Is Illegal Comic Downloading Passe?

Has illegal comic book downloading grown during the recession?

Recently I got a spam comment on this blog from someone who has made a blog of nothing but links to illegal comic book download sites. :\

At first I was a little surprised to see blogger allowing such a site in their domain, then I realized if the blog was simply linking to other sites, it may not be doing anything wrong.

Heck, I've seen quite a few other blogs that post entire issues of DC or Marvel comics in the name of criticism or fair use.

To be honest, I think posting an entire issue of Blackest Night 3, with nothing more than This comic rocks isn't what the academic commentary portion of fair use was intended for. However, when you are posting a complete issue of a comic that is no longer in print and mostly likely never will be again?...well then I am willing to turn a blind eye.

However, back to the spam comment - checking out the site with its multitude of illegal comic download links made me wonder had illegal comic book downloading grown during this recession.

Here is what I was able to determine by checking out the known haunts of comic book downloaders.

1. The DCP Scanners are still pretty much running, business as usual

2. Comic book downloading from torrent sites may be going down

Remember Z-Cult FM, the infamous comic book torrent site that pretty much popularized comic book downloading? Well, before they were practically shut down by the combined legal might of DC and Marvel, that site had 74,000 registered users. There were several cases where a torrent of comics was so popular, that it had over 15K downloads.

So, one would suspect that once Z-cult was shut down, we would see the illegal downloaders moving to other torrent sites, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Check this out.

Here is a screenshot from a popular torrent aggregate site. The numbers on the far left represent the number of seeds and completed downloads of the latest batch of DCP scans. No more than 1000 downloads registered at a site that aggregates the seeds? Seems pretty low considering Z-cult's DCP torrents often reached much higher (from 7k to 14k at its peak I think.)

Here is screen shot from one of the oldest torrent site on the net.

Again, the SE numbers are seeders and the LE numbers are Leachers.

Finally, here is screenshot from the newest members only comic download site.

The 886 represents the number of DCP torrent downloads.

Okay, so far, this doesn't look so bad. What have we got? About 3000 total downloaders?

3. But...there are a lot more torrent sites now than 2 years ago...

However, these numbers don't tell the whole story. As I started drilling down on the various sites in the Torrent Aggregate site, I was surprised to discover that site does not accurately report the number of seeders and leechers from the sites it aggregates. Many of them had a lot more seeders/leechers than the aggregate site was reporting. I found one of the child sites that as of 10 pm last night had over 1000 current leechers on a DCP torrent from last week!

The most current weeks comic scans had 500 leechers at the time. If one takes the time it takes to download such a torrent and divides the span of days by that number, well, then one would be better at math than me, so feel free to help me out here. :)

But seriously, my best guestimate is that if it takes 1 day (at most) to download a 1 gig DCP torrent, then in one week at 500 - 1000 leechers every day, you end up with 7000 downloads in the first week. And that's just from one torrent site.

So, my final assessment: The downloading hasn't stopped, it's just gotten much harder to track.

I got an email from someone telling me Demonoid was down. I don't know why the powers that be even bother. For every Demonoid, Z-Cult, Supernova they shut down, 100 rise up in their place.

That's just not the answer.

There needs to be a legal system for downloading comics.

I sure hope Longbox is it! :)

Have a great weekend!

- Jim

In Praise of Bootlegs

While Dan Slott and I might not see eye to eye on downloading comics, there is one thing we can agree on - bootlegs of arcane tv shows are awesome.

It's strange, but in many ways, illegal bootlegs of tv shows are every bit as, well, illegal, as say downloading this weeks DCP comics torrent, but most comics fans don't seem to be too concerned with that.

I think that because we say that because the powers that be are never going to put the Martin Caidin Cyborg movie on DVD, that I can buy a bootleg of said movie at a convention without feeling guilty.

I don't know. Driving over the speed limit is just as illegal (if not moreso) as downloading this weeks issue of Secret Invasion, but ask around at the local comic shop which is a as worse crime, and I'm betting a lot of people will say downloading comics is worse.

