Amazon's greed just ruined comic books

[@WrecklessEating]

Sad to see what happened to Comixology. Large companies rarely do right by these types of deals.

[@planepower8523]

Large companies do right - what is right for them, not the consumer. it is a method to increase income, therefore profit, while ensuring creators remain enslaved. The exact same thing Amazon does with its employees.

[@richardponton3920]

@@planepower8523 Except two things are happening: the "good players" among the consumers simply stop buying and reading them, and the "bad players" move to pirate models. The creators lose either way. And I'm not condemning "good" or "bad" here. I just needed differentiated terms. I understand both decisions. But i mourn the loss of something that's been a part of my life for as long as I can read. #sadmiddleagedguy

[@FischerFilmStudio]

KZbin is a great example

[@marblelibrarianlibrarian4983]

No one profits from the trashing of Comixology except Marvel and DC. Folks will have to subscribe to the publishers to them. Bezos used to be smarter. I often think about subscribing to Marvel' digital svc or Comixology. But I kept seeing complaints. Best possible world: being able to play them on out TV, so my legally blind husband could enjoy them. (I usually voiceover as the print is still too small for him.) Someday some comix geeks will create a solution, but it might entail registering VPNs in Monaco. 😜

[@marblelibrarianlibrarian4983]

I figured it out: Wanda Maximoff didn't like how she looked on a cell phone, and cursed Be$o$. That assisted Anonymous in infiltrating his IT dept. It seems that some of them didn't like comics, because entertainment distracts from making revolution. Loki has been falsely accused, he wants you to know.

[@Bluecho4]

As it turns out, giving one corporation an effective monopoly is a _bad thing._ Who knew?

[@TheRealKSmith]

Not a monopoly. A chunk of every single pie? Yes. Stop eroding words.

[@DoveJS]

@@TheRealKSmith There are so many mega-corporations; they're all borderline now.

[@DoveJS]

@@TheRealKSmith If "effective" was there when you replied, that's nuance, not erosion.

[@verbulent_flow6229]

@@TheRealKSmith Either a _nearmonopoly_ or the portmanteau _monearpoly._ That should do the trick. From English near + monopoly.

[@TheRealKSmith]

@@verbulent_flow6229 I'll accept it. Society has manipulated words they don't understand for a good while now, and it's starting to be annoying.

[@mhudson_illustration]

As an indie comic creator, this just breaks my heart. I was afraid it would be bad from the moment I had to upload through their new Kindle tool--none of the terminology or dimensions applied to comic pages, and it was like trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole. It was so frustrating and worrisome, and seeing the rollout is like confirming your worst nightmare--to have spent thousands of hours of your life crafting a high-quality story hopefully worthy of engagement, only to have the publishing platform take 65% of the profits generated and deliver a horrible experience to your readers instead... I am so sorry to all comic lovers, you deserved better than this for your support over the years.

[@ellaisplotting]

❤❤❤❤

[@richardponton3920]

And it is people like you that suffer the most. I choose not to pirate, so good on me, but since the distribution model sucks, I also simply don't buy them either. So creators still lose.

[@alanrussette2819]

I had the same frustrations. I still haven't re-uploaded nor re-published the two issues I had up on Comixology prior to all this nonsense.

[@Batman-52]

What’s your comic?

[@ejc2064]

@@richardponton3920 Pirate and support the creator then both win dont pat your self on the back for not pirateing if your still not supporting the artist you like and needs it. What backwards logic is that. Buy a subscription pirate the book and donate the physical copies when they come in to a school or something. Everyone wins!!

[@SpirusOfH]

As a European it's incredibly cathartic to hear someone else express the pure fury associated with screaming at a company logo "JUST LET ME GIVE YOU MY MONEY!". The amount of times I have been actively forced to pirate a media product while fully willing to pay actual, real-life money from my bank account straight to a company is staggering, and those companies should be embarrassed. I don't read comic books, but this can be translated to any number of media products or services. My friends and I have often mentioned how we would be willing to pay an exuberant amount of money for a legal version of something equivalent to PopcornTime.

[@YujiUedaFan]

Right? Stuff like Hulu, HBOMax, Peacock, VRV etc... are all US exclusive and the ONLY way we can get them is if we use a VPN and get a virtual credit card. Even then it's like three times as expensive as what the Americans pay...

