ComiXology Tracked Reddit Downloaders

[Rich Johnston]

Yesterday, we ran an article about a short program that had been written, designed to download ComiXology comics files that had been paid for, and keep them permanently on your desktop. And of a post on Reddit that detailed the operation succinctly.

The post was swiftly deleted. Its author writes;

Yeah, that was me. I was contacted by comiXology and was asked to remove the post. I figured doing what they wanted was a better deal than getting everyone banned from their accounts (apparently the program produced a unique and identifiable request on their end). In hindsight, posting it to Reddit probably wasn't the best idea.

It really sucks; I spent a good two weeks working on that thing, and now I can't even backup my own stuff.

...

What really sucks is as soon as they told me they could track it, I knew where in the code I had goofed. I'm pretty sure I've fixed it now, but I'd rather not take the chance.

...

Yeah, I was pretty stupid. I don't really know what I was expecting to happen; I mean, someone had to contact them eventually, right? And for some moronic reason I even put my real name (seriously, wtf?) in the file header... I guess I was just proud of my work, what can I say.

One response spoke a lot of sense;

It's one of those situations where neither you nor comixology is in the wrong - your program is pretty much their worst nightmare come true but it was also a great way for us to backup our expensive yet not-really-owned digital collections.

So yeah, you should feel proud of your work and I wouldn't throw it all in the bin just yet. Refine it and if comixology ever announced financial difficulties that could shut them down (thereby destroying those expensive digital collections) then you can share it discretely so that the users can keep what they paid for.

Fact is comixology won't last forever - if the likes of MySpace, Facebook, Limewire and many others can have their growth halted by the rise of alternatives (and eventually decline) then it will surely happen to cXy - so it can't hurt to be prepared for the chance that a bad business decision could sink them.

And just a reminder, Bleeding Cool poster jacob# wrote;

Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection

MLB rips off fans who bought DRM videos

Ubisoft Cuts Off Legit Players With DRM Server Migration; Pirates Play On

Another DRM Bites The Dust: Convert Your Rhapsody DRM'd Files Or Lose Them Forever

DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys

Amazon Drops Lit/Pdf eBooks

Microsoft's Zune Won't Play Protected Windows Media

Ebook DRM provider goes dark, the books you paid for disappear

Ads for Adobe PDF discontinued by March 31th

Adobe Digital Editions 1.7.1 Release Notes - "s of March 30, 2009 Adobe de-activated the support in the Adobe Content Server 3 activation server such that no new instances of Acrobat or Reader could be activated."

HarperCollins closes ebookstore nobody knew about

CyberRead Closing

Napster to stop supporting WMA secure files they sold you

[Static-Pulse]

So what you're saying is, run a Wireshark proxy and log the HTTP activity, which will include the JPEG's?

[Captain Comet]

This is troubling. And also why I stick with good ol' paper and staples.

[die-yng]

That's one reason among others why I prefer old fashioned printed versions.
I'd never pay money for data not stored on my pc in a way that I can get to it whenever I want. No sir. Never.

[CammyKnoxville]

This is troubling. And also why I stick with good ol' paper and staples.

*knock knock*

Captain Comet: Tom Brevoort?!

Tom Brevoort: Sup?

*Tom Brevoort punches Captain Comet in the stomach and takes his comics*

Captain Comet: Oh Jesus! Why?!

Tom Brevoort: Yeah, uh, we're filing for bankruptcy again, so we need to take these back.


Hey, it could happen. I'm just sayin'.

[Lemurion]

Two words: Android Tablet.

I download my purchases to my tablet and store them on the SD card. That way I have a permanent copy, and I can transfer from card to card and still read the books.

[ManNBlack]

Two words: Android Tablet.

I download my purchases to my tablet and store them on the SD card. That way I have a permanent copy, and I can transfer from card to card and still read the books.

Some DRM require a connection to a server to validate data. I am not sure about this one.

[alekesam]

Well, it's on Comixology. Hopefully, they won't realize too late just how much money they're missing out on and allow us to carry our books wherever we are, regardless of internet service availiability.

[Bucky Sinister]

What Lemurion said. I was initially confused about this story, because I download all my Comixology purchases to my tablet, and didn't realize the PC version worked any differently. Hell, I wasn't even aware that there was a browser interface until about a couple of weeks ago.

That said, I still buy print for anything I think I might want to re-read one day. Digital funnybooks are disposable reads for me, stuff I enjoy but will never go back to. Of course, if I didn't love my local comics shop as much as I do, I might go digital for everything, and only buy trades of the good stuff...

[BobMarket]

Until this story I had no idea that you weren't allowed to keep the comics you purchased through comixology. That's hilarious. That is just gut busting, rib tickling hilarious. That makes the whole "DIGITAL COMICS ARE THE FUTURE" argument even more silly.

But this is nothing new. I work at an independent movie rental store (inb4 YOU STILL EXIST?!?!?!?!) and it's been clear for awhile now that what the studios really, ideally want is the netflix model, where you can rent the feature but never physically have it. They want it to be like that for the films/shows that you own as well. Anything to keep the consumer paying out the butt and never having anything really to show for it.

Anyhoo. Ha and also ha. Gonna go home and curl up with a pile of *actual* comics and read 'em like they were going out of style without fear of faceless internet goons yoinksing them back.



Then again my cat wouldn't be able to tear the cover off a digital comic....