Bent Corner

Who didn’t see this coming? DC Comics has sent a second letter to the folks over at the comic book BitTorrent site Z-Cult FM asking them to remove all DC comics from their trackers. Both Marvel and DC had - in a joint effort - already sent a similar letter, but it was rejected by Z-Cult FM administrators because the comic book publishers failed to follow the proper Z-Cult FM procedures for getting copyrighted material removed.

Something like that.

This of course does absolutely nothing to stop the BitTorrenting of comic books. This just means that it wont be done through Z-Cult FM. People will just start using the major BitTorrent tracking sites. The same sites that people use for BitTorrenting music, movies, and TV shows.

Marvel and DC Comics can try to send a letter to The Pirate Bay.

The only thing this hullabaloo with Z-Cult FM has really done is to raise the public consciousness that a person can use the unstoppable technology of BitTorrent to download comic books for free. So much has been written this past week about Z-Cult FM. If people didn’t know about it before, they certainly do now. That in itself is ironic because Z-Cult FM was always kind of on the down-low. Not a lot really got written about the Z-Cult FM community before last week. Alexa shows that their web traffic has nearly doubled in the past week.

Maybe Marvel and DC should have just continued pretending that Z-Cult FM didn’t exist. They may have wanted to stop people from downloading comics. Instead, they may have only helped open the flood gates.

Refuse to answer a cop’s question and you and your fetus may get Tasered:

A policeman forced a pregnant woman to the ground and used a stun gun on her when she refused to answer the officer’s questions and resisted being handcuffed, authorities said Thursday.

What did cops do before they got their little electronic stun gun toys? Is there anyone they wouldn’t Taser?

I’m not sure what crime this woman committed. It’s not a crime to not answer a cop’s questions. That’s kind of the whole point of having the right to remain silent. You don’t have to answer their questions. She resisted being handcuffed, but what reason did the cop have in even trying to handcuff her?

The news that Marvel and DC Comics were finally taking an interest in BitTorrent networks such as Z-Cult FM got me wondering just what effect peer-to-peer file sharing did to their financial well being. Do peer-to-peer networks such as Z-Cult FM actually hurt the comic book industry? Are comic book publishers losing money because of Z-Cult FM?

We’ve seen what file sharing has done to the music industry. It’s been losing a lot of money because it it. Lots of money. What has it done to comic book publishers?

I found sales charts for the last ten years on Comics Buyer’s Guide. If you look at the overall sales numbers for the North American comic book direct market, you will notice that sales have actually been steadily increasing since 2004.

• 2004 - $328.25 million (5.68% increase)
• 2005 - $352.33 million (7.34% increase)
• 2006 - $395.55 million (12.27% increase)
• 2007 - $429.90 million (8.68% increase)

Z-Cult FM began in 2004. I honestly don’t know when people started downloading comic book scans. I know I first heard of it in 2004. I first learned about it from an article on Ninth Art.

There seems to be a parallel between downloading comics and buying comics. It would seem the more people download comics, the more people buy comics. That’s something not seen in the music industry. Record sales have plummeted with the popularity of peer-to-peer music sharing networks. Record sales continue to decline.

Why isn’t this true with comic books?

Updated (7 February 2008): I’ve added the 2007 figures.

From the press release:

STARMAN, the acclaimed DC Universe series created by writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris, will be collected for the first time in hardcover, on high-quality paper, in THE STARMAN OMNIBUS, a series of six volumes beginning in May.

This series will feature new covers by Harris, and will measure 6.75” x 10.25”. Collecting the entire STARMAN series, plus the STARMAN ANNUALS, SECRET FILES, 80-PAGE GIANT, THE SHADE miniseries and much more, these volumes include stories illustrated by Harris, Peter Snejbjerg, Chris Sprouse, J.H. Williams III, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, Guy Davis, Teddy Kristiansen, Lee Weeks and many others, as well as several stories co-written by David Goyer.

Scheduled to reach stores in May, THE STARMAN OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC is a 448 page title collecting STARMAN #0 and 1-16, with a cover price of $49.99 U.S.

I’ve been interested in reading this, but the third trade paperback in the series has been out of print and is extremely hard to come by. Amazon is pre-selling it for $31.49 plus another 5% if you place your order before it’s released.

It appears that people that want to use BitTorrent to acquire digital scans of comics still have a place to go to. Z-Cult FM is back online and is once again offering trackers like they were doing before they were threatened with legal action from Marvel and DC. This from the Z-Cult FM website:

Hi all fans and users of Z-Cult FM,

After much debate and thinking we have decided to take the following actions and we hope you will support what we have decided to do.