Yet, when was the last time someone was killed accidentally because another person downloaded a complete run of Suicide Squad?

Anyway, before this begins to sound too much like an 11th grade english essay (too late?) let's get back to topic of bootlegs.

I love 'em.

I happen to own quite a few, having been collecting and capping (video capture using my computer and a high end graphics card) them over the years. Here are a few of my favorites...

Thundar The Barbarian - I actually capped my own set of Thundarr DVD's but you can buy a set from the great guys at http://www.retrosuperheroes.com/

Thundarr the Barbarian was a Saturday morning animated television series, created by Joe Ruby and produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. It was broadcast during the early 1980s. Action figures of the three main characters were released by Toynami in 2004.

Comic book writer-artist Jack Kirby worked on the production design for the show. While many people believe that Kirby was the primary designer of the show (mainly due to his similarly themed Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth), the main characters were in fact designed by fellow comic book writer-artist Alex Toth, who also designed the popular character Space Ghost for Saturday morning television. Toth, however, was unavailable to continue working on the show, so most of the wizards and other villains and secondary characters that appear on the show were designed by Kirby. He was brought onto the show at the recommendation of comic writer Steve Gerber and comics and animation veteran Mark Evanier, who realized that the same imagination that produced Kamandi could contribute significantly to the series. Indeed, the evil wizard Gemini, the only repeating villain on the show, resembles Darkseid, an infamous Kirby villain.

In this setting, Thundarr, a muscular warrior, and his companions Princess Ariel (who was a formidable sorceress) and the Wookiee-like Ookla the Mok travelled the world on horseback, and battled evil wizards who combined magical spells with technologies from the pre-catastrophe world. Other enemies included werewolves, a predatory, malevolent alien being, humanoid lizards, and mutants. Intelligent humanoid-animal races include the rat-like Groundlings and the cat-like Moks.

A little known Flashback Universe Fact: I once contacted the guys a Ruby Spears about making a Thundarr comic book, but apparently the rights to the character are tied up at Time Warner. I tried to contact TW, but the person I was directed to no longer works for TW. :(

Another show I have is Pirates of Dark Water, again which I capped myself, but now is readily available as a streaming movies thanks to the guys at http://www.darkwaterpirate.com/

The Pirates of Dark Water is a fantasy animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera and Turner Entertainment in the early 1990s. The series followed a group of adventurers on a quest to collect the Thirteen Treasures of Rule, which possessed the combined power to stop an evil substance known as "Dark Water" from consuming the alien world of Mer.

The show first premiered in syndication in early 1991 as a five-part mini-series titled Dark Water. Following a number of animation tweaks and other changes by Hanna-Barbera, those episodes were rebroadcast later in 1991 as the first five episodes of the regular series. Most notably, the original mini-series featured the voice of Roddy McDowall as Niddler, whereas in the revised version, the character was voiced by Frank Welker. The first season aired on ABC, while the second season aired in first-run syndication as part of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.

Here's one you probably never heard of - DANGER ISLAND!

Long before the guys writing Lost were probably even born, this show was showing kids all across America as a feature on the crazy Banana Splits show.

Danger Island was a live-action adventure serial produced by Hanna-Barbera and originally broadcast in 1968 as a segment on the Banana Splits Adventure Hour. It was directed by future Superman and Goonies director Richard Donner and featured Jan-Michael Vincent as Lincoln 'Link' Simmons.

Intended as a live-action version of the animated Hanna-Barbera series Jonny Quest, Danger Island centered around the adventures of a trio of explorers in an unnamed tropical island group. Prof. Irwin Hayden, an archeologist; Lincoln "Link" Simmons, the professor's youthful assistant; and Leslie, the professor's blonde daughter, who serves as both a love interest for Link and the series' token damsel-in-distress.

This specific bootleg can be found at http://www.retrosuperheroes.com/

A word about RetroSuperHeroes - I have bought many DVDs from them and found them to be VERY fast with their turnaround, and extremely good about replying to email questions. The quality of their DVDs are as good as you can get with bootlegs.

