Eh, sort of. Agreements between publishers/distributors and bookstores include a returnability clause. If the bookstore is unable to sell a copy of a book, they can return it to the distributor. If this happens, it doesn't count as a sale and the author isn't paid. So that dog-earred Superman trade that half a dozen people have flipped through and spilled coffee on while reading it for free that no one wants to buy because it's clearly had a rough life, the author sees nothing from that.

Not ideal, but I'm cooler with that as an alternative than outright piracy.

My ideal order:

1. Library - yay books!

2. Barnes & Noble or whatever - yay relaxing afternoon!

3. Piracy - "#### you guys. Seriously." ~Thrumble Funk

Well sure, so long as you don't want to read anything on a Thursday or Sunday (in my area, anyway).



Question: Is it wrong to download something if you already own it? I've done that before when I don't have my personal copies available. I feel like it's ok since I've already paid for the material, I'm just accessing it when on the road or something.

No issues as far as I'm concerned. I rip CDs I've bought (yes, some people still buy them in plastic form) to my work computer so I can listen at work (Spotify is blocked).

Freeadultsource.com

Whoa whoa whoa...!

These days I'd prefer to stay out of internet debates like this, but that statement right there is flat-out wrong!

You do NOT have to steal. You never have to steal. The only reason I'd ever buy into the logic that "I have to steal" is if you're starving or in life-threatening danger and you needed something immediately.

You do not need to read comics. That's like saying "I can't afford the chase Heroclix so I had to steal them or I couldn't play them in the next tournament!"

Wrong!

I'm with these guys. I would say Ideally you buy your comics from your LCS. If that is not possible then order comics through a reputable online dealer. Then if that doesn't fly buy them in digital form from the publisher or comixology.

If you can't afford them then read them at the library and lastly read them at a bookstore that allows that sort of thing.

I would use the last as a complete last resort since as it has been pointed out above those books may never get bought and the artist may never receive a dime of it. With Libraries the book was bought at some point down the line and its quite acceptable to loan things out.

Lastly Piracy only serves to kill our entertainment industry. Be it in print form, video or music. When I was a teenager I never thought anyting about downloading an MP3 for free from napster or some P2P but now I realize how much it hurts inudstries and causes costs to go up accross the board. If more people priate and less people pay then the less people with morals pay more because they have to offset those that stole in order for them to make a living or have a business.

Stealing is not at all acceptable and is only understandable if you are as was pointed out before in a life or death situation like starving. Even if I knew how you could "steal" comics online Id never tell you because its wrong and I would not enable someone to hurt this industry that I love.

Its that much worse if its a creator owned comic or "Indy" comic. Those guys need our support to be able to keep creating the content we all know and love.

For those of you who say it is wrong to read comics for free, then your wrong. It is not my fault that the makers of comics can't find a better way to make money. They can do the same thing that every other website does. They can put all of the comics online, and then sell ad space. They would make money like that. That way we can read the comics for free. Instead marvel, and dc are greedy. They have many flaws, and that is one of the reasons comics are almost dead. I might actually buy a comic one of these days, but I'm going to buy them if I don't want to read them. Sopa and pipa was created so that people with a lot of money could make even more money. We shouldn't give in to things such as that. I think that everything should be free if it is on the internet. I found a way to get the comics for free. I am so glad that you all stick up for what you believe in. However, I will continue to read my comics for free.

so because they have chosen a way to make a living that you don't like you think its okay to steal their intellectual property for your own purpose? What your advocating would destroy the comics you want to read. You will find no love from any comic fans on this site or others because unlike you we would all like for our favorite comic series to be able to continue.

What goes into creating the comics you read takes a lot of time and most of the time has no promise to make you any real money.

The thinking of well just sell advertising and make it free sounds a lot like most Americans attitudes about things. I can't tell you how much this mimics the current attitude of youth in America especially.
The world does not work in that manor. You cannot say well I can't afford to or don't want to pay for it so someone else can do it for me.

