The best things in life AREN'T free.

The Best Things In Life AREN'T Free. by InferiorEgo

Stealing is not a victimless crime. No matter how big the corporation is, someone gets hurt along the way. Yes, I know I sound like a mixture of the RIAA, your parents, and every police officer you’ve ever met, but I am extremely 100% against getting your comics for free off the internet. Why? Well let’s go through a list of reasons! Get ready for moderate boredom!

1. Stealing comics is a gateway crime. First you’re telling yourself, “I’ll just steal one little comic, who will it hurt?” Next thing you know, you’re a high class diamond thief with all these awesome gadgets. Still sound cool? (yes) Next think you know you’re smuggling heroin in from Asia and you’ve murdered 10,000 people for standing in your way. Still sound cool now? (I hope not) Stealing comics will lead you to drug smuggling and murder.

2.       You’re getting a little lazy. At least when you bought comics, you had to go outside to get to the car, drive to the store, walk inside, and walk around to pick them up. Now, you just click click click… Even if you order them from online, you still have to go to the door to pick them up. I just don’t want you to end up like the Sloth-guy from Seven.

3. You’re making babies cry when you steal comics. Let’s face it, we all know babies are very sensitive to the world around them, and they can sense crimes better than Peter Parker’s Spider-Sense. That’s why babies cry so much, they can sense the crime and then they feel bad because they can’t do anything about it.

In all honesty though, downloading comics for free hurts the industry. It’s one of the reasons some books are going up in price. People lose their jobs over this stuff. Here’s a fake math problem or flow chart thing to prove it.

* ·         Enough people steal the book

* ·         Less people actually buy it

* ·         Less company can afford to print   

* ·         Company lays off employees.

It’s this cycle of hurt these people put on the industry. Let’s actually take a look at everyone involved who is hurt by thievery of comic books. I don’t think I have to tell you why either, it should be obvious.

* ·         Retailers

* ·         Printing companies

* ·         Delivery companies

* ·         Creators/Editors

* ·         Publishers

* ·         Companies who advertise within the comic

* ·         Employees of everything said above

Now who gains from this?

* ·         You and only you.

Stealing is not only hurtful to a giant mix media community; it’s an entirely selfish activity. Comics cost between $3-$4 apiece. Why not work for what you want to own? Since when did making your own money and using said money to buy something become so bad? It’s a great feeling to own something your worked towards. Don’t want to work to buy comics? Then stop reading comics. Is this entirely too harsh? I don’t think so. Everyone that buys their books appreciates the work by the artists and writers, people who download them for free don’t. It’s disrespectful.

Yes, I’m very passionate about this subject. A few of my friends are writers in the industry, I’m on my way to becoming one, and I want them to succeed. When I hear about someone downloading books it aggravates me. 90% of the artists and writers you love started out in the indie world and worked their way to Marvel and/or DC. The only win in this situation is you, the loss goes to ALL the people who work their butts off to bring you what you take for free. 

Couldnt Agree more with this.  Also I like to add please support your local comic shop whenever you can instead of Amazon, Borders, etc.  If our local shops dont get enough people then they have to close and then you lose the culture, the passion  and the selection.

Stealing comics is wrong. I thought we had been over this already. The Hamburgaler is reformed btw

Couldnt Agree more with this

And it only promotes comics to go completely digital, which would be bad. I guess I understand why, like when someone completely ruins a whole universe that had been going strong for almost ten years and had great re-interpretations of favorite characters and events (I tihnk we all know what we're talking about here...).

But that still doesn't make it right.

If anything declining sales should wake up publishers so that they stop printing crap, i.e. Uncanny 500 on forward. It's the world we live in. Prices have gone up on nearly everything so someone should stop and think to themselves how they can make their issue of X-Men better so that when someone is torn between buying bread and that new comic it's a tougher choice to make. 

In honesty, I had not heard so much of comics being downloaded as I have concerning music.  I agree with the previous mentioning that stealing is wrong and am curious, what brought about this posting?  You had mentioned that you are an aspiring writer, and should be applauded for following your dream.  Has one of your works or a friend been downloaded?

" @inferiorego: Somtimes I wish I didn't have morals and a conscious, because I definitely spent around 40 dollars this week alone on comics, But I do and I am in total agreement with you inferiorego, Good job on the article man, butttt I still think you could have told me what your writing about a few days ago when i asked but WHATEVER MAN! whatever "

Sorry about the way this was posted, I messed up! I didn't write it, Inferiorego did.

Its actually pretty sad I think the closes comic shop to where I am is 40 minutes away =*( its super small too. Buy comics keep your local shops open!

You know, today i was planning on stealing a comic but you have scared me out of doing so and if you could do that, you can do ANYTHING.

That being said that was a good rant and i hope it "pays off" for all the Viners. lol

" @inferiorego: lol alright man, I wish there was someway to control the endless stream of free stuff on the internet, I've never even stolen a song, my pops is a music cop(director of licensing for a.s.c.a.p)  so when I was growing up It was a huge no no, I wonder how much money marvel/dc have lost due to people downloading their comics for free "

" You know, today i was planning on stealing a comic but you have scared me out of doing so and if you could do that, you can do ANYTHING.That being said that was a good rant and i hope it "pays off" for all the Viners. lol "

" @Inferiorego: You should put a pic of someone making a angry face "

I'm guessing this article is partially directed at the dude who wanted Wildstorm comics on the free. Even though Wildstorm is owned by DC it's not like their artists and writers are driving gold Ferraris. Even if they were ripping things off is hella lame.