So, with that off my chest - what Bootlegs do you own?

- Jim

Screenshots and Questions

Here's a collection of random screenshots from this weekend and the questions they inspire...

1) How does one get an invitation to Komic's Live?

I've never mentioned this group before on this blog. I think they came along after I had discovered Z-Cult, so I never explored them. I do know they were the comics downloading site of choice of Matt Fraction (or so someone with his screen name said on the Warren Ellis forum)

Anyway, apparently they are an *invite only* forum and several of their threads seemed to link to this blog, so I'm interested in seeing what they are saying.

2) Why don't more people download Herbie the Fat Fury?

I have no idea whether Herbie is in public domain or whatnot, but damn it's a funny comic! Apparently, only 100 people on Zcult agree with me. Almost as many people find Kade worth downloading. Go figure.

3) What is Suske en Wiske, and why must it be uploaded in single issue torrents?

Taking more room than it rightfully should I suspect, here is a foreign comic series that seems to be all the rage on Pirate Bay...

4) How many voters does it take to win a Zuda Competition?

Check out these two screenshots from the two Zuda Winners so far.

First, High Moon



Next, Pray for Death:



Now, albeit, it's possible that many factors are weighing into the visitor/voter relationship with both winners, and it WAS a Holiday season, so that might have affected the voting results, but overall, doesn't it look like Pray For Death won with just a little more than a third of the votes that High Moon previously got? And only half of the views?

Gentlemen, start your excel graphs now! :D

The Top Ten Digital Comic News Stories of 2007

Hey, I'm back, and I hope you enjoyed your Holidays as much as I did! Well, with the year winding up, I thought it be nice to look back at 2007 and rundown the big news stories in the world of Digital Comics for 2007.

Note: Please don't try and figure out why one story ranks higher than another. In most cases, it's just an arbitrary call made by me...

1) Chrono/Theme packs become the big fad among the digital comic uploaders
For those of you who are not familiar with the term Chrono Pack, it's a torrent of comics of a specific character arranged in chronological order, thus the name. The most famous of these is the Marvel Chrono pack which saw a reseed on Zcult with a version 2 of the earlier packs. In addition to this, there was also a huge rise in C-list Chrono packs including... The Man-Bat Chrono Pack, The Freedom Fighters Chrono Pack, Galaxy of the Guardians Chrono Pack, Man-Wolf Chrono Pack... you get the idea. It seemed like every 3rd rate character was now the subject of a Chrono pack.

At the same time, Theme packs picked up steam as people started torrents on Witches, Werewolves, Zombies and Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis. While nothing new, there was quite a proliferation of these type of torrents this year.

2) Lost Girls is downloaded by over 65,000 people.
Now, if only half of those had been given the opportunity to *buy* the digital version at $1.00 a pop, imagine how much more money Top Shel would have made off the book.

3) Todd Allen becomes a columnist at ComicBookResources
For those of you not familiar with the knowledgeable Mr. Allen, I will introduce him here as the _EXPERT_ in all things Web Comics. His book, The Economics of Web Comics is MUST reading for anybody considering a future in Web Comics.

....a quick read will reveal that no one at Zuda read the book, but that's neither here or there...

While not *directly* related to Digital Comics per se, I think it's significant that reading comics on the web have gained enough traction amongst the mainstream comic readers that comicbookresources saw fit to have Allen start his column. Also, Allen sometimes has interesting notes about the Digital Comics scene (though he's not the Digital Comics nerd that I am...)

4) Amazon starts selling Kindles.
They look like crap and are way overpriced, but one day, you might be able to read American Flagg on them while sitting in an airport. Not really a Digital Comics new related item, but it's a step in the right direction, so there you go.

5) A developer in Australia develops a way to read comics on iTunes
Here's the link to the original post I did about this story. http://flashbackuniverse.blogspot.com/2007/11/flashback-on-your-iphoneipod-touch.html
Note: I have actually used this last week and flashback comics look great on the new iPod.

6) Marvel launches its Digital Comics Universe
Yeah, it's wrapped in an half assed Flash interface and NO they are not downloadable, but still full comic books on the web are a good thing right? Yeah...I know. I'll see you in alt.binaries.comics.reposts...