That is what you are saying when you advocate just sell advertising and make it free. They already sell some advertising and the little bit they do sell is to keep costs low on books. There are times id rather pay a dollar or 2 more an issue just to remove all the ads from the pages.

Its very very difficult to make anything free just by selling advertising. There are many many costs associated even in digital only content.

You have servers you have to house your stuff on, you have your website mantinence, you have a lot fo money to pay for the bandwith necessary to offset the fact that millions of people will be wanting to buy your product.

You see create a site put your stuff on it and then make all your money on the advertising as though there aren't costs associated with doing that. Sure its cheaper to produce that print but not by much when you are printing on the scale Marvel and DC do.

You advocating being a criminal for your own pleasure and that alone make you not welcome here to me. I may not be able to speak for other people on this thread but if your willing to steal other peoples stuff by accessing it for free when it violates some type of legal agreement between artist and publisher and purchaser by making copies of the work by scanning it into a computer then so be it but I most certainly will not be speaking to you further on this or any subject on this site until your attitude about this changes.

No, I'm not. See how that works? Difference is, the law is on my side.

This is the most ridiculous statement I'm likely to read all day. Kudos.

Suffice to say you're wrong, but look up revenue structures to see exactly how wrong.

Marvel/DC don't exist to make it easier for you to read comic books for free. Period. End of story. They exist to sell a product, make a profit, and ensure that they are making enough of a profit so that Disney and related investors permit them to continue making comics.

Well, clearly your view is that we shouldn't enact legislature that would make it more difficult for pirates to be pirates.

Sorry, no. There's lots of stuff I want but can't afford. If a buddy has a comic I want to read, I'll ask to borrow it (and will lend mine out). Ditto movies, DVDs, etc.

I won't use my lack of funds to justify theft, which is exactly what you're advocating. It is theft, plain and simple.

No, we shouldn't be pirating things and becoming parasites, nor should we decide that our desire to get a free lunch should supersede the livelihood of the folks who make our hobby possible.

People with your philosophy are why SOPA/PIPA exist in the first place.

Okay, there's ignorant, and then there's ridiculously, hilariously ignorant. Your rant about why you, as a special little snowflake, should receive free intellectual property tailored to your specific tastes is breathtaking in its egotism and entitlement. I'm going to point you to this essay by David Lowery (the lead singer of Camper Van Beethoven), who was responding to a blogger who admitted that she loved music but didn't want to pay for it. As I don't expect that you'll actually read that essay (in spite of the fact that it's free), allow me to pull an especially relevant passage from it:

Now he's talking about music, but I hope that you can see the parallel with comics, because *you* are the person he's addressing.

If yall want to pay for something, then go ahead. I will read my stuff for free. Free is the way the market is shifting. I am young but that doesn't mean i'm not right.



I really loved all those chapters of ultimate spiderman.

I think that I can confidently assert that this is just about the least shocking thing you could have said. The sense of entitlement, the certainty at the rightness of your position, the childish understanding of supply and demand (for the record, "free" is not a market) - all of it screams "teenager who feels that paying for things is an inconvenience to which his generation should not be subjected." Truth sometimes emerges from the mouths of babes, but this is absolutely not one of those times.

wow color me shocked that your just a kid essentially. You will learn I can only hope. The world does not work the way your intimating and if you really believe it does then someone somewhere failed to teach you some vital lessons about money and economy.

When we say we have a free market economy that doesnt mean things are free. Then again many people in your generation feel the same way as you do so Im not suprised I can only hope you all grow out of it.

Those things you love to read won't exist if everyone stops paying for them cause then that artist and writer that crafted that book you like will have to get a real job and give up on their dream of being creative. It takes time and a lot of effort to make a comic book and these guys deserve the money they get and in some cases they deserve more than they get and your not paying for their comic and reading it for free because you don't feel you should have to pay is only hurting the chances that those things you love continue.

Continue to be a child and people on here will start treating you like one but when your ready to be a big boy and pay for this kind of content then we can talk again. Until then you probably don't belong on a big boy forum like this one.

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