Since Newsarama and torentfreak picked up the story, this letter has received a bit more attention than I ever thought it would. I'd just like to clear up a couple of things:
1) This was written in a bit of a hurry, and without realizing it would eventually be seen by a hell of a lot of people. So cut me some slack.
2)Marvel's response to this whole issue (as seen in the email thread posted around the place) has been measured and fair at all times. They've never threatened legal action or gone beyond the stage of asking me to take their stuff off the tracker / site. The one time their email did get a little 'snarky' (the 'other publishers comment) they apologized for it in the next email.
3)This was in no way meant as a moral excuse for pirating, Marvel (and indeed any other intellectual property holder) has every right to do what they will with their property. This letter was meant to say 'I respect your right to do this, but I disagree with it' rather than the 'you'll never take me alive copper' tone some people have been assigning to it.
With that out of the way, here's the original 'letter'.
This letter comes about in the wake of several important developments in comics on the internet, and in particular Marvels recent launch of its online comics service.
Up until recently, The 'big two' in comics (Marvel and DC) have turned a blind eye to the rampant pirating of their comics and their distribution online via usenet and bittorrent. I'd make the argument that the recent upsurge in the popularity of comics, and the growth of the industry as a whole is due to, not in despite of this policy. A policy that Marvel has thrown out in recent days with it's cease and desist letter to popular comics website Zcultfm.
Marvel seems to be operating under the impression that stamping out piracy is the way forward, that people downloading scans of comics aren't buying the print versions and the way round this problem is to clamp down on illegal distribution and point people at their online service instead.
I (and the many other people who use this site) can already see this isn't going to work. Not only that, but it's a completely misguided idea to begin with. You only have to look at the example of the RIAA and it's persecution of music downloaders to see that attacking fans who want to see / listen to your product is not only misguided, it's downright stupid.
As things stand at the moment, Marvel and DC are in an enviable position. Their fans love them. People download comics not because they don't want to buy them, but because they want an electronic version they can read, and organise more easily without damaging their precious print versions. Look at any one of the users of Zcult or this site and you'll find they have vast libraries of print comics neatly catalogued and safely put away, and they keep the scans on their computer where they're easily accessible. Marvel's recent online service, while a nice first tetative step into the online world isn't what people want from electonic comics. You can't download the comics to your machine (only read them online) and the selection of comics available is sparse at best. The other enviable aspect of Marvel / DCs position is this: Their product has a value above and beyond it's content. People don't download comics instead of buying them, they download comics as well as buying them. And then there's the vast sums of money in the industry that don't even come from the comics... movies, merchandise etc. That money isn't going to shrink because a few people download comics, it's going to vastly increase as more and more people get into comics after checking them out online.
Marvel (in my opinion) has the chance, now, to show the way forward for intellectual property holders in the digital age. Don't try and stop the pirates, embrace them as the true fans they are and let them do the work of spreading the word about your product. Yes, it's a gamble...but it's one that, when it pays off will do your reputation and more importantly your product the world of good.
Topic: An open letter to Marvel. (Read 2007 times)
