Marvel Comics Listed As A SOPA Supporter

Perhaps if Marvel wasn’t charging $5.99 for some of their books and most others at $3.99, the industry wouldn’t be having this much trouble with piracy. 11 years ago, a comic issue was around $2.25 an issue. I saw the new Fantastic Four #600 issue at $7.99. Thats absolutely atrocious for one single issue to be that expensive. I purchase a large number of comics each month, but I won’t be extorted for high prices such as these. DC has their “drawing the line at $2.99″ plan, which i’m ok with paying. Marvel and comics in paper form will go the way of the dinosaur real soon if they keep up these price hikes.

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This seriously disappoints me, having considered myself a “Marvel Girl” for a long time. Because this bill isn’t just about piracy. It’s about other implications to the internet that will slow/stop the free flow of information and make things like protests and free speech and organizing (not to mention free education, which a lot of people use YouTube for) much more difficult. I agree that piracy is a problem, but support for SOPA is not the way to go about solving it. It’s a shame that they can’t see the big picture and are only focusing on their bottom line. Then again, that’s the way of all big companies, isn’t it?

If anyone is pirating comics because they are too expensive, then they are fucking morons. No one is entitled to 2.99 or cheaper comics. If a 3.99 comic is something you can’t afford then don’t buy it. The justification that comics being too expensive, gives anyone a right to scan comics, upload them on file sharing sites or seed torrents is just stupid. In the end people doing so are just thieves.

Its also laughable to suggest that lowering prices or “holding the line” would deter or discourage pirates. A quick search can show anyone that new 52 comics are being pirated as well and not just Marvel. 

Regarding all these headlines on various blogs, I think it should be stated that DC is implicitly supports SOPA through Time Warner. While the body of most articles states that, people seem to be jumping to conclusions that Marvel alone supports SOPA by virtue of reading headlines alone on CBR, bleeding cool and this site. Only the beat seems to indicate that both companies support it.

I don’t know if the higher ups at both companies have read and understood the implications/consequences of the 70 page bill. While piracy is a problem SOPA, doesn’t seem the way to go about it.

Also ClarkFL, FF #600 was a 96 page comic with no reprinted material, which allowed Hickman to bring or tie together various concepts since the beginning of his run. Hence the 7.99 price. Of course, you are entitled to your opinion that it is a rip off, but I don’t believe it was.

SOPA is going to shut down the Internet if it passes.  There is simply no reasonable way to support it.

The reason Marvel’s name is in the title is because their name was explicitly on the list. 

By the way, a comic book today would cost only $1.66 if inflation were the only cause of increased prices.

No one is saying that price hikes gives justification for piracy. You’re an idiot if you were thinking I was making a justification for this. Im only noting the correlation between higher prices and increased piracy. I would be willing to buy more books if they were cheaper. Many others might not be pirating if the books were cheaper. Most people I know that pirate the books say that they just couldn’t afford to purchase them anymore due to increasing prices.

And no point did i state the you justified this practice nor was there any implication you did so.  

But you did suggest it as reason and anyone uses that reasoning to pirate comics they are thieves and morons in my book.

There could be a correlation between increased piracy and higher prices but it doesn’t make it right. The people you know that pirate comics because they can’t afford then are still thieves and are using it as an excuse. If I know that something isn’t within my means and I can’t afford it, then I don’t steal it.  

I can easily afford comic books, but I don’t (nor do I download comics illegally). There is no value when you compare the price to the amount of entertainment. Seriously, I could care less about the collectibility and paper quality unless it’s a graphic novel. Besides, the price for online comics from the Marvel app are the exact same price as the printed ones. WHY?

Tsk tsk, did they learn nothing from Civil War?

“No one is entitled to 2.99 or cheaper comics”

Thats true, but by the same logic, marvel isn’t entitled to us not pirating there comics. If you price your product higher then people are willing to puchase & there is a free alternative, then you have to expect a lose of sales.

If i had to take a guess for why Marvels name is on that list & DC’s is not, i’d have to say quality. DC is well aware that alot of there success with the reboot is coming from piracy & Marvel is aware that alot of the loss of there market is coming from piracy: Or to put it more plainly piracy is giving us an era of informed shoppers. People can now purchase what they enjoy & not purchase what they don’t…. All without feeling like they are missing out.

