This is going to be an internet trainwreck of epic proportions. It looks as though the entire online comic community is already choosing sides as we speak.

“Peter David sure knows how to throw down the thunder.”

He would know, because he’s an eagle and we’re ants, or somesuch.

And once again comic fans and enthusiasts are treated like the enemy. It’s beyond stupid.

When will these guys figure out how the internet works? These are your customers. This is your new exposure. This is getting people involved. This is your free promotion. This is your new age of fanzine. This is your fandom!

Whenever they stop with the poor me “stop ABUSING us internets!” attitude and learn how to engage the online community in constructive ways it might just be a brand new day for comics.

Also, Gail Simone has spoken out in support of the group:

http://schmevil.livejournal.com/161736.html?thread=1006024&format=light#t1006024

The fan entitlement mentality around their favorite site devoted to piracy and whining about out of context spoilers is ridiculous.

scans_daily was a toilet of comics fandom, and all their idiot fans promising to pirate comics instead of buying them and telling Peter David to die prove that point more succinctly than any argument I could ever make.

As soon as a copyright infraction is made definitively aware to the copyright hodler, it has to be addressed in one way or another. If they don’t, the legal argument is that someone else can come along and make the case that they are not enforcing their copyright, and can challenge it, or simply do something with it themselves. It’s the same line WB makes with the Harry Potter sites, or Lucasfilm with the Star Wars Sites.

If they wanted to, the publishers could come down on the reprinting of single panels as well, but they don’t, because they’re aware that publicity is a good thing. I’m wholly confident that plenty of the people at the publishers know full well the value of the promotion things like this gives them. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t be reading previews, or even full issues here.

Right now there are any number of places to get samples of the comics. And if one wants to know everything that happened

But as I say, as soon as someone turns the light on and points at the elephant in the room in front of witnessess, you’re not allowed to ignore it anymore.

PAD is not so petty a man as to shut down a website over this. I simply don’t believe that. SOMEONE did, and LiveJournal did what it’s legally required to do when presented with such a complaint.

Yes, lots of people got turned on to books as a result of the site. Yes, a lot of people saved a great deal of money thanks to the site. Did they even out? Odds are against it.

MP3 sales have not been decimated by MP3 piracy – if it were, iTunes would have closed its doors, so too Rhapsody, emusic, etc etc etc. MP3s in general have changed CD sales, that’s certinly true. But color TV sales had an effect on B&W set sales, and nobody tried to block their sale. New stuff replaces old stuff, if the new stuff is better, cheaper, or sometimes just pushed by a prettier person. This is how things go. When cars outstripped horses and carrianges, no one asked Congress to enact a law requiring people to keep buying buggywhips.

This is now a simple issue. There are benefits to be had for all at any point of the number line between the knee-jerk “no samples – come and buy the book or nothing” and the fantasyland “digital copies for all, pay what for feel like paying”. The most money is located in the middle. The bell curve WORKS.

“That everybody should get everything for free? That creators and copyright holders should just accept the fact that their works are pirated and distributed freely? Uhuh, yeah, right. Keep up the bullshit defense.”

As opposed to your bullshit offense?

The internet is as useful a promotional tool as any other. In many ways MORE useful because of the sheer number of YOUNG people using it, and their willingness to share their opinions. People have become world-famous for thirty seconds of video and millions of people saying “you HAVE to see this!”

Properly used (and, yes, policed) it can be an incredible platform for getting new readers. This site, MySpace Comics, CBR, the list goes on. Scans-Daily can and should have been part of that set.

But to belabor a point, it would be easier and more justifiable for the publishers to curtail digital distribution if they offered one.

PAD already said he wasn’t responsible for s_d being shut down.

And there’s no proof out there that shows that comic sales benefitted from sites like s_d or Pirate Bay. Sorry, there isn’t.

“What is my offense?”

Your gross vilification of the people who support S_D, or even suggest that S_D in some form MIGHT have been a good idea as “random idiots”.

It’s a common practice, I use it myself. But it’s best used to show the extreme of BOTH sides, to cast light on the fact that the answer often lies somewhere in the middle, away from the two in-the-minority extremes.

As a rule, the more outlandish you try to make your opponent look, the more outlandish you make yourself look. And the easier it is for people to discredit you for using such outlandish stereotypes.

It’s the end of an era. First YouTube, now scans_daily.

“Out of how many posters?”

I only needed one to refute Ken’s point: “Nowhere I’ve read have people acted like they have a right to it, that’s the biggest strawman on this whole topic.”

I only needed one.

“Like you do, apparently?”

Hard to make a scapegoat out of a group that, unfortunately, has far too many members willing to go like lemmings over the Cliffs of Insanity.

As soon as a copyright infraction is made definitively aware to the copyright hodler, it has to be addressed in one way or another. If they don’t, the legal argument is that someone else can come along and make the case that they are not enforcing their copyright, and can challenge it, or simply do something with it themselves. It’s the same line WB makes with the Harry Potter sites, or Lucasfilm with the Star Wars Sites.

Vinnie, that’s trademark, not copyright. That’s a completely different issue. Copyright is what says that other people can’t copy your work without your permission, or produce new works based on it. Trademark is what says that other people can’t use your name, title, logo, etc.

Think Captain Marvel. DC owns the copyright on the character who gets his powers by saying “Shazam!” Marvel owns the trademark on putting the word Marvel in a comic book title. That’s why DC’s Captain Marvel books all have titles like “The Trials of Shazam!”

Trademark has to be actively protected to show that you’re using it. But copyright only ends when a certain amount of time has passed or when the copyright holder deliberately releases it. There’s a statute of limitations on any given instance of infringement, but if you miss it, you only lose the right to take action on that instance. In the case of scans_daily, even if the community had been around longer than that limitation, DC or Marvel would still be able to go after S_D for newer posts.

The whole difference and similiarities between trademark and copyright infringement thing is confusing to me. Hope things can work out to keep everyone happy.