Comic Book Piracy

Lol that is funny, but do what you gotta do man, I pirate and so do a lot of people, because Comics cost to much money, 3-5$ per comic is freakin' ridiculous. People have bills and other things to pay, man.

It's the way the market is dude. Physical copies are just not doing the kind of buisness they did in the 90s, and likely never will again.

As to point two, I assumed nothing. Note the use of the word "If". I was attempting to cover a broad range. Kudos to you for spending money on things. I do not have that luxury. I do try to support the things I like, but I wont starve myself for content either.

As to your question. Well yes. If your current model isnt profitable, then it's time to move on. If he wants to keep the shop open because he loves it, thats great, but its not very smart fiscally.

As for innovation, a lot of comic stores have either merged with book stores, added toys and such and become a collectors shop, or focused their efforts on video games and music, with comics as a side prop.

I mean I think of reading Comics as like a mental way to escape the real world. When I read Comics I'm like in a whole different part of my mind, a fantasy part. It is always cool seeing your favorite super hero in action, and seeing how they deal with the problems they come across. I just love Comics as a whole from the art to the cool characters.

If there is a way to get something without paying - use it.

All this talk about high-prices is nonsense - folks trying to be clean and white. You pay or don't. That's it. Never doubt the righteousness

Yup that is what this site is all about is Comics. There are some nice people you'll meet too. So kick back, relax and enjoy yourself.

@rd189: Kudos to you for spending money on things. I do not have that luxury. I do try to support the things I like, but I wont starve myself for content either.So because I budget for what comics I can afford and you can't its ok to take them for free?

As to your question. Well yes. If your current model isnt profitable, then it's time to move on. If he wants to keep the shop open because he loves it, thats great, but its not very smart fiscally.Yes he keeps his store open for the love of it. But because I can get everything digital for free anyway what's the point in trying to support a local business?

This is the heart of the matter right here. Because they're a luxury item its perfectly ok to just take them for free because "I have to spend my money on other things."

I can live without comics (hence them being a luxury item), so taking them for free is perfectly fine. The only things that are worthy of my cash are important things like beer and chewing gum, that if I took from a shop without paying for I'd get in trouble.

They're not a physical item so its not stealing, its just "sharing", information wants to be free, etc. etc.

@cave_duck: Son, I got rent, car payments, insurance, gas, groceries, internet, cable, hydro, water and phone bills. I got $7000 in student loans to pay off. I have another $6000 in credit card debt. I have a girl that I occasionaly try to impress by taking her out to do things and that costs money too. Even If I wanted to, I could not afford to buy comics via any medium. So don't come off all condecending like to me, by saying I can't "budget" for comics. That's just rude.

As to your other issue, it's called "voting with your wallet". Your money can support what you wish with it, whilst mine will support what I like with it. I will repeat this again, as simply as possible. It is very noble of you to support this comic store. From a fiscal stand point, it doesnt make much sense to keep the store open, since the industry is not as profitable as it once was. Thats all.

@cave_duck: Me pirating hurts no one, plain and simple. I have no money to be giving to these companies, so they didn't lose out on anything since my money has to go to living. Your problem is your talking about a physical book to a digital book, they're not the same. A digital book is still there when you let somebody borrow it , a physical is not. I can live without Comics too, but why would I do that when I can just download them? The company wasn't making any money off me to begin with so no lose.

@trickyman86 My absolute favorite is Batman, and I pretty much like all the other characters second. I read about them all anyway

Haha no. I don't really participate in the whole character vs character thing. Batman is my favorite character because his Comics are very interesting.

Well your taxes go to the library and its purchasing funds, so in a way you do own the books.

Use comixology or buy the actual comics at any number of big name, online comic book stores.

@cave_duck: How can you persuade or encourage people (pirates) to stop doing this act and start buying comics and loving them the way you do?

Exaclty this... As long as you buy more than you torrent or just about as much, you aren't really harming the industry.

Right now I couldnt thank torrents enough. Someone told me to read through all of Original Sin because of how great it was (despite what I've heard) so I decided "Yea, I'll torrent it and see what's its all about." Well I'm not going to review the comic here, so I'll just leave this at saying it was total crap and I couldn't be happier that I didn't waste my money on it. Especially at $4 - $5 an issue.

The stuff I buy that I can't get DRM free backups from Comixology on I aquire elsewhere. Comixology and Humble Bundle are great ways to get a majority of your comics legally and DRM free. It's how I got my Grandma to read Saga.

A lot of people genuinely don't have the money to buy comic books, some people don't even have money to feed themselves, so pirating is the only way for them to access this medium, if you have enough money to buy comics and support the industry then that's great, but why should people loose out on a whole entertainment medium just because they are not lucky enough to have the luxury of disposable income

@rd189: haha you have to pay to study.

100% against it.

There is no justification for piracy. If you pirate your comics/games/movies, what have you, you are a criminal. High Prices don't mean you get to steal whatever you want.

@iamthecrowning: GTFO your horrible excuse for a human being!

