Thursday, January 19, 2012

NO SOPA RADIO

With all the talk about SOPA lighting up the internet (this post was inspired by a spirited discussion on Twitter last night), digital piracy is on everyone’s mind.  I’m far from an expert on the subject, but it’s clear, in our burgeoning Download Age, that this problem will be with us for the long haul. 

We’re in a time of shifting models and the entertainment conglomerates are tap-dancing on quicksand, trying to figure out how to deal with those shifts, how to adjust to the new templates, before they sink and disappear.  They’re not just worried about piracy:  they’re worried about a dizzying new world where the line between creator and audience is growing thinner and thinner.  Where a band can record, market and sell their material without the need of a label; where filmmakers and authors can jettison movie studios and publishers and do the same.  Given all that, the conglomerates’ terror and confusion is understandable; but bringing down a legal hammer so broad that you don’t just smash the bad guy but crush the skulls of everyone in sight means you really need to rewrite your law. 

There’s always been some kind of piracy around entertainment.  When I was a teenager, I’d borrow albums from friends and tape-record them.  It was a way to get familiar with an artist and his work.  If I liked that artist, I’d go out and buy his music, so the “free sample” worked to the artist’s advantage in the end.  I think the same is true now.  A certain amount of free sampling is inevitable and, up to a point, a valuable tool for building an audience.  I'm certainly not advocating piracy, it's money out of my pocket (as Ron Marz has pointed out, that loss is magnified on creator-owned comics where most writers and artists are working for free, hoping for payback down the line), but there are always shades of gray, especially when dealing with a thorny, complex topic like this: 
not everyone who downloads an album or comic book is a felon   



The bottom line—my bottom line, anyway—is this:  If you’re enthusiastic about a particular creator, buy his or her work and then let others know about it.  If you spread the word via file-sharing, it’s not much different than loaning a friend one of your books or CDs.  Just as I once became an obsessive fan after taping my friends’ vinyl albums, many of your friends will become fans who’ll spend their hard-earned money on actively supporting that creator’s work.

I believe, to the core of my being, in the decency of human beings and I don’t think the average person expects, or wants, to get content for free if it means depriving artists of their livelihoods.  People understand that writers, illustrators, filmmakers and musicians make their living, feed their families, with their songs and stories and movies.  As others have pointed out, iTunes has demonstrated brilliantly that consumers will happily pay for the thing they were getting for free.  If the experience is simple, intuitive and attractive and the price is reasonable, people will be banging down your (cyber) door.  As the iPad, Kindle and devices like them become more common, and as more and more work becomes available in easily-accessed digital forms, I think we’ll see less piracy.  But the sad truth is, the people who think they never have to pay for anything—who in some warped way believe they deserve free content—will always be with us.  These voracious gobblers are the real problem, deserving of a well-targeted legal hammer.  


So, yes, let’s get some excellent anti-piracy legislation out there.  But let’s do it wisely and well.

©copyright 2012 J.M. DeMatteis

20 comments:

  1. I'd like to see a 'share' option worked out on comixology, something where you could lend a comic to a friend at a lower price but the comic would 'time out' like a digital rental. Currently you can 'gift' a comic at full price, but maybe a 'rental' option would fall somewhere between that and buying it out right. I'm sure comic companies and digital distributors are our there right now trying to find innovative ways to do things like this in a way that builds instead of undermines sales.

    I also tend to think that keeping digital pricepoints lower than print would reach a broader audience. As long as the market is dominated by the pricepoint that comics enthusiasts are willing to pay, you're not going to bring in a mainstream audience.

    BTW, you already see this with 'all-ages' comics, which tend to go for around a buck on comixology.

    DC and most of the independent companies drop their comics a $1 after a month, which is a good start, but it still puts everything mainstream at $2-$3, at a time when songs range from .90 cents to $1.30.

    --David

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  2. I LOVE the idea of a "share" option, David. I think it's brilliant.
    And, unsurprisingly, I pretty much agree with everything else you say here.

    I think the next few years will see more shifts as the kinks are worked out of what is still a new form and format. Talk about living in interesting times!

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  3. Interesting--and wonderful!

    Comixology has been a Godsend for me and my family.

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    1. One of these days I'll get an iPad and leap into the digital comics world.

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  4. If not for file-sharing, I never would have gotten into the Beach Boys. After I put together a "greatest hits" compilation with MP3s that I had gotten through file-sharing, I decided to dig deeper into the band's catalogue, at which point I started buying their stuff. The 30-Years of Good Vibrations box set. The Pet Sounds Sessions box set. The CDs for every album they put out from 1965 through 1977. And then there's the new, mammoth SMiLE Sessions box set--even though I have a vast collection of bootleg recordings from those sessions. The Beach Boys made some real money off of me... all because of the existence of file-sharing software.

    Just my two cents.

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  5. You're a pirate with a heart of gold, Glenn!

    But, seriously...you prove my point: Yes, there are real dangers from digital piracy and those people who live to take advantage of artists for their own greed and gain; but most of us are just searching for music (or stories or films) that we love and, given half a chance, we'll throw LOTS of money at the artists who touch us.

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  6. I'm absolutely against illegally downloading movies. I felt for the guy who directed WOLVERINE when the movie leaked out onto the Internet before it was even released. Doesn't matter that the movie sucked, it doesn't mean that it's okay to sabotage its performance at the box office. (I've heard pirates rationalize their actions by saying that they're actually protecting moviegoers from wasting their money on garbage, and if they actually like the movie, they'll pay to see it again. I don't accept that--at least, not completely.)

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    1. I was thinking about the WOLVERINE situation as I was writing this, Glenn. The "protecting moviegoers" argument really means "I want to see this before anybody and I don't want to pay for it."