[@izzynobre]

I hated Amazon's acquisition of Comixology from day one. Doesn't surprise me they ruined the experience.

[@yurineri2227]

nice to see you here Izzy, but yeah I agree

[@Kauannn7]

tudo culpa do bezos

[@jaycee_baron]

Went to a panel with the head of ComiXology at ECCC before the acquisition. It was clear from that they had positioned themselves for that buyout.

[@adamadrian3487]

You know who didn’t hate the acquisition Comixology.

[@AnimatedTerror]

I agree with your points on piracy. I believe the patron saint of gaming himself, gaben newel said something along the lines of “piracy is a distribution issue, if a product is not being offered or if a pirate is offering a better deal then the customer is in their right go with the pirates deal.” I’ve had many experiences with many companies not having a easy way or any way to get ahold of a book, movie, game or song. Example, Nintendo doesn’t like their fans. They are very clingy of their IP and don’t like rereleasing old content without strings attached. Look at Mario 3D all stars for an example. And those games aren’t that old comparatively. Compare to any number of games on the nes or snes that Nintendo probably doesn’t even know they own but will happily strike content creators down for having the gall to upload a soundtrack to a game that hasn’t been on the market for 30 something years. It’s reached a point where I don’t even feel guilty about pirating because half the times it seems like these companies don’t even want my money which feels very ironic considering how often they take legal action to make sure only they get money. In the end I will continue to use piracy to watch anime, read comics, play old games and listen to music. Because no matter what these companies say, they are competing with pirates and the pirates have offered a much better deal.

[@sylvy16]

Nintendo are especially annoying in this way, since many people including me love old pokémon games but have no legal way of playing them, especially those released in the 2000s. The only legal way is to try and find physical copies of the game that are working and authentic, which is not beneficial to fans of these games or nintendo.

[@alexpage10]

"If a game/movie is made by Nintendo/Disney, one has not only the right to pirate it, but the moral obligation to do so." - Aristotle.

[@MakiPcr]

Honestly pirates are so much better at archiving old games than any publisher. If Roms didn't exist, many NES and SNES games would be lost forever

[@archierm]

Me, If a nintendo game was released 5+ years ago: "Yarrr, shiver me timbers. Where Nintendavey Jones locker be? Rom downloading from these landlubbers, aye aye."

[@alwaysfallingshort]

I used to pirate everything because I was a kid with zero income. Then there was this sweet spot where I was paying for streaming services, books were reasonable on my kindle, steam had regular deals on videogames--I stopped pirating things. I felt good about supporting my favorite artists. Then all the different high quality services either got bought up, or broken up and each corporation has a game or streaming service. Books are now under one of 3 publishers and while there's sales, it's never on newer books. I also have way more income than I ever have in my life, but I started piracy again. It literally has nothing to do with costs, and everything to do with convenience and portability. When I pirate books and movies and comics, I just own them and know I can use them on my devices without logging into something. If you have to artificially restrict your product's availability to make it more worthwhile to make then you're in the business of inconvenience and shouldn't be surprised when that inconvenience is circumvented.

[@thecastiel69]

In Primevideo, Jurassic Park and Dexter are categorized as Documentry and LoTR as Sci-Fi

[@Darth_Tater69]

@James Hagan sci-fi is science fiction. LOTR isn't science fiction. Sci-fi fantasy is its own genre that's a hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi concepts.

[@arnavs2306]

@@Darth_Tater69 you're confusing sci-fi fantasy with sci-fi AND fantasy

[@twenty-fifth420]

@@arnavs2306 No, they are not I believe. Sci Fi Fantasy is just called Science Fantasy. It is a genre closely similar to Star Wars, Destiny, 40k etc. it is a hybrid of the two genres. I believe they are just confused on the specific name, but I heard this one before when used to reference Science Fantasy since usually it is more Sci Fi focused then Fantasy focused. Theoretically, Sci Fi Fantasy is the same genre. Science Fiction and Fantasy get matched up together at your local bookstore for a reason and that is because the two are really just reskins of one another. One focused on a more past driven aesthetic (Fantasy), the other more future driven aesthetic (Science Fiction) Not including other sub-genres between science fantasy, like imho Steampunk which is pretty commonly a hybrid of fantasy past with science fiction new, in this case, the focus of steampower as ‘new’ in regards to how we view it.