Z-Cult FM Comic Community will re-open all of its Trackers and locked down sections back to how they were earlier in the week before any legal action. We are carrying out this action for the following reasons:

• I am (We are) based outside of the US and are not therefore subject to US legislation that was present on the legal documents sent to us.
• Here at Z-Cult FM we have always had a clearly explained and signposted policy of making it clear to all comic publishers and copyright holders that we will on request (and reasonable proof of ownership) remove their material from our trackers if they requested us to. Please see: http://zcultfm.com/dmca.php
• Marvel Comic and DC Comics, who confirmed they have seen our site but refused to follow our policy. All other publishers in the past who have followed this policy have been respected and the agreed actions taken.
• Marvel Comics and DC Comics gave us 3 day to comply with their demands and then decided to go on their Thanksgiving holiday. So 2 of these 3 days we have been unable to contact Marvel by telephone to discuss this matter with them. We would like to thank DC Comics who were available by telephone and were friendly enough to talk about the situation and confirm the documents were indeed from DC Comics.
• The pressure from our members– their readers– demands that we do so.
• Chances are this won’t be the last we hear from Marvel Comics and DC Comics but once they have read our email we sent them with out response they will hopefully carefully think about their next set of actions.
• We would like to thank all our users and the number of outside sites on the Internet for their support. Without members like yourself there would be no point owning such a site.

When I first read about this, I wondered just how any legal action by Marvel and DC would play out since Serj, the guy that runs Z-Cult FM, lives in the UK. Most likely the lawyers working for Marvel and DC thought they would only have to threaten the folks that run Z-Cult FM. I guess now they will have to do more then threaten people with an email if they want Z-Cult FM to go away.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Writer: ROBERT KIRKMAN
Art: CHARLIE ADLARD
Color & Gray Tones: CLIFF RATHBURN
Lettering: RUS WOOTON
32 PAGES, BW, $2.99

Every time I tell myself that I’m going to stop buying single issues of comics and instead wait to by the collected trade paperback format, it’s THE WALKING DEAD that makes me break my resolution. When it comes to THE WALKING DEAD, I just cannot wait to read it. That’s because stuff actually happens in this book. Characters are killed or maimed. The main central character Rick had his hand chopped off by the Governor. Guess what? That hand wont be growing back. Nobody will be able to clone Rick a new hand. There aren’t any scientists around developing a robotic hand for Rick.

It’s a permanent change to the character that will be in effect for the remainder of the series.

It’s things like this that make reading this book worthwhile. It’s one of the things that sets THE WALKING DEAD apart from all the other funny books on the shelf at the local comic book shop.

This issue starts out with the Governor and his crew at the gate of the prison Rick and his people have turned into their home. They’ve come to the prison’s front gate in a an armored M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle that everyone incorrectly refers to as a “tank”. The Governor is demanding that everyone in the prison put down their weapons and surrender to him.

We find out that the “tank” is really there for show. They barely know how to drive the thing. They don’t know how to operate the M242 25mm “Bushmaster” Chain Gun. Worse, they don’t seem to know that they can fight from inside the vehicle. The M2 Bradley has side ports that allow passengers to fire their M-16 assault weapons safely from inside the vehicle. In that regard, the M2 Bradley is better then a tank. The Governor and his crew don’t seem to know this as they elect to do all of their fighting from outside the vehicle. This allows Andrea to pick off many of the Governor’s crew from her sniper position in the prison’s guard tower. That’s something she wouldn’t have been able to do if they were fighting from inside the Bradley.

Speaking of Andrea, she is featured on the cover. She is shown on the cover with her rifle and she is wearing her normal clothing. In the book, she is wearing prison riot armor. Why the inconsistent art? Artist Charlie Adlard did both the interior art and the cover art. I don’t understand why they are different.

This is once again an excellent book that’s well worth the $2.99 price tag. THE WALKING DEAD is a must read for anyone that enjoys comic books.

The popular BitTorrent blog TorrentFreak has posted about Marvel and DC cracking down on the act of using BitTorrent to distribute scans of comic books peer to peer. They also mention that a person that uploaded scans to binary newsgroups on Usenet received a similar warning letter.

Those comic fans who get their fix from Usenet don’t escape supply problems either. A prolific scanner/uploader known as ‘Oroboros’ has revealed he’s done releasing comics on Usenet. He said: “I’m done with the newsgroup. I got a DMCA notice from my newsgroup service. I have no posting abilities. I can’t even post a message saying I have to stop posting. If anyone can get to the group, please let them know that I’m done. They have my IP address in the notice and this is my one stated warning.”

