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Downloading Comics is Theft.
I do not agree with this. Theft occurs when something physical is taken. Downloading is simply making a copy. Theft is if there is a monetary loss due to that thing being taken. I can tell you now, I would never have paid for the invisibles, or even known about it, Grant Morrison, or his other more recent work (which i have paid for, at least, the stuff i've liked) if it wasn't for downloadable invisibles being available. So at least in my case, I've actually become a customer due to downloading. In fact, I have bought several issues of the Invisibles that were available to me even though i owned digital versions becasue there is a big difference between the physical object and a computer screen. And that difference is worth money, at least to me.
Now I realize that every situation is not the same, especially if people are downloading and reselling, that's obviously wrong, or if people are downloading and never buying ANYTHING, also that's wrong. But I'm a person, that if I had never been exposed to the invisibles by either (1.) downloading it for free or (2.)reading a friends copy for free (essentially the same thing), then I wouldn't have been a customer of Morrisons' EVER. How this can be likened to theft, i don't know, because i'm sure there are plenty of you that have read a book or comic of your friends that you didn't buy. Is that also theft ? I don't think so. It's just a little more widespread now.
The same thing with CDs. I have downloaded many CDs, didn't listen to them much or didn't like them, and threw them away. However, I have downloaded much music I really liked, and because I feel the artist (and even the label) deserves payment, gone out and bought those albums. (and made nicer lossless FLAC copies too ;0P) Those are albums that I would not have bought without being able to freely listen and make up my own mind. They ought to offer free listening of this in record stores, and make record stores more like a library, where there are quiet booths and people can listen via a networked computer system to all the releases in the store, then if they really like something, they can buy the hard copy or transfer it to their computer or device digitally and securely (and at a discount, good idea!) But these things are not being done, and they won't be done, and that, along with the ridiculous overprice of the music CDs, is what is causing the music industry so much trouble. It's simply greed and refusal to accept a new paradigm.
Comics are in a better position than music because seeing something on the screen is not as nice as having a hardcopy, period. Especially if those hardcopies use innovative printing techniques and materials, you just can't reproduce that.
I would also like to point out the issue of quality. It's been well known in recent years the quality of both comics and music has been in decline, and yet when something good comes out, it still sells and makes a lot of money. I think the companies in question, and those involved need to worry less about such so-called theft and more about ensuring a product is actually worth the very expensive price in an economy where luxury items are the first things to be cut during a downturn period. |
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