[@twenty-fifth420]

@James Hagan Technically, just don’t let puritans get in the way of defining genre but you are on the right track. But if you want a contrary opinion, I think Tolkien would have hated seeing his book with science fiction books. He was pretty skeptical of technology himself and a primary theme of the LOTR is how industrialization and environmental decay is bad and the Orcs are going to pay for it or something lol. But stores do match the two genres together because frankly, they are similar enough anyway if you know where to look so in that sense, you are absolutely right. But if you wanna be specific on just genre, LOTR is Epic Fantasy. Probably the most adverse to Sci Fi themes of progress and technologization but I digress.

[@qwertyhughman7587]

One day Jurassic Park will be a documentary and so will the terminator.

[@TheMonghy]

I don't really read digital comics, but I feel for everyone who's had a awful experience with the app. Massive conglomerates like Amazon really need to stop their bad decision making

[@kat8559]

They need to stop existing, more like.

[@TheMonghy]

@@kat8559 lol true

[@stanleyquine5020]

Yeah my stuff is all physical regarding comics. But I agree this is terrible. I think its good the message be spread For those that want dig it should be done well.

[@TheMonghy]

@@stanleyquine5020 Yeah, while I personally prefer physical, I don't think the people who prefer digital should get screwed over like this at all.

[@calebleland8390]

This is the sort of thing that happens every time a large corporation buys a company that deals in niche media. And strangely, there will always be those at the beginning who call us naysayers and that we need to calm down and see how the corporation's added wealth will make things better. And then things like this happen, and we get proven right, and everyone suffers.

[@robertt9342]

Sometimes you are right, and sometimes the others are. The problem with comixology is that there isn’t an obvious value add that the larger corporation can add over the previous product.

[@davilaelian]

Funny enough the problems with Amazon’s UI issues aren’t isolated to comixology and kindle reader. There’s goodreads with early 2000’s aesthetic. The prime video apps on consoles, smart tv, or desktop are clunky and overtly complicated for no reason and when you pause because you missed something or want to look at a still frame there’s the x-ray view that shows trivia and the cast but it blocks about half of the screen. Then there’s Blink, a security camera system by Amazon. The tech works fine but trying to set it up is a nightmare. You have to have a blink account to see the camera feed. But you can’t set up your own camera feed and or subscription model with the camera without searching for the blink subscription on your amazon account and thus linking the two accounts.

[@Torlik11]

I tried using amazon prime video on their Fire tablet and it was a nightmare. Took everything to get the app to work. In the meantime, Netflix was working perfectly. I don't think I need to say more

[@Zekana0]

i recently tried amazon prime video and wow is it hard to find anything on there. nothing feels intuitive and it almost feels like they DON'T want you to use it. I have issues with netflix as well but at least that has a better layout.

[@Wrappedinhair]

When a company gains monopoly, they no longer see the need to innovate, as the consumer has no other, and thus, no better option A “free” (and especially unregulated) market, really aint all its hyped up to be Unless tu llamo Jeff

[@allot5530]

Just look at KZbin

[@variousthings6470]

IMDb changed for the worse as well. For some reason, their mobile web layout hides a lot of information that's available in desktop view: for example, actors' filmographies show that they appeared in a TV series, but only the desktop view shows which specific episodes titles they were in.

[@Xshinobi2k8]

They took something that worked brilliantly and completely ruined it to the point where they have kinda killed my interest in the medium. Comixology and DC's New 52 reboot got me into comics and with these changes I don't even feel like bothering anymore.

[@donaldcharles3331]

Same, that and the reboots. I got into comics right before Final Crises and after Marvels civil war. I see no point in following the stories anymore. It changes every 2 years

[@prisonerofearth]

Printed comics exist, bro. Indie comics are so much better than Marvel and DC.

[@ajd2393]

I mean...new 52 alone does that to people o.o

[@sd-wc9ep]

Just pirate

[@donaldcharles3331]

@@prisonerofearth I have some Indie comics I like but if you have a YT channel that does i die comics can you send? I just want to know more i die comics. I have bought some that I waisted my money so I am more hesitant with indie comics.

[@TheRichandmighty]

I needed guided view due to my disability causing vision problems with the small text and I also can't hold physical copies and I live in Canada so I am screwed 100% and that was never how guided view worked before Scott; the whole panel took up the screen not split between two pages.

