means you can get a significant percentage of what you go to a mainstream comic to enjoy on-line. With that in mind, I don't think I agree with the article that it's the smaller titles that suffer a greater risk.
 
posted 4:01 am PST | Permalink
 

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