      On the other hand, I think there are plenty of folks who download TV -- sometimes because they don't have access to it via normal channels -- who are then very happy to go out and buy season after season on DVD. Or rent the discs from Netflix. So the download generates business.

      And (just to play devil's advocate), who's to say someone doesn't download a movie, love it, tell his friends about it and then drive business into the theaters? I'm not saying it's right -- but even here there are layers and levels.

      Which is why I don't envy anyone who has to put this legislation together.

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  7. "On the other hand, I think there are plenty of folks who download TV -- sometimes because they don't have access to it via normal channels -- who are then very happy to go out and buy season after season on DVD. Or rent the discs from Netflix. So the download generates business."

    Absolutely! I'm one of those folks myself. It's how I got into quite a few TV series that I ended up buying in their entirety on DVD. And it's how I caught up on some shows when I missed an episode here or there or when the damned cable box malfunctioned right in the middle (Modern Family, Two and a Half Men, Breaking Bad).

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    1. No arguments here, Glenn. Great minds think alike!

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  8. I wouldn't have discovered Savior 28 if it wasn't for file sharing which then led to me ordering all the issues through my comic store.
    For me at least, file sharing leads to purchases I would normally make.
    Sadly know people that don't put $ back into what entertains them.
    Its a tricky topic that's for sure, but the solution is most certainly not the US gov't arresting people on the other side of the planet at gun point to secure rich peoples interests.

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    1. I think your story is the typical one, Harley. Folks use file-sharing for sampling and then, when they find work that excites them, they go out and buy it. I think it helps when the companies themselves offer free previews, allowing the consumer to get a taste of the material.

      And big thanks for supporting Savior 28. It's a project that's near and dear to my heart.

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  9. I've never been one for file sharing or downloading content. Perhaps it's because SStan Lee and Wll Eisner will right and it hust feels good to have a hard copy of comics (and books and music for that matter) or maybe it comes from my inherant distrust of computers, or habit, or any number of possibities. That being said that is the world we live in. Now one could make the argument that the differance between downloading and taperecording is that the lesser quality of the recording could eventually lead you to seek out a legitimate copy of the music. But let's be honest here, technology is rarely if ever a solely beneficial thing. No matter what brililliant new technology comes along people will always find away to use it todo two things; first they will find away to gain for themselves without giving anything, and second they will use it for the most base or stupid things. This leads to a need to protect certain things. And yes, I completely agree that legeslation is needed but it needs to be good, and that it will at best slow the bleeding. However my point being that I wouldn't hold your breath on it. For God's sake, instead of first eliminating the naturally occuring waste in every part of the government, and politically minded folk, argued about what government agencies should be eliminated entirely from the word go. and in the time that would have taken, almost nothing happened at all. This of courseis coupled with the natural bickering from both sides of this or any discussion. After all doesn't completely preventing your website from being viewed for a day seem a tad petty and juvenille, even if it does make the point clear. So in the end I agree with, you but am not as optimistic as you, this whole thing was an exercise in utility.
    But I thing the real question Mr. Dematteis is whether you have gotten the PKD Exegesis yet?

    wishing you nothin, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
    Jack

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  10. Great, as always, to hear from you, Jack. And thanks for the thoughtful comments. As I've said, this is a thorny complex issue, but I think we'll soldier on and find a solution. Will it be an imperfect one? Of course. We're human, it HAS to be imperfect (and therein lies our perfection, right?).

    As for the more important question: No, haven't read EXEGESIS. Have you?
    If so, let me know what you think.

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  11. I got into comics 2 years ago via file-sharing (got curious after seeing so much superhero films). I've got addicted :) and now I have a library of 45 TPBs, which I will continue seriously growing in the upcoming years, because I know this is a hobby I'll have forever.

    Without file-sharing, I think Marvel/DC would never get to sell those issues to me, because maybe I wouldn't get to try comics... I wonder if they did some research on how their customers got into comics, if they'd support SOPA. Does any one knows of some research about this? (i.e., I'm in the minority or majority of customers?)

    Obs.: one of that 45 TPBs is Kraven's Last Hunt, amazing read by the way :)

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  12. It would be interesting, and valuable, to see a survey that looked at how people got into comics and what percentage of file-sharers became steady, paying consumers.

    What I keep seeing is that there are two camps: people like you who use file-sharing to sample material and then go out and buy the books they like ...and the people who (as noted above) have deluded themselves into thinking that they deserve to get everything for free. I'd love to know how big each camp is. (I may be naive, but I suspect the vast majority of people are in the first camp.)

    Thanks so much for the kind words about Kraven's Last Hunt. I'm constantly amazed at the long life that story's had.

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  13. I picked up the Exegesis a week ago at Barnes and Noble when I was there to up something else. I hadn't even heard it was out. And when I saw in the corner a 59% off sticker knocking it from $40.00 to 20 I knew I had to act. I haven't started reading it proper yet, since at about 1,000 pages it is somewhat daunting. However it seems fascinating, or at least that is what I have gathered from my skimming. I do plan on starting it soon, and I am glad that it appears to be the kind of book that on one hand may will be ingedibly addictive (like a whole hell of a lot of PKD) but also it loos like the kind of book you can put down and pickup, which I am thankful for since I am somewhat back logged on books. but you know how that goes, you keep seeing thing that catch your eye, but time just keeps running by you.

    wishing you nothin, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
    Jack

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  14. Once you've had a good taste of EXEGESIS, Jack, check back and share your impressions, okay?

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  15. Something tells me, if past experiences and my own over blown expectations are any indicator, I will be telling almost everyone.




    wishing you nothin, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
    Jack

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