[@newt__noot]

I legitimately think that piracy helps all kinds of media. Without piracy, we wouldn't be able to find lost media or have any accessible versions of art for anyone to read. The amount of times I got into something because I was able to pirate it are too numerous, it legitimately helped me get into comics. Comixology being this way is heartbreaking, and I sincerely hope they'll change it but... it's Amazon. They probably won't. :\

[@HyperWolf]

Definitely. I pirated so many comic books when I was a kid because my parents couldn’t afford to buy me any. But when I had money I’d buy my favorites as physical copies. So as long as they made good comics, they got their money later.

[@kobe9886]

most comics are too big to fail, small stuff should be bought but honestly no reason to pay amazon to read fucking batman

[@IncendiarySolution]

Nom

[@Peniche94]

Agree, Thanks to piracy i cosume more manga than ever. Hell i even want the complete Tomes of some Manga. Piracy is the reason why Manga/anime has grow so fast in recent years.

[@Hylanos]

Piracy is the only way. I mean, it's no wonder companies jumped onto comixology in the first place. Before, if you wanted a back issue, you bought it from a comic shop that had it, I/E, Marvel / DC didn't make any money

[@thedukeofchutney468]

Jeff Bezos is Lex Luthor in all but name. Heck, he even hates supers as is shown here!

[@Rctdcttecededtef]

I get more of a dr.evil vibe

[@adampkalb]

Is Mark Bezos any better? We rarely hear much about him, except that he is an advertising executive with a private equity firm, and that he is the self-proclaimed Bezos with a smaller bank account.

[@johnwerner69]

I'm so freaking annoyed what happened to comixology and I'm so happy more are talking about it! It really has made me not wanna buy comics.. At least we got the marvel app for their comics

[@RobertJW]

The Marvel app probably now defaults to being the best way to buy and read digital comics...

[@johnwerner69]

@@RobertJW if they get more than just the marvel ones I'm sure to switch to it

[@walterhoward5512]

@@RobertJW That is horrifying. Marvel Unlimited sucks.

[@RobertJW]

@@walterhoward5512 I don’t mean Marvel Unlimited, though.

[@brianng8350]

Never know. Marvel is under another monster corporation. Things can happen... that is the problem with digital medium.

[@cowbelltv4865]

I read most of my comics (graphic novels) for free from my public library through HOOPLA. You can't own the books but you can read them. The tablet reading experience is very good. Your library probably offers Hoopla and your tax dollars are paying for it.

[@taejaskudva2543]

I love Hoopla. Though it doesn't really help anyone who is his target audience, i.e.- people buying new releases, because I know my public library's digital collection is great but far from thorough or current. Actually, Hoopla is the reason I have a Marvel Unlimited subscription now, because I wanted to continue past the last issue the library had. And this video makes me super glad I opted for Marvel Unlimited instead of Comixology, though again that's because it suits my use case.

[@CarolAnneMcFarlane]

Just found and signed up! Thanks for this.

[@akhirajordao3399]

That's one of the reasons it's been a while since I could follow through a entire comic run. I don't have much money to keep buying physical copies it's very expensive for me, and sometimes online it's cheaper but the experience for me it's not very good. My eyes start hurting to fast. It's sad to see that the online experience got even worse (not counting piracy etc)

[@PaulSSalazar]

I never like when big companies put little effort in their user interfaces. As I use tech more everyday, having a menu work smooth is a miracle. An UI is such an afterthought even though it is part of my purchase of that product. (I need a place to rant because I care)

[@Kobolds_in_a_trenchcoat]

It's weird when the UI has so little thought and care too. For 99% of customers, that's literally the entire app really. They aren't looking at the back end or anything, just using the basic functionality, no excuse for a large tech company like Amazon to fail so hard at basic UI.

One reason I cut my hair as short as it is, is that this way I can't pull it out when I try to use Amazon's UI fruitfully. It's… well, "bad" would be an understatement. The words I'd use would make it very likely for KZbin to auto-delete my comment. Heck (hah!), those words would *still* be an understatement.

[@anonymous6705]

A lot of people are saying that this opens the door for a new, better comic reader to emerge with all of ComiXology's lost features, but this ignores the fact that tons of users will have to BUY their libraries AGAIN, FROM SCRATCH.