7) DC lauches Zuda
While DEFINITELY not Digital Comics, the Zuda project, like Marvel's DCU is an acknowledgement by one of the major players that the web is where the future is. I predict that DC launches its own Digital Comic site next year as well.

8) Marvel pulls its liscensing from GIT
So, once Marvel decided to launch its DCU it also pulled the liscensing for the PDF collections of comics on DVD that GIT was making. While I'm not a fan of PDF comics, this really feels like bad move. Here's the original story from the FB blog: http://flashbackuniverse.blogspot.com/2007/11/git-loses-marvel-liscense-gains-archie.html

9) Slave Labor Graphis starts Eyemelt.com
While not given as much ink as Zuda or Marvel's DCU, Eyemelt was definitely the best in class example of how to sell Digital Comics in the year 2007. Besides having a great assortment of comics, Eyemelt provides users with a very easy system for buying their comics instantly. Dan Vado and company are to be commended! The aholes at PullBoxOnline should take note.

10) DC and Marvel send Zcult (and other torrent sites) cease and desist orders.
I don't think this will surprise anyone who's a regular at this blog. What I do think most of us found surprising was just what an uproar this little incident caused the *mainstream* comics web world. 3 years ago, I'd argue that the phrase Zcult meant nothing by and large to your average comic book message board poster. This year, it was a rallying call.

Well, that's all for this year. Quite a list aye?

I eagerly anticipate 2008!

Now, go get drunk! :D

- Jim

Two for One Monday: New guys in a.b.dcp?

This is part 1 of a 2 part article to make up for not posting on Friday...

So for those of you wanting the latest update on what's going on in the world of illegal comic book scanning check this out...apparently last week, another scanning group (or someone) decided to post the Minutemen scans to the alt.binaries.dcp group.

And this apparently caused a sh!tst0rm of controversy, because it's a newsgroup and doing anything in a newsgroup causes drama...

First, check out all the comics scanned by MinuteMen that were posted to this group:



For those of you who've been following my blog over the past few months, you'll remember my prophetic Hydra remark when I first mentioned the possible departure of the DCP group from the scanning scene.

Well, DCP is still alive and well, but apparently several other groups are making motions to become the top scanning group now.

Business TakeAways:
1) Marvel and DC can not stop illegal comic scanning/downloading
2) Users are becoming increasingly savy about how to *find* things on the internet
3) Marvel and DC are eventually going to be forced into a downloadable comics business model.

What's Scanned and Unscanned in the DC Universe

I was asked via email about exactly how many comics have been scanned thus far (which is really such a hard question to answer because people scan the NEDOR comics for gosh sakes, so when you ask that question, I'm at a lost for a frame of reference...)

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to answer at least *part* of the question by posting the latest version of What's Scanned and Unscanned in the DC Universe - consider this a partial answer...feel free to examine the linked file and come back here for discussion...you can navigate the page by clicking along the tabs at the bottom.

http://www.flashbackuniverse.com/LeftToScanInDC-DEC012007.htm

NOTE: I did not create this list. It is maintained by someone called the Phantom Stranger who does a remarkable job keeping up with all the new scans!

One of the first things you'll notice is that there are apparently only 3002 DC comics left to scan, and then ALL of DC publish content will have been scanned! Pretty amazing when you consider how long DC has been around.

I believe that the scanners are doing a good thing btw, as I doubt DC will ever get around to reprinting Binky, Bob Hope, ect...I'm glad someone is preserving those comics in some fashion.

A lot of the Unscanned stuff are Romance comics - not surprising as there lot a lot of sentimental attachment to those titles for the majority of the scanners.

If you click on the Scanned tab, be prepared to wait as that page loads - its a 15 meg html document... :P

Zcult AfterMath Screenshots

First a quick update on my problem with PullBoxOnline:
A reader pointed out last week that the screenshot I posted showed the charge was pending and maybe I would get my comics once the payment was approved by BankOfAmerica. Well, by this latest screenshot, you can see the payment was approved.