@rd189: So you have bills? It must be hard being the only person in the world with a limited budget- sorry for being condescending to you from my ivory tower of limitless funds. You mention things you have to budget for, including 'luxury items' (ie. things not needed to survive/ live). How are entertainment items different? Is it solely because you can get them for free of someone other than the creator?

You say that its a case of voting with your wallet, but then you just take what you can't get the cash for purchasing anyway. So how's that work?

@ariesxmasters: So if the digital and physical copies are totally different, why is piracy illegal?

Thanks, that's exactly what I'm trying to say.

All through this thread people have been saying that if an Artist is just scraping by they should feel lucky for doing what they love. So its ok for the Indie titles to receive no financial support because they're enjoying it. That small comic shops should close because they don't make a massive profit.

Its basic 'survival of the strong', 'you vote with your wallet'. 'If they were doing it right they'd get more money'.

But then when its turned onto the 'customer' its the opposite- "I can't afford it so I'll get it for free", "because I don't make much money, so exceptions should be made for me"

Nobodies going to change their views on this regardless of what either side posts...

@cave_duck: 90% of my comics are marvel. Marvel makes millions. How exactly do I hurt them if I never give them money in the first place?

@thelegionproject: What are you, 14?

@rd189:

Yep, that's exactly what I've been saying all along. The major corporations need more money.

I've hardly ever mentioned the small-scale local sides of things...

@cave_duck: Whatever. I don't think either of us are gonna budge here. You wanna take out a mortgage to support a dying industry? Be my guest. I bid you aideu sir.

@cave_duck:

So if the digital and physical copies are totally different, why is piracy illegal?

I can bet money that people who made piracy illegal I bet you they download music. They don't pay for music, who pays for music now at day? If you do then you're just a idiot who is wasting money and need to get up to speed on the times. You still haven't told me how piracy hurts anyone. Ohhh wait it doesn't.

@rd189: 18, why do you ask?

I don't see what's wrong with downloading comics. I download movies all the time and I never get caught nor reprimanded. Except perhaps by Christian hypocrites, who download their Christian hillsong music themselves.

I don't think the argument of if you can't afford it just don't indulge in the luxury for free holds much merit. In fact in the long run I would think that it would lose money for comic companies and shops. What if someone runs into a tough place in their life and can no longer afford their comics? They then stop reading because of this and forget about how much they enjoyed comics. Then when they got out of this tough spot they didn't go back to purchasing comics because they forgot. The person who started downloading comics though will start buying comics again because they still have the passion and didn't lose it just because they could not afford it anymore. Personally if it was not for torrents I would not have gotten back into comics and be spending the hundreds of dollars I spend a month on comics. To be honest I feel more guilty about buying my comics online and not from my local comic shop anymore than I do about downloading a few comics a week.

Well you haven't bothered to read my posts by the sounds of it. The smaller comic stores who no longer get customers because they pirate it instead get hurt. The big publishers don't feel it in the slightest- its the middle man, the little store scraping by that feels it when it loses customers to torrents.

@wimble23 You don't think that "If you can't afford it, then steal it" doesn't hold any merit? What other luxury item can you apply that to? Its only because its digital, therefore faceless & victimless.

I enjoy a good cup of coffee when I go into town, it costs around $5 which is ridiculous, but it is the established market price. Even getting the coffee from McDonalds' McCafe is the same price. But I digress, if I don't have $5 on me- I don't get a cup of coffee, I move on, end of story.

Ok, I'll agree to disagree, but I wonder why it's a dying industry?

@cave_duck:

Well you haven't bothered to read my posts by the sounds of it. The smaller comic stores who no longer get customers because they pirate it instead get hurt. The big publishers don't feel it in the slightest- its the middle man, the little store scraping by that feels it when it loses customers to torrents.

Well if you can't keep up get out of the race, only the the strong survive, and weak middle men must be weeded out. There is no room for a "middle man" when it comes to business it's a dog eat dog world. If piracy is hurting you while other companies are benefiting from it then you shouldn't be in the race to begin with.

@ariesxmasters:

Ok then which companies are benefitting from piracy? Are they the ones that weren't going to get your money before you "shared" their files and then decided to pay for them? Oh, but that's right piracy doesn't hurt anyone...

How do you buy a physical comic without a middle-man? Especially in a regional area.

As for your dog eat dog world- I'm guessing you love shopping at Wal-mart, Target, Coles (I don't know any American Grocery store chains) and all the other major chains that move in & destroy local retailers, and then change their prices once the competition is gone?

All pirates are about economic Darwinism- until it actually comes to using theirmoney, that's totally different. Then all the 'free exchange of data' becomes the theme.

I don't pirate comics but I won't judge someone who does. I may watch a YouTube video of a comic every now and then but thats about it.

I buy my comics online at Amazon or Ebay.

Yes I do shop at Wal-mart and Target.

Comic prices are ridiculous. The amount of content you get for the price is pretty pathetic when compared to any other media.

@ariesxmasters: Well you've won me over, all those links from the Google search window are conclusive evidence.