[@king_jamz916]

Shit happens

[@YujiUedaFan]

I mean you could buy everything through Comixology so the people who make the comics still get paid, then read a pirated copy instead since they're generally better and you can get proper dedicated apps to read comics with.

[@king_jamz916]

@Josiah Ali That's unrealistic to buy physical of everything you want to read

[@king_jamz916]

@Josiah Ali I do buy physical but reading digital is definitely a space for it.... you both are crying I'm fine

[@jermo1470]

@Josiah Ali allot of people dont have a comic book shop nearby including me

[@ItsTheFizz]

What kills me is that Amazon made this change when Comixology's monopoly was legitimately challenged by the likes of WebToon and Shonen Jump...

[@-Teague-]

Fr they shoulda been upping their game not throwing it in the garbage 💀

[@studiobrock]

Apple Books for digital comics is also terrible in a unique and frustrating way.

[@Zeether77]

No shit, it's Apple. They always suck.

[@vullord666]

It's like they want you to go online and pirate

[@thomaschildress5197]

I had a health crisis last year that affects my mobility and going to shops on a weekly basis became a thing of the past. I made the digital jump and six months later Comixology took that from me. Bastards.

[@perrisavallon5170]

Always felt bad about supporting Amazon through Comixology, so hey, maybe it's a good thing theyr'e about to lose money from this

[@testytest69420]

Especially since, if my experience is anything to go by, not only did users outside the US lose all our subscriptions, we straight up can't access the store to purchase comics on Comixology at all.

[@dasuberedward]

Wait you think Amazon is going to lose money?

[@perrisavallon5170]

@@dasuberedward Fair enough

[@sd-wc9ep]

@@dasuberedward i mean If less people buy stuff the earn less/lose money.its probably only Pocketchange for them but still

[@Suisai13]

@@sd-wc9ep yeah, they won't miss a dime, but at the same time they can't be blind to the significant loss of business.

[@NerdSyncProductions]

I finally threw out my celery.

[@AbdulRaheem-fk8ru]

Now you have more room for the physical comic books! :D

[@General_Nothing]

Didn’t even really talk about Amazon gutting the Comixology website to put it on the Amazon website. The apps and the reader being terrible was one thing. I was willing to just be frustrated but put up with it, but the fact that I couldn’t even find the comics I wanted to buy on their website anymore because of the terrible TERRIBLE unintuitive way that Amazon is designed was too far.

[@mcmartini88]

Yep this is the thing that’s killing me. I only started getting into comics once I found comiXology 2 years ago and now the stores broke. I always used the app to read on my iPhone which is still ok and I didn’t lose my library but trying to find new comics is so hard now. What a way to kill a loyal customer base.

[@ninjanicktf9768]

This whole update made me sad, honestly as soon as I'm done reading my unread backlog of digital comics I'm just not gonna bother with the service anymore. I loved this app and poured thousands of dollars over the years into it, it helped introduce me to some comics I otherwise would have never read. I remember one of the last things I did before the update was read the entirety of Invincible while stuck at home with COVID. Yet every change they made was actively worse, load times, lack of smart lists, I even ran into a glitch where it said I had NOTHING in my library--something that's complete bull crap! Farewell Comixology, it sucks Amazon killed you.

[@AaronSherman]

Just a small correction: you mentioned DRM-free downloads, but then repeatedly referred to them as "copyright free." Downloaded comics, regardless of format or digital protections are certainly still copyrighted by the publisher.

[@msadaldin]

Oh let me add a bucket of salt to that gash: As an international reader 90% of comixology's backlog as well as 99% of non-big 2 publishers (including comixology originals) is no longer available to me... I cannot begin to express how much that has affected my ability to buy comics that I love, 50% of my weekly comics budget is indie books..

[@WarmLillie]

Greed is powerful force, it causes men to do amazing and horrifying thing get there desires. It’s not just a lantern color and sin against humanity too.

[@johnfulmer740]

My wife's Amazon account was cancelled due to 'reasons' that Amazon can't tell us. As fewer companies eat more services, one rogue algorithm can shut you out of entire markets.

