The backlash over the strong arm tactics that Marvel and DC Comics have employed on Zcult.fm is gaining steam. Many comicbook fans have been quite incensed over the legal threats the Big Two have issued on the website. The consensus has been universal, Marvel and DC are hurting true comicbook lovers and not just random hit-and-run downloaders just in it for a quick comicbook fix. In almost every forum that I have visited, the same sentiment is being raised. Marvel and DC’s actions is a big disservice to loyal fans and they are going to show their dissatisfaction by boycotting Marvel and DC titles.
Marvel and DC may have miscalculated their move. They might have thought that majority of comicbook buyers do not use the internet, much less use P2P networks. By hitting at the core of the present comicbook buying demographic they are endangering the very customer base that they rely on to stay afloat.
Will a massive boycott of Marvel and DC comics prove to be successful. I honestly don’t know, but I fully support this boycott. Hopefully, it will become significant enough that these comicbook companies will take notice and reassess their stance.
So let me get this straight.. the people that usually read the majority of their comics in scanned form are now going to boycot Marvel by not buying comics?
Yes, because these people who read scanned comics also go out and buy those same comics at their favorite comic shops. I suggest you read the comments posted in the other blog post on Zcult.
I buy around $50 a month worth of Marvel titles at my LCS in DE. I read comics as a kid and got back into it at 32 because I found Zcult on the web downloaded some of my old favorite titles and started collecting again. There were some titles I found on Zcult, liked and started buying and other titles (probably less than 3) that I just read the downloaded version. Regardless, now at 35 I don’t feel the need to spend more than I am spending to stay involved in comics. I’ll probably hang it up until I can pay a subscription like $10 a month for unlimited access to new and old Marvel titles. The caveat to this is if there are enough guys like me out there who withdraw thier fiscal support over this, Marvel (and DC for that matter) won’t have the capitol to develop their online catalog. This is a bad move on thier part, and I think it’s going to hurt them. I see the need for a more legitimate online solution but they shouldn’t have dinged their supporters like this until they had it ready.
DC and Marvel are in the right here. These scans are illegal, plain and simple. Also if you check it out, Marvel and DC are both working toward their own plans for offering digital comics online and the illegal scans are hindering that. DC and Marvel have a legal obligation to protect their copyrighted material or they risk losing their rights to it. While they probably do not go after every source of digital comics on the web, it makes sense for them to bring down the more public offenders. You want to read comics? Buy the books, cheap asses. This boycott is a joke. I guarantee you that 90+% of the jokers claiming to boycott weren’t paying customers to begin with. I spend roughly $500 a month on comics, and I have no plans to boycott over something like this.
:(
I too am an older, and sad to say now portly, boy/man who’s returned to comics because of the scans. But I like to own. That’s the thing about comics, you like to read, but you WANT to have it too. And that’s not going to go away.
As for the Marvel/DC action I see it as the battle of old media format vs. new format. I’ve been writing it