****UPDATE****
The Vote incentive has been updated with the Indigo Tribe image! (Or Purple Lantern) Click and vote to see who was chosen to be the Shadowgirls emissary of compassion!
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Today’s Lindsey strip brings up the topic of piracy in a flippant manner. The viewpoints of the characters in the story do not necessarily represent that of the authors but with the advent of the Ipad, (the OH so shiny Ipad) I have noticed that the discussion over comic book piracy has come to the forefront again.
Interestingly enough, Shadowgirls is pretty much immune to piracy of this sort since we post everything for free anyway. (One of these days we’ll figure out how to monetize that better but that is beside the point.) Traditional comic books (including Starkweather, interestingly enough) have been appearing on torrent sites all over the place. The goal of some of the IPad apps is to provide the same easy access of those files but at a higher quality than is possible with scans. Now, I don’t know if this is actually going to work but I do find the arguments defending piracy interesting. I’m not going to say that I’ve never done it, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried to excuse it as anything else. But the people who are saying “I only pirate things I can’t find anywhere else or things that are out of print.” Well that’s super duper awesome that you’re a very selective thief but don’t tell me that it’s anything else.
I can’t predict what the Ipad is going to do to combat piracy. I like to think that the people who actually were selective pirates would prefer to pay the buck or so to get that out of print copy of DNAgents, but my experience has shown that people who get things for free are in no hurry to spend money on it. I think it will bring new readers in but I don’t see it causing a conversion. And please don’t start the “Gosh, but the Ipad will never smell like comics. I need to have a physical book in my hand.” That’s great for you. I’m really glad. Some of us need our basements back and would like to collapse 30 longboxes into something I can hold in one hand.
What do you guys think?
Oh right….the page. Please VOTE and see what’s going with Lindsey.
I’m not sure how the iPad will “combat” piracy. If anything it might encourage it. As an iPad owner myself, I’ve found myself practically gorging as many comics as possible because the iPad is so great at reading comics. I haven’t “pirated” a comic yet, but I’ve have written a small script in Python to strip webcomics and archive them so I can view them on my iPad without having to go online (of course I’m not going to release the script EVER because I’d be hated forever by all webcomic artists.)
Although I am only speaking for myself, if it was possible to pay for the comics I’d pay for them provided they were reasonably price (like how e-Books are discounted compared to the print edition.) I’d imagine though if they wanted to prevent piracy altogether they’d have to be priced aggressively (like Appstore aggressive pricing) or have an extremely convenient distribution model.
Meh the secretary?
I’m not sure how the iPad will “combat” piracy. If anything it might encourage it. As an iPad owner myself, I’ve found myself practically gorging as many comics as possible because the iPad is so great at reading comics. I haven’t “pirated” a comic yet, but I’ve have written a small script in Python to strip webcomics and archive them so I can view them on my iPad without having to go online (of course I’m not going to release the script EVER because I’d be hated forever by all webcomic artists.)
Although I am only speaking for myself, if it was possible to pay for the comics I’d pay for them provided they were reasonably price (like how e-Books are discounted compared to the print edition.) I’d imagine though if they wanted to prevent piracy altogether they’d have to be priced aggressively (like Appstore aggressive pricing) or have an extremely convenient distribution model.