However, I still have not gotten the Pullbox email with the link to the comics OR a reply to my request for help email.

TakeAway 1: Pullbox Online Sucks.

Meet the New Zcult...

Check out the current list of comic torrents on Zcult now that they are abidding by the DC/Marvel Cease and Desist letters...Quite an interesting assortment of titles to say the least.







What I think is telling is that according to Serj, the admin at Zcult, he had 74K registered users of ZCult. That number does not include the number of people who accessed the torrents via direct links to the trackers OR referrals from other Torrent-Tracker sites...

It will be interesting to see what this newly established audience of comic downloaders does now that it is harder to find Marvel/DC comics in easy to read cbr format. Will they stop reading cbr comics altogether or move on to other titles?

I suspect that a large majority of them are going to download and try out some of the comics they've never heard about. It'll be interesting to see what happens then.

Also notable was the huge amount digital ink that the Zcult situation generated. Over the past 2 weeks, I think Zcult has gotten more press coverage than it has in its entire existence. Over at Newsarama, the various threads discussing the situation went on for pages and pages.

TakeAway2: It's safe to say we've come a long ways from the days when such a topic would have just resulted in a small handful of posters saying, 'I just want to read my comics in paper format...' The age of the Digital Comic Readership is definitely here.

Meanwhile, what's going on with a.b.dcp?

Well, here's a screenshot of the dcp newsgroup's posts from last week. I've just filtered on those files ending in .cbr. Looks like the group is still alive and kicking hard.



And if that wasn't enough, other people have taken to posting the dcp scans to other groups. Here is a screenshot of files ending in .cbr in the a.b.boneless group.



TakeAway 3: Two people scanned Scooby-Doo? That should definitely say something about the number of scanners around the globe. :D

And finally, the screenshot to end them all..

Here is the torrent site that laughs at cease and desist orders: Pirate Bay. On their site, they actually have a link to all the cease and desist orders they've gotten from various companies. I don't know exactly how they are able to operate so brazenly, but there you go.



TakeAway 4: I don't see illegal comics downloading abating until legal comics downloading is a reality.

The SLG - ZCult FM mixup

Over the weekend, there seeems to have been quite a bit of mixup over whether Slave Labor Graphics would allow Zcult-FM to torrent their digital comics. (which I predicted earlier this week.)

From Serj, the Site Admin at Z-Cult:

Our statement and update in response to this news article:

UPDATED 25th Nov 2007 - 02:21)

In our first news post on this subject we posted the following statement from SLG Publishing:
Quote:

To the members of Z-Cult:

SLG publishing would like to thank the moderators and forumers of Z-Cult for the respect they have shown in regards to our ban request. Obviously, our preference is to have each comic legally paid for, and the efforts undertaken to honor this desire have clearly shown that Z-Cult is not a forum overrun by those expecting a free ride. In return, we have decided to lift the ban from our independently published titles being distributed on Z-Cult. Of course, this is not an entirely selfless act - we hope that exposure to our large library of titles will help encourage support of our legal download site, www.eyemelt.com.

It is our belief that there is a market for legally downloadable comic books, and we hope that we can prove this to the comics industry by showing success through our our digital distribution system.

Unfortunately we cannot lift the ban on any SLG/Disney titles, for reasons that should be obvious. These titles are limited to: The Haunted Mansion, Tron, Gargoyles and Wonderland. Our apologies for being unable to allow sharing on these particular titles.

For those of you who took the time and effort to report and remove our material, and particularly to those who undertook the process of re-uploading your torrents over and over without complaint, thank you.

SLG Publishing

(Serj has) just been in contact with Dan (Owner of SLG Publishing) who has said this statement DID NOT come from him and DID NOT come from this company.

(Serj has) been in contact with Dan and SLG Publishing over this issue and the following is the reason behind this mix up.

