On scans_daily: my comics manifesto, let me show it to you

[cerusee]

I know the internet's afire with this already, but I haven't seen this perspective anywhere else yet, so here goes:

Re: the recent deletion of scans_daily: it was inevitable. I'm not feeling entirely blase about its permanent suspension, because although a TOS on copyright issues was inevitable, it seems pretty clear that what triggered the TOS wasn't actually the copyright pigeon coming home to roost, but rather stupid, petty wank over bruised feelings, and I have no respect for that. And scans_daily was fucking awesome; I loved reading stuff there, and reading discussions. I followed it and commented there for years--since at least 2004, maybe even 2003--and have enjoyed it, through its many ups and downs and interesting wanks.

But a TOS over copyright would have happened eventually anyway, because from a legal vulnerability standpoint, it really does not matter whether a half-an-issue posting cap is set as a good faith effort to emphasize that the scans are about sampling, review, and discussion, not intended as substitution for supporting commercially available material: a community as big and old and well-known as scans_daily was gonna get a TOS sooner or later. The fact that it was later, and the open acknowledgment of it in so many industry-nigh comics circles, strongly suggests to me that it was left alone out of the correct belief that it did no actual harm, and was a lively, passionate venue for comics discussion. But the copyright thing--yeah, there was just no way someone wasn't going to be so generous about it, eventually.

It's amazing how many people out there are still arguing about whether or not the half-an-issue-max sample size constituted fair use. Good lord, no; however you are examining the material and the venue, there is no question that probably hundreds of scans_daily posts exceeded any interpretation of fair use* on material still protected under copyright. I know I've argued with other community members about this--not that I strongly advocated cutting that half-the-issue limit down, I don't much care, but it showed such mind-boggling ignorance of the actual nature of fair use and copyright law that I couldn't let it go. I am an LIS student, and I was a Communications major as an undergrad. I have read the DMCA in its entirety, and quite a lot of material on copyright otherwise. I am not a lawyer, but unlike most people, I actually have some idea what the fuck I'm talking about with regards to copyright.** scans_daily violated copyright. A lot. It's not too hard to do; copyright's much more restrictive than most people realize.

I can't say as I ever gave a fuck about all that copyright violation, since I think modern copyright is totally insane, the community did no harm, and I don't think it's morally wrong to break rules whose function is either evil or silly (although I do care about respecting the legitimate functions of copyright, like financially recompensing publishers and creators who are alive for their work).*** The defense of what scans_daily did not lie in fair use. And by the way, the defense doesn't really lie in the community's function as a grassroots advertising thing, either. A lot of the stuff posted there wasn't available for purchase--there was a lot of old material, material not available in languages spoken by most of the community, or in their countries. There was plenty of material you could find in reprints or in bargain bins, of course, or stuff not in print at all, but elsewhere on the web--my point is not actually, "Gee, we were just doing a service by exhibiting material that can't be purchased anywhere!", although that was sometimes true. My point is that the wide variety of stuff**** actually sampled shows the real spirit of the community, and its real function: it was a place to share, experience and respond to a huge variety of comics titles, independent of their status as commercially available properties. People did frequently start buying things because of scans_daily posts, because we all like to buy shit; people were frequently exhorted to go buy stuff that they read and liked, because when you love a property, you want it to do well, and buying it helps. But I don't think people relied on scans_daily to help them with all their purchasing decisions; it was just a nice bonus to sometimes have a chance to read a few pages and see how other people felt about it.


Here's the heart of it: scans_daily was not about buying comics, and it wasn't about not buying comics. It was about reacting to comics, and it directly incorporated them into that process with scans. I'm sorry if some creator somewhere was disappointed that it wasn't a primo viral marketing tool for them, but it's not always about you, chickadee.


And it was good for comics. It wasn't good for comics because there was some kind of direct correlation between a post on scans_daily and a sales bump; it was good for comics because for its members, it strengthened their love of comics and let them explore their interests in the kind of freewheeling, informal, fannish environment that no commercial entity can create. I learned so much from scans_daily! Long before I got interested in manga, or comics blogs, before I ever read Journalista (which for my money is one of the best places on the internet to learn more about comics, and have chances to look at cool shit), the gradually broadening content at scans_daily was introducing me to new kinds of comics. My interest in superheroes has waned over the years, and as it exists at all, is mostly just nostalgia, but due in great part to the breath and volume of material posted at scans_daily in that time, other things have taken the place of superheroes. I own a ton of manga and alternative titles because scans_daily widened my horizons. Some of it I first found there, some not, but all of it owes a debt to scans_daily's place in my comics education.