He can’t even post a message explaining why he wont be posting comic scans. That’s just nutty.

I have a hard time getting behind the whole “downloading comics is a crime” notion. I have a hard time believing that it is stealing. Unlike the act of downloading music or video files, downloading comics involves something that is not available to the consumer by legal means. If you want a digital scan of a comic book that you can read on your computer screen, the only place to get it is from other people on the Internet. I would have a much easier time believing that downloading last month’s issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was a crime if I could legally purchase a digital scan of last month’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

Marvel Comics is now experimenting with digital comics with their new paid service, Marvel Comics Unlimited. The name is a misnomer. The service is extremely limited. You cannot download comics and read them using CDisplay. You have to read them online and in your web browser using a clunky interface developed by Marvel.

The overall quality of the scans is limited too. Pages I’ve looked at were blurry and the text was hard to read.

I wish Marvel Comics would try to mimic the iTunes model. I’d like to be able to purchase digital comics like I do with digital music. Why wont Marvel Comics try to sell digital comics for 99 cents an issue?

Until they do, I guess I’m stuck buying comics the old fashioned way.

I’m not sure why it took them so long, but it seems Marvel and DC Comics are joining forces to try to crack down on using BitTorrent to share comics. I assumed a long time ago that they simply didn’t care that people were downloading their comics. That doesn’t seem to be the case any longer.

Z-Cult FM, a popular comic book BitTorrent tracking site, posted a message to their website on 21 November explaining that they had been contacted by Marvel and DC Comics and as a result, all torrents had been removed from the Z-Cult FM website.

We got legal letters from both Marvel and DC Comics who have been working together to send us these legal threats. We are currently dealing with the legal issues and they have given us 3 days before they are forced to take anymore action..Z-Cult FM website was put offline last night by me (no one else) after I got the email while in work and issued a code red alert (we have drills also 5 times a year). We decide putting the site offline was best course of action to analyse the situation and decide our best course of action. We have confirmed one of the legal letters is 100% from DC Comics when a phone call was made to DC Comics who confirmed the email and its contents. As of today we was unable to contact Marvel and we are trying again tomorrow just to 100% confirm it.

I can’t help but to think that this is somehow connected to Marvel Comics unveiling their new online comic service. I have to think Marvel finally realized just how great the demand is for digital comics. The site went down numerous times because too many people were trying to access the site at the same time.

The loss of Z-Cult FM won’t stop comics from being distributed through BitTorrent. The same popular torrent tracking sites that are used to distribute music, movies, and TV files are also used for comics. They just don’t specialize in comics the way Z-Cult FM did.  The Z-Cult FM site was utilized more for torrents of older comics.  The comics that can be downloaded from the other BitTorrent sites are usually comics that came out in comic book shops that same week.

Today is Thanksgiving. It’s the one day a year that Americans throw caution to the wind and eat like total hogs and not feel totally guilty about it. We show how thankful we all are by gorging on roasted turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and dinner rolls.

I’ve gotten Thanksgiving down to a science. I avoid eating mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, green bean cassarole, and even sweet potatoes. I can eat most of that stuff any day of the year. What I can’t get much of is my mother-in-law’s cornbread dressing. To say that it’s good is an understatement. It’s beyond good. It’s fantastic. It’s a work of culinary art.  She also makes cream corn to go with it. You put the creamed corn on top of the cornbread dressing.

That’s what I concentrate on.  When there is my mother-in-law’s cornbread dressing on the table, eating food that can be had on any other day of the week is a rookie mistake.

Jarrel Gray, a 20-year old Frederick Maryland man was killed this past Sunday morning after being Tasered twice in a 23 second period by a Frederick County Sheriff Deputy. This from the Frederick News-Post:

The deputy found three men fighting, Jenkins said. A female was also on the scene.

Jenkins would not provide the names or ages of the other people at the scene, but he said the deputy was a corporal and a 13-year veteran of the department.

When the deputy told the three men to show their hands, one of them did so immediately, another walked away before showing his hands, and the third man, identified as Gray, did not comply, Jenkins said.

The sheriff said no other officers were present when the deputy deployed the Taser. Gray, of the 7000 block of Ladd Circle, fell to the ground unconscious; he was given first aid on the scene.

Emergency responders arrived in minutes, Jenkins said. Gray was then taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead about 7:30 a.m.

Gray’s family says that he was deaf in one ear and may not have understood the deputy’s instructions to show his hands.

I don’t like these Taser devices. For supposedly being non-lethal, there sure are a lot of people now dead because of them.