" I'm guessing this article is partially directed at the dude who wanted Wildstorm comics on the free. Even though Wildstorm is owned by DC it's not like their artists and writers are driving gold Ferraris. Even if they were ripping things off is hella lame. "

HAHAHAHAHA

" @EisforExtinction said:

" I'm guessing this article is partially directed at the dude who wanted Wildstorm comics on the free. Even though Wildstorm is owned by DC it's not like their artists and writers are driving gold Ferraris. Even if they were ripping things off is hella lame. "

I was actually writing the article before I bumped into the thread. It's mildly based over a conversation G-Man and I had yesterday. Essentially, I was yelling, he listened... Then I put it into an article. "

" @inferiorego said:

" @EisforExtinction said:

" I'm guessing this article is partially directed at the dude who wanted Wildstorm comics on the free. Even though Wildstorm is owned by DC it's not like their artists and writers are driving gold Ferraris. Even if they were ripping things off is hella lame. "

I was actually writing the article before I bumped into the thread. It's mildly based over a conversation G-Man and I had yesterday. Essentially, I was yelling, he listened... Then I put it into an article. "

That's not canon. That conversation was nullified by Superboy-Prime punching the walls of reality. "

I don't know what to think of this yet, i mean, if the demand cannot be fullfilled AE overpriced or unlocated (not buyable anywhere near) then its the sole companies fault.

Inferiorego FTW!

" I don't know what to think of this yet, i mean, if the demand cannot be fullfilled AE overpriced or unlocated (not buyable anywhere near) then its the sole companies fault. "

I hate physical comic books, I simply don't have the room for them any more. When the companies start selling digital versions then I'll start buying digital versions. Hopefully more companies will jump on the bandwaogon of the new Longbox Digital Comics thing that CBR just announced.

" @Voidheart said:

" I don't know what to think of this yet, i mean, if the demand cannot be fullfilled AE overpriced or unlocated (not buyable anywhere near) then its the sole companies fault. "

There is another problem within the companies I want to talk about, but I'm technically not allowed to talk about it... (even though I posted a link in one the forums earlier about said problem) As for not being able to buy your comics, there are tons of great sites that will ship comics to your house.

www.grahamcrackers.com For example! "

" @inferiorego said:

" @Voidheart said:

" I don't know what to think of this yet, i mean, if the demand cannot be fullfilled AE overpriced or unlocated (not buyable anywhere near) then its the sole companies fault. "

There is another problem within the companies I want to talk about, but I'm technically not allowed to talk about it... (even though I posted a link in one the forums earlier about said problem) As for not being able to buy your comics, there are tons of great sites that will ship comics to your house.

www.grahamcrackers.com For example! "

 its not the comic companies doing it.. "

" If anything declining sales should wake up publishers so that they stop printing crap, i.e. Uncanny 500 on forward. It's the world we live in. Prices have gone up on nearly everything so someone should stop and think to themselves how they can make their issue of X-Men better so that when someone is torn between buying bread and that new comic it's a tougher choice to make.  "

may all those who steal comics from them burn in fictional comic book hell

" Downloading Often Is Terrible "

" @Slinger said:

" Downloading Often Is Terrible "

what kinda word is Diot? "

" @Nahero said:

" @Slinger said:

" Downloading Often Is Terrible "

what kinda word is Diot? "

like I-diot? "

" The Acronyms Get Extremely Tiring "

Yep.

No one can whine about the economy to justify this. Piracy is one of the factors that landed us here in the first place. And by continuing, you're only making it worse. Eventually people will cry about how their favorite comic gets dropped because no one's paying money for it. Who'd be to blame?

On an unrelated note; this thread's title is reminding me of something from Warren Ellis' blog. If I linked to it I would get in trouble.

On a more topical note; I really don't like the idea of pirating comics, that kind of thing is for movies, music, and rum.

" Yep.No one can whine about the economy to justify this. Piracy is one of the factors that landed us here in the first place. And by continuing, you're only making it worse. Eventually people will cry about how their favorite comic gets dropped because no one's paying money for it. Who'd be to blame? "

" On an unrelated note; this thread's title is reminding me of something from Warren Ellis' blog. If I linked to it I would get in trouble.. "

Wow, who knew stealing comics could lead to murdering thousands for heroine?
Seriously though, stealing is wrong and it builds character to spend your cash.

" Wow, who knew stealing comics could lead to murdering thousands for heroine?Seriously though, stealing is wrong and it builds character to spend your cash. "

"people spend their cash all the time on stuff "

Stealing comics will lead you to drug smuggling and murder, haha.

Maybe that's not exactly what will happen, but yeah, I'm 100% against stealing.

When I was in the 6th grade I stole a comic from a convienence store. For the thrill.  I never knew you could do it.

The next day my kinda friend told his preppy friend that I stole it... turns out it was the preppy's uncle's store.

I felt really low after that.

It was like I was the lowly farmboy who stole something from the rich people.  True story.  I still cry at night.