I should point out, too, that even if people aren't necessarily buying things now, places like this can keep an interest alive while there's no money for the comics habit because they're student, or a kid, or had a medical emergency, or lost a job. Just like I'm leaning heavily on my local library to supply me with reading material while I get through grad school and can't afford books, I think people can and do rely on places like scans_daily to keep track of what's out there in the comics world while they are not able to purchase everything they're interested in.***** It's shortsighted and stupid for industry pros to think of this issue only in terms of, "will we see an immediate sales boost on some item if someone posts a sample of it on scans_daily?" What they should be thinking about is, "does a forum like scans_daily help to promote the healthy, diverse, passionate, comics-reading culture that we as an industry need in order to have a future?"

The answer, by the way, is yes.


*The traditional approach the courts have taken to fair use--defining it after the challenge to use has been made, apparently on the grounds that it leaves the clause more open to legal interpretation than an enumerated list would be, and thus open to more good faith use and new applications--is confusing, god knows I know, but this is a pretty easy one. This is an issue of fact, not opinion, not motivation.

**I sort of wish more people did actually understand copyright, because if they really internalized how insanely restrictive modern copyright law is, and how likely it is to get worse in the total stranglehold it has on modern culture, they might pay more attention to the dangerous consequences of expanding and enforcing it.

***I am not a gleeful pirate. I'm not even a somber pirate. Most of the culture that I absorb, I get through legally sanctioned sources. Which is not to say I buy everything: I'm a big fan of my local library, of Netflix, and of borrowing stuff from my friends, although I tend to buy more books when I'm not being a student.

****Aside from superheros: manga and manwha--mostly bizarre stuff not licensed in the US, for some reason--bandes dessinees, strange pornography, zines, webcomics, horror titles--particularly a lot of vintage stuff, like EC and recently from Creepy, which I'd never heard of before scans_daily--lots of indy titles, things which I was not previously familiar with, and thus have no mental category for...I wish I could go paw through the old posts to flesh out my memory, but alas. Anyway, there was more besides this.

*****They probably will read more than they buy, in the end. Publishers and creators--get over it. There has never been a perfect 1:1 ration of the number of times a published item is read and the number of published items purchased, and there never will be. I wouldn't want to live in a world where there was, because it would likely involve trusted computing, which is an evil and despicable thing. Let's try not to go there, okay?

Comments

[snarp]

It feels very weird that it's gone. I stopped reading it every day a year or two ago, but I feel vaguely as if I've suffered an amputation. (That's one of the creepier things I've said this week.)

My data point: I had zero interest in any original English-language comic aside from Calvin and Hobbes before I started looking at scans_daily. After that, I bought some stuff.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Well, there is now no_scansdaily on LJ (all the discussion, none of the scans--that's better than it sounds, but it's lacking something, i.e., the scans), and Daily Scans on InsaneJournal, which has the advantage of having a fresh new start on that aggravating tags issue, but just isn't the same. Mainly because I can't read it on my LJ Flist, and that's tragic, man.

I am so far gone that the other day, when I stepped into my local comics shop to see if they had either Nana v 14 or Pluto v 1--they didn't, but they ordered them for me--I let myself get sucked into an hour-long discussion on art with one of the clerks. We agreed we like Darwyn Cooke, that Miller used to not suck, and that by and large, manga benefits from having a sense of personality and authorship.

[snarp]

You can kinda read it on your flist, if you use the syndicated feed: fourcoloredscn. (I'm not sure whether this preserves cuts and suchlike properly.)

Actual reasonable conversations at comics shops!? Surely not! (Or maybe I am just unlucky.)

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

This store bills itself as the comics shop for NPR listeners! It's so cute. The owner's primary love is for non-superhero American alternative titles, and the stock and the employees reflect that. I know more about manga than they do, but the owner takes manga seriously as a business thing, and keeps trying to pick my brain about it whenever I stop in.

[snarp]

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