Kody Chamberlain Fights Comics Piracy With A Tip Jar

[Rich Johnston]

What is a creator to do when faced with the piracy of his work? Enter into expensive legislation that may only target the symptom rather than the cause, and probably ineffectively at that? Rail online at the evils of piracy? Support ever increasing encroachment of civil liberty? Or support it, safe in the belief that any and exposure is worthwhile, it will all work out in the end and ramen noodles with a little soy sauce and mushrooms picked from the local park really are a delicious treat?

Kody Chamberlain, of 30 Days Of Night, newUniversal and Sweets has gone with a third option. Placing a "tipjar" on his blog, aimed at anyone who has ever pirated any of his work.

If they enjoyed it, that is.

It's an interesting solution. It's not the first time I've seen it done but I was struck by the text that accompanied it. Does it condone piracy? It is a pragmatic solution? Is it an admission that the copyright holders have lost, reduced to begging oin the side street?

And more importantly - will it work?

[Joe Kalicki]

Smart idea, and I know Rifftrax has the same kind of thing, but it almost feels like a trap.

I've never downloaded any of Mr. Chamberlain's work, but he seemed like a cool guy on the Bendis board and I've heard good things about his books.

[ManNBlack]

I can think of five creators I would tip right now if I could. Unfortunately, it won't keep lower ranked books on the stand if they are not self/indie published.

[likefunbutnot]

I format shift comics. I buy the pamphlets I read, but the pirates have the best format for actually reading and keeping.

Still, I gave the dude some money. The $5 he got from my donation is probably more money than he got from Marvel for the issues of newUniversal that I bought, and I feel better for doing something to directly support someone responsible for the medium I enjoy.

So at least for me, the "PBS approach" to appealing for donations seems like a good idea.

[tbdeinc]

By "tipping" you confirm you download the works without paying...

Somehow that kinda not balances out...

[Lemurion]

I know that Charlie Stross deliberately does not have such a tip jar because accepting money for pirated works could be construed as disintermediation because it cuts out the publishers. I believe he stated he could be in legal hot water if he did so.

[betty boolean]

As a musician I used to try to encourage, King Canute like, people at work who downloaded songs to buy the CD or pay for a download. Over time I came to realize that people who like music buy the physical product. They may download an mp3 for convenience if the occasion demands, but ultimately they will buy. Those who illegally copy and don't buy would never have bought anyway were the pirate option not available and that in fact it helped promote work when people pirated. I can recall several times when people lent me pirated Cds to listen to at work that I subsequently bought.

When it comes to comics I'm a total Luddite. I want the book to hold so scanned copies will never satisfy me. But I think the same holds true for comics as does for music. Most comic readers want the book. Those that dont , would they be reading the work if the pirate option didn't exist?

When I was a kid most of the comics I read belonged to other people, I feel the scanned comics trend is probably a contemporary version of this. No sale for the publisher but a potential future reader exposed to book?

Anyway, as to the tipjar idea in practice a tip constitutes and admission that could potentially be used in court against the tipper, cant see it happening.

[fredmanson]

That's an excellent idea!! I am against piracy but it is a very long and expensive war against who? The pirates themselves? We, as readers are not equipped with the tools to track them down. And it is not our job, except to warn the publishers that on some named web sites they can find their products.

So, at who this Torrent Tip Jar is destined? To the readers. Comic books are so expensive, they are not distributed everywhere in the world, if they are they may be "remastered" (or frankly censored). What is the best method to read them for nothing? Piracy. It is very easy to have a c2c, scanlation of a comic book.

Some of these readers want to buy these comic books, but they can't. What is their solution to show some respect to an author for who they love his/her work? The Torrent Tip Jar IS a true solution. I approve it.

On the other side, for the "legal" readers, it is a persuasive solution to boycott a publisher but not to boycott the authors. You download the book, and you directly paid the authors, not the publisher. That is a commercial weapon against "bad" publishers.

But in the end, it is better to have in your hands the true comic books you want to read. Spend less money on your readings but please yourself with the best stories you consider. In two words: be legal.

For the readers that are addictive to the comic books, there is a lot of no more copyrighted comic books web site. You can download for free and in all legacy these old comic books. It is much better than to pay them $2.99 on a certain Amazon digital market and sold by speculative "publishers".

[Joe Kalicki]

Perhaps if he included a waiver you have to click stating that your payment is in no way an admission that you torrented one of his comics.

[malonine]

Would he be legally covered if he just had a tip jar on his site with no explanation at all? I've wished that more musicians and comic-book creators would do this.