Peter David may (?) have killed Scans_Daily

[shanejayell]

Apparently, Peter David complained about them to Marvel shortly before the shutdown.

http://firefox.org/news/articles/2516/1/Editorial-Livejournal-Kills-Scans_Daily/Page1.html

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=5162&Focus=132734

http://www.peterdavid.net/index.php/2009/02/28/scans-daily/


Interestingly, while it was shut down to supposedly 'protect creator's rights' many creators have come out in support of scans_daily.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20241

Thoughts? Opinions?

 

[the Dagman]

It still lives. It has moved to a new url and not every one has found it yet, but it still lives on.

 

[FalTorPan]

PAD didn't kill it. Beyond that, I don't care.

 

[hyzmarca]

Live_Journal are asshats, pure and simple. They're in it to make money, not support political freedom. And I understand that. If anything remotely controversial shows up on their radar, they're going to shut it down, simply because they don't want to both with the potential litigation.

scans_daily's postings, for the most part, qualify as fair use. They don't put up full comics, just interesting pages for the purpose of commentary and criticism.

I don't think Peter David was the first Marvel writer to notice it. Frankly, I'd assume that plenty of people at Marvel knew about it. But he might have inadvertantly set something in motion, perhaps prompting someone at Marvel to contact Live Journal with concerns and that LJ to do a preemptive suspension.

I can be sure that Marvel's creative people did not want this. They're aware of the fact that the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it and are trying to get their own online viewing service off the ground. They don't need the internet publicity backlash against them, that just might drive many towards more piratey sources. Marvel's lawyers, on the other hand, probably did. Corporate IP lawyers can be douchbags.

 

[the Dagman]

PAD didn't kill it. Beyond that, I don't care.

Actually, he kinda did. True, the pages that he didn't want posted were taken down before any action was able to be implemented by Marvel's legal eagles. But it WAS he who brought the site to their attention, rather than just complaining to the site's moderators. And it was Marvel's legal department that sent the notice to LiveJournal that likely threatened legal action if they did not kill the site. PAD set the whole demise of scans_daily 1.0 in motion, and saying he isn't responsible for that is flat out wrong, legally justified or not.

I, for one, had taken that because the site wouldn't allow for more than half of any one book to be posted and the participation of several comic creators on the site that Marvel and DC were both already in the know and gave it their silent approval. It was very much like a preview and review site which spurred many of their users to buy titles they would never have given a chance without. You could go to a library and read much more than they ever posted.

But, technically, it was a violation of copyright laws. Its days were numbered from day one.

 

[OmahaStar]

Actually he kinda didn't. And it was people who commented on his journal and that of his wife, saying they should both die in a fire, who completely crossed the line.

 

[shanejayell]

From what I understand, the "die in fire" comment was on the LJ, not his blog.


And it was from one 'interesting' poster, not the majority of members, Tho admittedly most of the others have now sworn never to buy a PAD comic or book again....

 

[FreezeC77]

I am not familiar with it all, if they were just posting a random page here and there I have no problem with it. But if they posted full comics on it then obviously yea I don't see a problem with them being shut down.

 

[Sci]

PAD didn't kill it. Beyond that, I don't care.

Actually, he kinda did. True, the pages that he didn't want posted were taken down before any action was able to be implemented by Marvel's legal eagles. But it WAS he who brought the site to their attention, rather than just complaining to the site's moderators. And it was Marvel's legal department that sent the notice to LiveJournal that likely threatened legal action if they did not kill the site. PAD set the whole demise of scans_daily 1.0 in motion, and saying he isn't responsible for that is flat out wrong, legally justified or not.

As David noted, neither Marvel Legal never got the chance to do much of anything about it. It was, ergo, the excess of the fans that got it shut down -- probably by bringing it to Photobucket's attention, who then brought it to Live_Journal's attention -- not David.

 

[shanejayell]

I am not familiar with it all, if they were just posting a random page here and there I have no problem with it. But if they posted full comics on it then obviously yea I don't see a problem with them being shut down.

The rules were half a issue, tops. More often people would post pages which either had horrid are or bad writing and joke about it.

 

[TemporalFlux]

This from Peter David's site linked to at the start of the thread:

I didn’t contact the legal department to have the images removed. I contacted the legal department to inform them of a copyright violation.

