For years Marvel/DC/etc have let scanning run a bit rampant. On occasion they’ll go after Z-Cult FM to try to get some torrent trackers shut down, but they’ve sort of sat on things lately.
Well, Marvel has started to make some waves. Free Comic Books is one of many sites that links to scanned comics. They generally link to large swathes of Rapidshare links but don’t take any responsibility for what is being uploaded, hosted, or linked to. They act like a middleman between scanners and people that want to read scans. Think of it as a torrent site, only more direct.
Today they were hit by a C&D that Marvel sent them:
DO NOT REQUEST ANY MARVEL ON THIS SITE WE HAVE BEEN SENT A CEASE & DESIST BY THE DMCA
This is a gray area and raises a few questions:
- Can a site that just links to pirated material really be held responsible for piracy? In the United States torrent sites have been shut down and the owners prosecuted for doing just that. But, most of the rest of the world seems to agree that simply linking to copyrighted material isn’t piracy.
- How does a scanned comic fit into the DMCA? The DMCA has a clause that exempts “ebooks”. Is a comic a book? Is a scanned comic an ebook?
- Can a site be shut down for just linking? Is that really the point behind a DMCA?
- What about sites like Scans Daily that scan and upload? Obviously illegal, but a large part of the comics community since they were the ones that broke the entire Land swipe drama.
I’m personally wondering why Marvel isn’t sending C&D’s to get the Rapidshare links taken down. I’m sure they are but after visiting the web archive to find some Marvel links… most of them are still up.
9 responses so far ↓
Mr. Monkey // Aug 22, 2007 at 1:05 pm
hi guys… yeah we not too happy about the C&D so gonna move, and actually a lot of our RS links were took down first
but we been re-uploading thats why non ’seemed’ to be down…
then the email from blogger came yesterday, by proxy of DCMA with a large list of offending posts (all marvel)
i admit it is a grey area.. but on our site has BUY THE BOOKS several times on it…
& the case ‘for’ the sites existence is there is a lot of old and rare comics on there that would only be read by collectors… or not at all
The shear density of storylines and references to prior story arcs make it difficult for readers to simply pick up a comic in the shop & read it & have had a full experience
also not everybody has access to comics, we live in a global community through the internet, but less not make the assumption everybody has a local comic shop, i have spoke to people from Iran, little cut off canadian villages, users from India… few examples that spring to mind, all ages, all walks of life all of us united by the love of art in a series of sequential boxes
Dr. E Schneider // Aug 22, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Sadly, some of the ‘gray areas’ mentioned above aren’t gray at all under the DMCA. Linking to pirated material can get you in trouble.
The DMCA is one of those laws that is clearly against the benefit of the American people and allows corporate America to use the US government like a club. The best example is that if you find a dangerous security flaw in a program you aren’t legally allowed to tell anyone, because the way the law is written it means you are telling them how to hack & exploit the flaw, not simply telling them of the danger.
I’m a professor in Digital Media, if anyone at the site has questions about this issue, post them here and I’ll try to answer them.
If the digital comics community has a message for the comics makers it should be to meet in the middle with fans on this issue and provide an alternative. Tell them not to slit their own throat with litigation like the music industry did.
SolTzu // Aug 22, 2007 at 7:04 pm
What a sad move on Marvel’s part. Not that I am sad, this move by Marvel is sad. The bigger an identity becomes and the more power an identity wields - the more oppressive it will become. This is a constant in human history.
A corporation is not really a team of people in cooperation. Through law a corporation becomes a single identity … a tyrant if you will. A tyrant which uses people for its survival and dominance.
Is this what all of those movies have done for marvel?
The following is my story and reaction. Greetings to the Marvel law advisers but a bigger greeting and the pawns who pay them.
I haven’t read a single comic book since 1989. I bought GI Joe and the Nam at my local bookstore which was closed in 1992. Both titles are under the Marvel corporation.
This website reintroduced me to comic book reading. And not just me, many people I know are sharing the stories they read. This website is bringing comic book stories into discussions between friends. I must add I have been real impressed reading them on my 19inch wide screen monitor. But I still like having them in my hands as most of my friends.
This has encouraged me to go to Forbidden Planet in Manhattan and buy many comic books to have them in my hands … and support “the scene”. My money went to Ghostrider comics.
