For this week's look at the controversial SOPA, or Stop Online Piracy Act, we will look once again at an article posted on Comics Alliance titled "The Dangers of SOPA, The Stop Online Piracy Act, to Comic Books and You" by columnist Aaron Colter.
-Colter believes that this bill is an attempt by the U.S. Government to prevent citizens from accessing sites that outside of U.S. jurisdiction. Instead of attacking the sites head on, the government is trying to prevent the citizens from getting to the sites.
-With one of the provisions in SOPA intended to stop payment services from processing money to pirated sites and material, credit services such as Paypal, VISA, or Mastercard could be shut down on a national level. This would affect many comics readers who use these methods to pay for their products.
-With a greater emphasis on stopping piracy at the search bar, companies such as Google would be forced to almost completely overhaul their search engine in an attempt to disassociate itself with piracy and pirated products.
-Colter notes comics previous history with censorship problems, such as the Comics Code Authority label, and believes that since the comics industry was not directly targeted, the industry has not come together on a stance yet. However, these provisions to the internet would effect the entire comics industry in the long run.
Both Colter's and Shand's articles show the long reaching effects SOPA would have to not just business and websites, but ordinary citizens. In order to take a position on SOPA, one must go directly to the source, look at the act itself, and see how it would effect industries in the long term.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Comics reaction to SOPA- Part 1
The next installment on this blog will begin to look at the Stop Online Piracy ACT, or SOPA for short, and how the comics world is reacting to it. This first post will look at up and coming writer Patrick Shand and his opinion on the subject.
-Shand acknowledges the argument that the average uninformed citizen would have: that the only reason people care about SOPA is that they do not want to lose the endless source of entertainment that is the internet. However, Shand shows that this is not the case as the act would basically make the work he and millions of others have done to present their thoughts to the world through the internet would be lost.
-Shand acknowledges the problem of Piracy that SOPA is trying to prevent. He illustrates this using the example of a comic he contributed to, The Grimm Fairy Tales: Holiday Edition 2011, and how it is easier to find a pirated version of the comic than anything else.
-Shand points out that social media sites such as Tumblr, Facebook, and many others would be shut down immediately by this act to prevent piracy.
-Shand also points out that although piracy can occur, the internet allows the average citizen to be informed about the world around them.
This controversy caused by SOPA is relevant to my life and the lives of others because the internet has become such a standard part of society. We have become so accustomed to the internet that a radical change of how it functions could radically alter our society as well. Further research can be obtained by looking at the opinions of more people and the actual components of the act itself.
-Shand acknowledges the argument that the average uninformed citizen would have: that the only reason people care about SOPA is that they do not want to lose the endless source of entertainment that is the internet. However, Shand shows that this is not the case as the act would basically make the work he and millions of others have done to present their thoughts to the world through the internet would be lost.
-Shand acknowledges the problem of Piracy that SOPA is trying to prevent. He illustrates this using the example of a comic he contributed to, The Grimm Fairy Tales: Holiday Edition 2011, and how it is easier to find a pirated version of the comic than anything else.
-Shand points out that social media sites such as Tumblr, Facebook, and many others would be shut down immediately by this act to prevent piracy.
-Shand also points out that although piracy can occur, the internet allows the average citizen to be informed about the world around them.
This controversy caused by SOPA is relevant to my life and the lives of others because the internet has become such a standard part of society. We have become so accustomed to the internet that a radical change of how it functions could radically alter our society as well. Further research can be obtained by looking at the opinions of more people and the actual components of the act itself.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
A Comic Book Blog Synthesis
To sum up our look at A Comic Book Blog, we are going to look at how the blog feels about DC's New 52 relaunch and promotion as a whole and how that influences their opinion on the comics industry.
The second post that we looked at last month shows that the Blog feels that the New 52 is just another sales gimmick and that DC is not living up to the promises they made of this new line. Though there are a lot of new and innovative books coming from this relaunch, namely in the Edge and Dark categories, a lot of the books in the New 52 fall prey to the same problems DC had pre-relaunch. For example, in the Blog's review of Batwing #4, they note that the recapping of the title character's origin story felt like "filler" and that it felt like DC was once again writing the story to sell a 6 issue trade paperback. While there are a number of comics that tell stories in less than 5 issues, such as Mister Terrific, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Suicide Squad and Detective Comics, a majority of DC's so called "flagship" titles tell stories in 6 or even 7 issues. These include such big names as Justice League, Action Comics, Batman, and Batman and Robin, among others. Also, DC still relies on an overabundance of sexual and violent themes to provide shock value. Whether it's Catwoman jumping out of a building half nude or Green Lantern shooting a villain's head off, these kind of scenes make one wonder if DC is still relying on these tropes as a crutch. It is now the beginning of the 5'th month of the New 52, and while sales are still up from last year, a lot of the more obscure books are not doing so well and creative team change ups occur all over the line. Marvel has just taken back the lead spot as the top comic publisher in December, a spot DC has held since September. It will be interesting to see where the New 52 develops from here.
The second post that we looked at last month shows that the Blog feels that the New 52 is just another sales gimmick and that DC is not living up to the promises they made of this new line. Though there are a lot of new and innovative books coming from this relaunch, namely in the Edge and Dark categories, a lot of the books in the New 52 fall prey to the same problems DC had pre-relaunch. For example, in the Blog's review of Batwing #4, they note that the recapping of the title character's origin story felt like "filler" and that it felt like DC was once again writing the story to sell a 6 issue trade paperback. While there are a number of comics that tell stories in less than 5 issues, such as Mister Terrific, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Suicide Squad and Detective Comics, a majority of DC's so called "flagship" titles tell stories in 6 or even 7 issues. These include such big names as Justice League, Action Comics, Batman, and Batman and Robin, among others. Also, DC still relies on an overabundance of sexual and violent themes to provide shock value. Whether it's Catwoman jumping out of a building half nude or Green Lantern shooting a villain's head off, these kind of scenes make one wonder if DC is still relying on these tropes as a crutch. It is now the beginning of the 5'th month of the New 52, and while sales are still up from last year, a lot of the more obscure books are not doing so well and creative team change ups occur all over the line. Marvel has just taken back the lead spot as the top comic publisher in December, a spot DC has held since September. It will be interesting to see where the New 52 develops from here.
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