Many months ago someone on behalf of SLG Publishing contacted (Serj) requesting (Zcult) removed SLG books from our website. As standard procedure we asked the e-mailer to verify who they said they were and their position in the company. The user provided proof they were speaking on behalf on SLG Publishing and so (Zcult) removed the books. Dan has stated in his recent email to (Zcult) that the user WAS requesting the removal of their books on behalf of himself. So (Serj's) background research was 100% correct.

When this same user emailed (Serj) the other day from same account with this statement from SLG Publisher it was taken to be 100% official and the user stated it was from the company as a whole. This was taken as official by (Serj) due to our earlier contact with this user and email account. So much to (his) surprise tonight (Serj) was informed the owners did not issue this statement so (Zcult) removed this post until we could verify it.

(Serj) contacted Dan directly and informed him of everything (Serj) had gotten from the person claiming to be SLG publishing and this is the email issued in response by Dan from SLG Publishing.
Quote:

Hello Serj,

[I HAVE REMOVED NAME] is a freelance writer. He did, with my knowledge, contact you in regards to having you take down SLG content from your site when we started EYEMELT.COM.

However he is not in a position to make policies, especially in regard to something like this. We never asked him to make a statement about removing the ban. This being an American holiday I was unaware of any problems with your site and Marvel/DC since I was out of my office and not checking my email. I was not even aware of any statement on our behalf until I was contacted by a comics news site for additional comment.

[SERJ REMOVED NAME] obviously wrote the statement himself. I'm not certain why he felt he had the right to make a statement on our company's behalf without contacting me. I'm sorry if you came out looking bad on this as I do believe you were acting under the impression that [REMOVED NAME] was sending you something on our behalf. Again, why he thought he could issue a statement on my company's behalf without contacting me is beyond explanation. [REMOVED NAME] is very devoted to the notion of digital comics and he must have felt he was acting in everyones best interests.

I'll be issuing an amended statement on our blog and news site and I will be sure to mention that you posted the SLG statement under the honest assumption it was from us. As for the lifting of the ban, just so you can come away from this with something, you can go ahead and make our stuff available for download. I am not certain what our digital plans are going to be in the coming year, so I may come back and ask you to drop them again.
Dan Vado

So there we go. I followed up this email asking if they wanted banners as stated in the "offical" statement that turned out to be false and Dan said:

Quote:

As for the banners, go ahead and leave them up for now. Lets see if there is any jump in sales long term because of this.

Sooo SLG comics still good to go and banners remain..

I am sorry for any confusion this might have caused but seems a little mix up and confusion has taken place on both sides.

End of Serj's Post.

UPDATE: Here is more information from Blog@Newsarama...
http://blog.newsarama.com/2007/11/25/dan-vado-apologizes-to-z-cult-fm-and-well-everyone

My biggest take away from all this is I'm a little curious about Dan's comments about what his future digital plans might be. Also, I think it's really quite awesome of him to support Zcult-FM by allowing Zcult to torrent the SLG books.

Random Digital Comics Screenshots

Here are some random screenshots from my pc that tell a bigger story.

First up - me getting Double Charged by Marvel's new Digital Comics Online system. :P

Be sure to stick around while I get this little mess sorted out.

Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase Two In One, doesn't it?

Next up, a sampling of some of the messages being posted in the alt.binaries.comics.dcp newsgroup.



There is still a lot of hand wringing going on in the DCP group about the fate of the newsgroup...and yet, what do we have here? Why, it's a torrent with all of this week's comics scanned by DCP? Guess the group is alive and well after all.



Finally, I check on a daily basis to see if Marvel has added Marvel Premiere 31 to their list of downloadable comics. So far they haven't, but I'm still hoping I'll see this one day...



Notes Concerning this Post:

1) DO NOT e-mail me asking where you can download bootleg comics. It's something I acknowledge, but do not advocate. If you want to download comics, go to Wowio, EyeMelt, PullboxOnline or download one of mine.

2) Seems like Marvel removed the online ads they had on their Digital Comics website. Just as well, they seemed to be very buggy, in many cases hiding the other menus and such. Also, I think there is something just plain broken with that little Flash menu...



3) Someone took the time to scan Captain Carrot. Pretty dedicated, aye?