But no more. Marvel needs to focus on these discussions between people. It is their best advertisement. People don’t really talk about movies anymore. Marvel is focusing on a website that has sparked excitement again. Now Marvel will not be a part of this excitement.
Because of this move, my money will not go to Marvel anymore. I won’t even talk about their stories anymore like I have been doing in the past year. In fact I will talk about this incident to a friend I make CDees of these comics for. He really supports Marvel comics with his money. These conversations will spread like wild-fire. Marvel is a big bad guy.
I will now be talking about and supporting Dark Horse and Dynamite. Also DC got more exciting stories than Marvel anyways. DC has been doing a great job this year. Marvel in comparison has become a bit boring. They also prefer to listen to con-artists than their own fans.
Goodbye Marvel. Good luck with your highly paid lawyers and their “advice”.
Guest // Aug 23, 2007 at 1:05 am
I haven’t read comic books in years. Just the recent movie adaptions took my attetion to comics.
It totally changed when I found “freecomicbooks”. I started to read a lot of them, became a real fan. Since I started reading the free comics, I was so excitet about that stuff that I also started to buy comics.
I mean in something as complex as the Marvel universe, you can not just read one comic. You wouldn’t understand a single word. But this way it was a perfect combination of downloaded and bought books. I would never had bought comic books, if I wouldn’t have read all the others on my computer. And, by the way, I also decided to buy some books, because “freecomicbooks” always wrote “Like it? Buy it” in their scans.
This site was good for Marvel and for comic books. It helped people to go much deeper into the Marvel universe. Therefore it helped Marvel to sell comic books.
But big companies always just see “free download? That must be baaad”. They never open their mind to what great advertising it is for them.
Maybe you guys can make a compromise with Marvel, perhaps like only hosting links to comics that are older than a year. I mean, almost nobody would buy these comics anymore anyway.
Mars // Aug 23, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Yeah, Jesus! You HAVE to buy the damn books or the industry will collapse within a year. To me it’s just an electronic comic rack. I buy the good ones, because I’m an addict and I NEED the physical copy (I thought I didn’t - I was WRONG) and recycle (read ‘put back’) the crap.
DUH!
Mr. Monkey // Aug 24, 2007 at 12:57 am
In response to mars, read the bottom of my 1st comment…
I buy too TPB’s mainly, sucker for a HB edition
Space Ramblings :: Does a Paid Online Content Model Make Sense for Comic Books? :: August :: 2007 // Aug 24, 2007 at 8:16 am
[…] at ComicsCrew.com is a story on a Marvel DMCA takedown notice to a blog that was featuring rapidshare links to scans […]
The Light Knight // Apr 16, 2008 at 11:44 am
Funny how we are using old laws to determine what is the future of information exchange. At some point in time in the future, nothing will be on paper anymore but guess what, Marvel and other companies are just trying to protect there profits because some of us just read them on the internet and wont buy them. I refuse to buy comics from companies that seem to push the little guy around (looking at you Marvel). Does anyone remember Freedom Force? At one point in time Marvel started to send C&D to every webside where artist had created skins from the game based on Marvel characters. From that moment on I refused to give my money to Marvel because of this practice. Im starting to believe if the comic industry collapses its going to because of Marvel and these types of stunts it pulls.
JB // Nov 25, 2008 at 12:12 am
Okay, speaking strictly from a marketing standpoint…
Say I’m a comic book publisher. I make my money by selling comic books.
I don’t sell back inventory.
What the hell do i care if somebody is looking at my old comic books - ones I don’t currently sell?
I’ll tell you why I SHOULD care - because giving the fans the ability to read back issues BUILDS MY BRAND. It grows fan loyalty and encourages them to go out and buy the new books - you know, those things I sell?
But wait, you say - what if your comic book company puts out a trade paperback collection of the back issues?
Same deal goes. Who buys those things? FANS. How do you grow your fan base? Oh, yeah.
And of course, fundamentally, if this is the road Marvel wants to go down, then shouldn’t they be shutting down all the comic book resale sites? Shouldn’t they be pressuring comic book shops to end the gross violation of intellectual property rights that happens every time a shop sells a back issue without paying the author and artist?
And don’t even get me started on those commie pinko libraries, that encourage people to read stuff for free! Oh, the humanity….
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