[@Laully]

@@johnfulmer740 I was banned from reviewing/asking questions because I edited a comment that was still showing up on my profile, but apparently got deleted for breaking unknown rules without notifying me...and apparently editing it broke the "Don't submit a review on a product where a review you wrote was previously taken down" rule. I've emailed them several times over the years to figure out what rule the review broke, or if I can appeal, but never once got a response. I wouldn't be surprised if they blocked me the first time honestly, assuming it was a lie/spam. I had detailed reviews that are now gone because of this, & I'd LOVE to ask questions on woven belts because I want one I can hang a water bottle on & get as many years out of as my current one. You can't tell me writing a review on a product I purchased for a friend is any worse than all the, "I don't have this product. I don't know," answers or literal spam reviews that Amazon allows.

[@Laully]

I was banned from reviewing/asking questions because I edited a review that still showed up on my profile, but supposedly was deleted for breaking unknown rules without notifying me. Apparently editing it broke the "Don't submit a review on a product where a review you wrote was previously taken down" rule. I've emailed them several times over the years to figure out what rule the review broke, or if I can appeal, but never once got a response. I had detailed reviews that are now gone because of this, & I'd LOVE to ask questions on woven belts because I want one I can get as many years out of as my current one & I can't find anything decent in-store. There's no way writing a review on a product I purchased for a friend is any worse than all the, "I don't have this product. I don't know," answers or literal spam reviews Am*zon allows.

[@rynagon_]

“And now, as we could have predicted, Amazon wrecks Comixology.” *Amazon ad plays*

[@lbutler127]

This "new" app has totally destroyed my interest in digital comics. I had like 12 graphic novels downloaded in Comixology and was jumping from one to another, enjoying the hell out of the experience. Now I have to try and find where everything ran off to...I do have about 1000 purchases. I used to check the weekly sales page on Comixology religiously. I don't even bother anymore...

[@Painocus]

The more time goes on the more I'm convinced of not only the harmlessness of pirating old, out of print media, but the necessity of piracy itself purely for art preservation (especially when it comes to digital art). Take GOG as a case study; GOG itself is a platform aimed at making out-of-print video games legally available again, all fine and good. And when a game gets put on there many abandonware and piracy sites will just take their uploads down and link to Gog/Steam/whatever instead, which is nice. So what's the problem? This process activly hurts the efforts of historical preservation and the abiity to experience the art as intended. You see, these piracy/abandonware sites often do their best to preserve as many different version of a game as they can and as much of the original documentation as possible (which for many old games were as much part of the game as the software itself). On Gog (and Steam is even worse) however? Does the game have multiple versions with notable differences worth preserving? With a few exceptions you will only be given one. Is your game originally made for the C64 or Amiga? Tough luck, all you can get now is the inferior DOS port. Is the documentation need for the game intact? Maybe, maybe not. Better go see if some of those piracy sites still have 'em. Want to play the game as originally released without this or that patch? Yeah, no chance. And god have mercy on you if all they have is some shoddy modern port or integrated emulator. And Gog is the best case scenario here, as I said Steam is even worse about this, and Gog's hands are often tied by what the indifferent copyright holders lets them host and how much legal red tape they bother working through. Which bring me to the publisher side of things, and my other example; Barver Battle Saga and Water Margin, two old Chinese games for the Mega Drive (aka. Sega Genesis). Due to the laxness of Chinese copyright enforcment they had been treated as de facto public domain for a while, but eventually some American company bought the rights. They then got them removed from sites hosting the original files, which... fine, but also went as far as getting sites like Romhacking to remove the translation patch for Braver they hosted. Not any of the original files, just the tools to translate them. Then you'd expect them to make the games available right? Well... not really. They produced expensive, limited run, collector's editions of them, so that the only legal way to get them for years were scalpers. But eventually, finally, years later they got added to the likes of Steam. In English. Only in English. No Chinese. So still, the only way to get these games, in their original language, the way most people who originally played them did, is to go to even less reliable and more scummy piracy sources. Furthermore publishers who brag about preserving these games and "bringing them back" seem to often themselves have to go to these piracy sites to get the game files, sometimes including (uncredited) fan-made patches and fixes from these sites. So they are reliant on the perservation efforts of the very pirates they fight against. And as piracy keeps getting cracked-down on harder and harder, as physical releases (if they exist at all) deteriorate, we can expect more and more of this media to become permanently lost. So there is a price to pay for our increasingly draconian, profit-driven and corporate-oriented copyright enforcement. That price is art. It's culture. It's history.