4) Chris Sims doesn't get WoodGod. Doesn't think he's funny in the slightest. Someone feel free to set him straight. On the flipside, Phil Looney not only *gets* WoodGod, but has found a way to make Kang the Conqueror hilarious!

RIP for the DCP?

Last week saw a bit of turmoil in the DCP newsgroup as one of the more well known posters (Ourobouros) found himself served with an e-mail from the DMCA (Digital Milleneum Copyright Act)

This resulted in quite a number of back and forth posts in alt.binaries.comics.dcp devoted to how the newsgroup, and all downloadable comics in general, would soon be disappearing.

Yet, that didn't seem to happen. Wednesday came, and the 0-day scans still appeared in the group, as well as the associated torrent trackers, so I suspect that just like Hydra, if you serve one comic book scanner with a cease and desist from their ISP, 2 more will rise up in their place.

The New World Record for Comic Book Downloads

Anyway, in checking out exactly how the various torrent sites were doing in the wake of the DCP furor, I ran across this little statistic on one of the member only torrent sites:

UK Edition: Transformers (UK) [ DL ] 07-10 19:35 2.31 GB 362 74 21 264,170
fyi, the 7-10 is when the torrent was originally posted and the 74/21 numbers are the number of leechers/seeders on the torrent today.

So, over 250,000 people have downloaded that run of digital comics. On an arcane site that requires a password to access. Sort of puts All Star Batman in it's place doesn't it?

What is: alt.binaries.comics.dcp?

I'm going on my 15th wedding anniversary this weekend, and I'm probably going to miss posting on Monday, so to make up for it I'm going to present one huge post today: The complete DCP Newsgroup FAQs.

Many of you may not have ever hear of DCP, even those of you that *ahem* get your comics in digital format, but DCP are one of the biggest newsgroup communities of comicbook scanners/uploaders on the internet. At one time, they were responsible for about 90% of all weekly comicbook scans. Now, several other groups of scanners have started uploading comics, so the pond has gotten bigger. Still, to many, DCP are the *go-to* guys for weekly 0-day scans.

Now, while we at Flashback Universe do not advocate illegal downloading, we don't pretend it doesn't exist either. Nor do we pass judgement on those people who chose to scan their comics and upload them to the internet. That's for Dan Slott to do. ;)

What I will say is this: People like to download stuff and keep it on their own personal devices. Apple found a way to make kajillions of dollars from this axiom. iNuff Said.

So, without further adieu: the alt.binaries.comics.dcp FAQs

1. Who is DCP?
DCP stands for Digital Comics Preservation. Unlike mother nature and father time, we want comics to be around for a long, long time. Therefore, we work towards digitally preserving ALL comics we can find. This includes new comics, old comics, popular comics, small-press comics, and even a few fan made comics that only a handful of people ever saw. If it's a comic, we'll scan it.

A. But don't I also sometimes see cartoons and stuff?
Sure. If we find some kind of comic related media - newspaper articles, cartoons, funny song about Superman, etc... - we tend to preserve that too.

B. So do you guys follow the OYATM (One Year Ago This Month) rule?
Nope. We scan it. We share it.

2. Why is this newsgroup here?
Primarily for sharing files with each other. Many people can download from a newsgroup faster than they can from a p2p service.

A. So this isn't the only place you can find DCP scans?
Not at all. People tend to put them on Bittorrent, DC++, and irc all the time. Sometimes we do it, sometimes people do it because they want to share our stuff. It's cool. Sharing is what it's all about.

B. Can we use this Newsgroup for discussion?
If you want to talk about a particular book with someone else, fine.If you want to talk about the geo-political ramifications of the current state of unrest in the world, go find a friggin' message board or crazy group of demonstraters. Political or religious postings will get you ridiculed, ignored, etc...PLEASE refrain from criticizing other scanners' work, regardless of their group affiliation. Scanners spend their time and money producing content for you free of charge - if you're not going to thank them, you can at least refrain from insulting them and their work. If you really find a book so awful, then buy the book and scan it yourself!