Marvels product lines have become way to incestious & in many ways lack merit for any new reader, what with many of there stories being told being interspersed over 100+ books over 12 months.

DC is still doing something similiar, but not to such an extreme & unlike Marvel DC  dropped its cover prices, without cutting pages. Marvels prices in many cases went up & its page count dropped: so you are now paying more for less.

“DC is implicitly supports SOPA through Time Warner”

ummmm, i don’t now where you got that idea, but i think you’ll find that that is not the case.

Not just an increase in price, but also an increase in marvel deciding that every single damn title is going to cross over to every other title & now we’ve added monthly double shippiong to the equation… Add into that the fact that marvel has cut back there page count across almost all books & you have people pirating those books because they no longer feel any loyalty to the brand.

Frankly this is a case of MArvel biting the hand that feeds it.

because lowering the digital price would kill the LCS, which in turn would kill the comic book industry since 99% of the planet does not own a mobile platform, doesn’t want to own a mobile platform, doesn’t want to read comics on a mobile platform, doesn’t want the security risk of a mobile platform with stored credit card data, doesn’t possess a credit card or just doesn’t want to have to purchase a $20 prepaid card from a specialty store, just to purchase a $2.99 comic.

Either the digital is just as good as the physical in which case it justifies the current price tag, or it isn’t as good in which case it should still keep the price tag & be relegated to the position of third string sales device.

sure we did… Don’t fuck with Tony Stark, becuase he’s a nut job. :D

Not so subtle.

Subtle is for people who are immune to repulsor rays. :D

I see why Marvel supports SOPA. SOPA makes it cheaper for them to go after copyright violators and since you have to sue to retain your copyright it makes good business sense to support it. I can’t logically blame any company for supporting SOPA that has to support a copyright to make money.  I can blame companies like Ford and GoDaddy that don’t get their revenue from copyright medium. I’m not supporting SOPA. I hate it and I have done everything in my power to support those that oppose SOPA. 

I said much the same thing in a comment on TechCrunch earlier today. I hate SOPA but I can at least respect the companies that are honestly fighting to protect themselves – misguided though the bill is. It’s companies like GoDaddy, which have no real reason to support this kind of bill, that I think should be burned to the ground (metaphorically speaking). So Marvel backs it… I’m okay with that. I’ll still support killing the bill, but I won’t boycott Marvel over it.

You mean the publishers weren’t being honest when they told us year after year that it was the rising cost of paper that was forcing them to increase the prices? That can’t be right!?!

Anytime someone says that $3.99 is reasonable for a 20-page comic book I show them an ad for a year’s subscription to Cosmopolitan magazine. $36 for three years and each issue is 200 pages with hundreds of people working on it. The overhead is massive and yet…

And yes, I know they have a higher circulation – but having a low circulation isn’t a reason to jack prices up, it’s a reason to lower them.

Not saying you’re wrong, but can we get a citation for that?

“ which in turn would kill the comic book industry since 99% of the planet does not own a mobile platform, doesn’t want to own a mobile platform, doesn’t want to read comics on a mobile platform”

Which is based on … what stats are those again?

“Which is based on … what stats are those again? ”

This data comes from not living in the continental united states.

The fact is that if it were not the case DC/Marvel would have jumped on Digital as its primary platform long ago. As it stands right now the technology is not at the level of technical stat nor penetration necessary for digital to be a viable tier one platform for distribution.

Marvel will never be able to end the pirated books; they’d have to shut down Usenet, private trackers, and anonymous files on uploading/downloading sites.  Killing bittorrent sites wouldn’t make a dent.  They need to pursue a new revenue model, such as sell cbr’s in the same manner the music business eventually had to sell mp3′s.

i can understand why marvels on board with this, people just scan the the comic pages and post it on there web site and tons make money off while mavels loosing alot of money having to pay for production of the books (they use high quality material) in addtion to royaltys to their writters and artists for the few number of books sold. but because of the tyranny that is the us goverment they turned a legitimate issue into a giant power grab.
 
FUCK SOPA