You know, sometimes, it's hard to be a comics fan on the blogosphere.Admittedly, I was not what you would call a regular visitor to Scans Daily - mostly, when I saw a link on Mike Sterling's (or some other blogger's) site with some wacky, zany schtick...or to get my regular dose of Greg Horn pornface.
So I was pleasant surprised to hear that Livejournal pulled Scans Daily due to actions by Peter David (please see his explanation here). In short, the Internet is starting to crack in half, with some arguing that it is an infringement on creator's rights....with many others citing that it was an example of "fair use". Of course, there are also the rather mature, intellectual bloggers who take the moral high ground in this discussion.
On the one hand, I believe strongly in creator's rights - that, quite frankly, people should be able to make a living and not have their work distributed/used inappropriately. If someone asks that something that is not public domain be removed, it should be removed. It's respecting another's creative rights, and simply put - doing that is probably the most appropriate thing.
And Scans Daily...did nothing wrong.
Granted, I'm not a Livejournal guy - it's way too emo for me - but Scans Daily did very little wrong. Posting a few pages from current comics....ok, maybe posting spoiler pages was inappropriate. (Not visiting the site on a regular basis, it's hard for me to judge). Most of what it did was...well, if I were a comic author, I'd be much more worried about comic torrent sites than Scans Daily. (And for the record - I've tried torrenting comics and reading them. I hate it. I bought the comics I torrented as a way of making amends). Peter David acted well within his rights...although I kind of wish he didn't, he made his choice. And that needs to be respected.
Of course, some other notable comic bloggers have taken it upon themselves to...well, be hyper-critical of Scans Daily for whatever reason. Like I said, I haven't really engaged the community, and I can't really say. Besides, whenever I read comments like those....by not putting too fine a point on it, I'm reminded of a specific Clash lyric.
And now, onto the next brouhaha!
3 comments:
Torrent sites are much more difficult to get shutdown than an LJ account. If you recall, Marvel did target one torrent site that was serving illegal comic book downloads. The argument that there are greater evils out there for the publishers to address is not a valid reason for them to skip addressing ones like Scans Daily in the meantime.
I guess I'm not seeing the "evils" of Scans Daily. (And granted, I admit - I don't visit there on a regular basis, so I may be missing something).
There's a huge difference between reposting whole comics and a few pages - even with spoiler-y bits, and I haven't seen it on Scans Daily.
I never had to buy a currant comic as long as Scans Daily was up...now I have to spend my recession money on comics? :(
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