This is the equivalent of saying, "I told the police that guy was stealing my stuff, but I didn't mean for them to stop him!" It's that kind of cheap dishonesty that now makes me think of David as a weasel. If he would have been a man and owned up to his justifiable action, then it wouldn't bother me; but he instead chose to be a weasel in the face of criticism. I've got no respect for the guy now.

 

[Jan]

This from Peter David's site linked to at the start of the thread:

I didn’t contact the legal department to have the images removed. I contacted the legal department to inform them of a copyright violation.

This is the equivalent of saying, "I told the police that guy was stealing my stuff, but I didn't mean for them to stop him!" It's that kind of cheap dishonesty that now makes me think of David as a weasel. If he would have been a man and owned up to his justifiable action, then it wouldn't bother me; but he instead chose to be a weasel in the face of criticism. I've got no respect for the guy now.

I'm sure he'll lose sleep over that.

Peter David is not the copyright owner of the pages in question therefore he could not demand for anybody to remove them. All he could do is notify the copyright owner, which he did. From there it was their choice as to what action to take.

As to other posts, I believe I saw at least one person wishing that he'd "die in a fire" and I know I saw several actually defending that as being acceptible.

Sickening.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

I wish people that violate copyright would die in fires.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

This from Peter David's site linked to at the start of the thread:

I didn’t contact the legal department to have the images removed. I contacted the legal department to inform them of a copyright violation.

This is the equivalent of saying, "I told the police that guy was stealing my stuff, but I didn't mean for them to stop him!" It's that kind of cheap dishonesty that now makes me think of David as a weasel. If he would have been a man and owned up to his justifiable action, then it wouldn't bother me; but he instead chose to be a weasel in the face of criticism. I've got no respect for the guy now.

I suppose he didn't have to own up to having any part at all but it does seem a bit dishonest to try to dampen what he did.

I'm a bit torn, I don't think it was a bad site the few times I checked it out but sometimes their "previews" were a bit excessive. 2-4 pages is one thing, 10-12 continuous pages is a bit much for a 22 page comic.

He complains about the page-by-page synopsis of some issues. I see where he's going with that but I wonder if anyone who would have otherwise bought the comic would be satisfied by those? Maybe some would at $3 a pop, I don't know. EDIT: I suppose a page-by-page synopsis + a 10-12 page spread might be different...

 

[Norrin Radd]

I think he's an ass and deserves whatever criticism he gets.

And this is from someone who never even visited scans daily.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I think he's an ass and deserves whatever criticism he gets.

And this is from someone who never even visited scans daily.

I know, I don't respect people who follow the laws and rules given to them. What type of crazy society IS this?!

People forget, Marvel or him, didn't even have time to do anything about this. The site was down by then. Even if the intent was there for something to happen (he never said shut down the site, they could have EASILY worked out a compromise), he or Marvel are not to blame.

Regardless, nothing wrong, ethically or according to the law, was done by them. And if nothing wrong was done by the site, why were they so quick to shut things down?

 

[Norrin Radd]

I think he's an ass and deserves whatever criticism he gets.

And this is from someone who never even visited scans daily.

I know, I don't respect people who follow the laws and rules given to them. What type of crazy society IS this?!

People forget, Marvel or him, didn't even have time to do anything about this. The site was down by then. Even if the intent was there for something to happen (he never said shut down the site, they could have EASILY worked out a compromise), he or Marvel are not to blame.

Regardless, nothing wrong, ethically or according to the law, was done by them. And if nothing wrong was done by the site, why were they so quick to shut things down?

Look, I don't even give a shit about this situation and whether he or Marvel or whoever was "legally right" or not. He's still an asshole...IMO.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I wonder how tenaciously PAD searched to see if "Marvel Legal" had time in those two days after his report to get those images taken down on their own. I mean, there's no way Marvel Legal could have gotten in touch with Photobucket.

 

[TemporalFlux]

Peter David is not the copyright owner of the pages in question therefore he could not demand for anybody to remove them.

Which is why he notified Marvel legal after reading a CBR thread concerning X-Factor...a title he writes. So yes, he had absolutely no interest in something he wrote (which he gets publishing royalties from); the whole thing was just a coincidence.

Do you guys listen to yourselves?

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Look, I don't even give a shit about this situation and whether he or Marvel or whoever was "legally right" or not. He's still an asshole...IMO.

You claim not to care, yet you call him that based on... a guy doing what's right?

Man, imagine what you would have called him had he stopped a bank robbery or something! Well, in this case, had he called the cops only to discover they were already on the scene doing their jobs, so his call wouldn't have really amounted to much...