3. Do you only release DCP scans here?
Nope. DCP gets along really well with a lot of other scanners. If they say it's OK, we'll post their scans too.

A. Can I post my scans here?
Sure, but don't call yourself a DCP'er if you do. You have to work towards that.

B. Can I post anything comics related at any time?
We used to ask that you please refrain from making posts on Wednesday - Friday so that the new stuff can get out uncluttered. However, a lot of people bitched and bitched, so that's no longer a "rule." It's generally a nice thing to keep in mind and posting a flood will probably make people hate you.

C. Can I repost your stuff other places?
Sure, but be respectful of the rules there. If they follow OYATM, then please don't post our scans that are less than OYATM. Also, please don't change the files. Renaming them is OK, but don't take out scanner tags or ad pages. Respect the scanner and respect the scan.

4. Can I make requests (REQs)?
Try not to make any requests on Wednesday or Thursday or until late on Friday. During that period, people are focused on new scans. If you make a requests it will be ignored - not out of spite, but because no one pays attention to anything other than new comics during that time.

A. How many books can I request?
Use your best judgement. Asking for 100 issues of Legends of the Dark Knight may fill the hole in your collection, but I doubt anyone wants to take the time to post them all. Plus, people can't help others if they are spending all their time helping you. Be polite. Shoot for a handful at a time.

B. Can I request a flood?
You can, but that doesn't mean anyone will fill it. Read the answer above.

C. How often should I repost a request if it's not filled?
Once a year. It might take time for someone to find the books you want. Or, they may be filling other requests. Or, they may be busy scanning new books. Or, maybe no one has them right now. If no one has them after a couple weeks, send Mile High Comics your credit card information and get your scanner ready...

D. But what if I know it was posted last week?
Then you should download last week's post. If your news server has such poor retention that you can't get books a few days old, then you should pay for a better service.

F. What about pars?
Most people will post pars with the books. If they didn't, ask nicely and they, or someone else who downloaded it, will post some. If you need more pars, ask nicely and someone will help you out? See the pattern here? Ask nicely...

G. What if I know in my heart of hearts that a book came out this week, but I don't see the scan?
Wait. Wait. Wait. I know it's hard, but give it time. Books are scanned by people nice enough to spend their money on them and their time scanning them. Obviously, they will scan the books they want to first. Believe it or not, there are some who scan boooks that no one else wants to - just to make sure they get preserved even if they don't really like them.

So, just wait and give it time. Sometimes, the skipped books will be picked up by a friendly scanner when he grabs next week's books, so give it a couple weeks before you start asking. Or better yet, get your cheap ass out of the house, and buy a friggin' comic and scan it yourself. Or just shut the hell up. Either way.

5. Do you guys only post comics?
Nope. Some members like to encode cartoons, video game manuals, and magazines like Wizard or Knights of the Dinner Table. While none of these are comics and sometimes aren't comic related, we welcome these to our group as well.

A. Should I post all the cartoons in the world here?
Try not to. You can go to other groups to get cartoons. We'll post DCP encodes here.

B. Should I post other video game manuals here?
Try not to. The best place to post them would be in the group for that console. We'll post DCP scans here.

C. Should I post scans of all magazines here?

Try not to. The best place to post them would be in the groups for those magazines or topics.
We'll post DCP scans here. However, if someone requests a CBG, KotDT, or Wizard and you can fill that REQ with a scan from somewhere else, knock your self out. Make sure you read the whole FAQ first though...

6. Do you guys make PDFs?
Ugh. F' no. There are groups out there ripping off the comics that are scanned by your favorite DCP, OCD, HaCsA, RIP, etc scanners, and calling them their scans, repackaging them as PDF and sharing them via another distribution system. If you have any of these "scans" do yourself a favor and delete them and get the .cbr, .cbz, .zip, or .rar version, the way comics should be.

Sharing PDF comics will get you ridiculed, ignored, etc... If you don't like it, grow up and get over it.

7. How do I find out if a comics has been released? Or what if I want to request a scan, but I don't know if the actual comic book has come out yet?

http://www.google.com