I've had enough of this, you're not even going to consider the concept behind what I'm saying so I'm just wasting my time here.

Enjoy your victimless data sharing and mega-corporation run chain stores.

No it's not even that it is just the problem is when you say pirates are stealing, man. You don't have to agree with piracy, but to say the person is stealing is just completely wrong.

@thelegionproject: *You're

First off, if my stance on this issue makes me a "horrible excuse for a human being", i'd hate to see what it means for those committing the act.

Truth hurts.. *shrug*

What is the difference of buying digital comics on digital stores like comiXology compared to downloading them in an illegal way? I mean what benefit do I get from one over the other?

the former supports the comic industry and at least pays the writers of their stories.

I live in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone or device, no credit card to my name and no access to any comic book of any kind so pirating is a life saver. I never read current stuff and i only try to read the best of the best, which i have for years happily on my computer. Now i do buy comics when i go to the city but i only buy what i have already read and know is of high quality. I also never buy Marvel/DC (few exceptions of course) cause if i'm gonna spend my limited income on an industry i like than i will support a local comic shop and buy indies titles. Like i maybe bought 3% of everything i've read.

2 big issues in comics that lead to piracy in my opinion are these. 1. Continuity: when it comes to the big 2 almost every title has ties to past storylines or even get stuck in cross-overs a'plenty. Makes truly enjoying the product you buy a pain knowing that your missing crucial information that would make it better is hidden in some bad series that just happened to be important (like every event in the past 4 years).
2. Price: when you compare the price between the big entertainment groups now and days (movies, tv, video games,comics) comic books are easily the most expensive when value is concerned. Value is a hard thing to define but not impossible. Time spent completing said entertainment, replay value, emotional attachment,etc. So compare a 20$ trade (1 hour average) to a 20$ game (anywhere from 2h to 60h+) to a 13$ movie ticket (2 hours) or a 20$ blu-ray.

That's not to say it's not worth the money. I go see movie in theaters all the time but once a movie i'm interested in is on dvd then i just rent it, which doesn't give a dime to the companies who made it. Games i just buy used or trade online, as for digital games i only buy them on sale since now and days every game goes on sale at some point. Comics simply don't have those easy options. Pirating is the easy option. Cause you won't find them on sale unless it's and humble bundle or a comixology sale but those are digital only. So i pirate comics and tv and nothing else simply because of accessibility. Without doing so i wouldn't be able to experience them period unless i just randomly bought trades at an incredible limit (because of income) and buying comic blindly not knowing if i would like it and if it was worth it which when it comes to money is the most important factor(if it was worth what you spent).

How else are you gonna get discontinued series as well. Just finding a comic you wanna buy is a daunting task especially if you don't wanna buy from a big retailer. So even if i did everything in my power to support the comics industry i can't because most of what matters is current series issues (which i don't read) or recently released trades (which i can't timely buy since i only go into a city once every 4 months if i'm lucky). So what's a man to do... find another way and repay the debt when possible which we do and have proven so.

Why in the world are us pirates still making excuses. In the grand scheme of things this is not a serious issue. If you want to pirate a film, a comic, or any form of media then do so. But be an adult and accept the social recourse for doing something that is at present against the law. We are not a child molesters. We are not a murderers but what we are doing is illegal. We need to stop feeling like we deserve things because we are not in fact evil personified. We are doing this because we can. We will not be caught and we get free stuff. But be mindful of the fact that this mentality of anonymity in cyberspace is what helps create trolls and other assholes. It is so easy to insult someone and access data online and with just a click you can change a life. Anything can happen online is not the same as anything should happen online.

It is not theft in the sense of taking a copy, but you are denying a sale to the company by pirating in the worse case scenario. Comics are expensive. I spend about $40 a month at local stores. It would be way cheaper to get a Marvel Unlimited subscription but I want to read the new stuff now, not in 6 months. Have I been disappointed by games and comics? Yes. Do I wish I could go back and spend those dollars on better games and comics? Yes. If I would have looked at reviews of these items before asking for them or looked up info I would have made more informed choices. Moreover we live in a capitalist world and nothing is priced according to production cost. People price for profit. As numerous people have said before in this thread if not being able to afford x means I should be able to get x for free then why save money for anything. The less I can afford the more things I am "allowed to get" for free.

Critics of pirates are just mad that others got something for a lower price. Ok wrap your mind around this. If your girlfriend or boyfriend was two timing you and not only was this person not putting in the same emotional and financial support as you but also was getting better sex from the your partner. Would you be mad? Do not worry though your partner is not going to leave you, but this will continue for the duration of your relationship. Nothing is stolen. Are there holes in this analogy? Yes. but assuming people are smart they can see my point. Otherwise they will key into the fact that the media is not alive and does not choose to be pirated, and miss what I am saying entirely.

Tl;DR Piracy is illegal and easy. Do it if you want but be an adult and accept the repercussions and stop making excuses. There are worse crimes. Being broke does not entitle you to luxuries that others worked for. Working hard does not entitle you to luxuries you cannot afford.