[@vullord666]

We really just need better legal preservation of art and digital media in general.

[@jclindsay007]

Hell, Didn't Nintendo themselves get blasted for using something like Mupen 64 to port 64 games to the wii?

[@unsuspiciousdweller8967]

Hell, even GOG isn't doing much to enforce their "DRM-Free" status when i hop on and see reviews of games requiring "always online" 3rd party launchers to run singleplayer. At this point, i'd be tempted to pirate anything non-indie if i could guarantee i won't infect my pc

[@ladyzeon7747]

Okay, I totally get your feelings on the "Guided View", I personally care a lot about the original artistic intent of any work in any medium. For me personally I've found Guided View really useful, because I have ADHD and dyslexia, so breaking it down panel by panel makes the comic easier to digest, and it's not as mentally exhausting, so I can read more for longer periods of time.

[@nobo1982]

Also a lot of artist now consider guided view in their layouts and illustrations….or they did.

[@Kobolds_in_a_trenchcoat]

Guided view existing as an option should be like the easy mode the developers focused less on, there to help people who need pr want it but not the default or recommended experience.

[@RickReasonnz]

I always liked it because overwise I would look at the whole page and my periphery would process what's happening at the end of the page rather than the panel I'm trying to focus on. It stopped me from spoiling, or reading too fast.

[@littlered6340]

@@nobo1982 this! When guided view is done correctly, I feel like it brings out the intentions even more. It's so good!

[@MicahMicahel]

it misunderstands some of the depth and beauty possible in the form. The page is part of the art, also the ability to see all the panels at the same time on the page.

[@ArmoredCow]

Yeah amazon lost me when they got rid of the Windows app that was perfect for reading comics on my Surface Pro tablet. They killed the app saying "just use the website". The problem was that I couldn't download the comics to read while I was traveling with no internet access so yeah, I just stopped buying comics from them.

[@jimbogreen7029]

and the web reader is like 480p lol

[@shybard]

Looks like we're still living in the stupidest possible dystopia. This is both reassuring and incredibly depressing. Thanks for the reminder.

[@themangoman9315]

Can Nintendo and Amazon stop encouraging piracy for 5 minutes

[@grantbaugh2773]

Sometimes piracy is the only practical way to get something. I don't like pirating stuff, but when Marvel has no option to buy a large portion of Captain America Comics during the golden age, it's piracy or pay thousands for a physical copy that won't result in any income for Marvel.

[@morlath4767]

29:29 - This is exactly why I can't stand Amazon's DRM insanity. The Kindle app is horrendous. You have to manually create collections and keep it updated, and woe betide you if you've got a huge library and are looking for things to then add into a collection. You can't rename books to show which series they're part of, or even which number in the series they are. I use a third party reader for all my e-books and e-comics, and the DRM drives me bonkers because trying to save the meta-data to how I prefer my library to be organised is a nightmare. It's got to the stage where I buy physical copies again, just so I don't have to deal with the Amazon's obsession with keeping everything in house.

[@Kim_Music_books_racing_fan]

I'm just now getting into comics and graphic novels (more so the latter as I prefer longer books and I've gotten into graphic novelizations of books and graphic nonfiction books). I've only read physical copies of them as I work in a library and have been able to get physical copies of the books I want. I've thought about trying digital formats, but having watched this video, I think I'll still to just requesting physical books from other libraries in my work system. Nothing about this mash up of the two different systems is user friendly.

[@nio3027]

2 videos in less than a month, we live on the objectively best timeline

[@princeparker8797]

😂😂😂

[@j.b.c.a.]

Amazon screwed Cimixology. We live on the objectively worst timeline.

[@nio3027]

@@j.b.c.a. Fair point

[@millythompsonfromtrigun98anime]

We’re living in a timeline

[@andreworders7305]

Ignoring the topic of the video I see

[@sclair2854]

True story about piracy, I was really into the spiderman movies as a kid and wanted to get into the comics. They weren't accessible anywhere near me in rural UK. I could pirate manga so I tried with Spiderman and... I couldn't find any. Years later comic piracy became much easier, and when I wanted to read Batman it was immediately there and accessible. I buy all my comics now, but DC has earned hundreds more from me over the years than Marvel just cause it was more accessible, even if DC never intended it to be. In short... Hey maybe comics should make some of their back catalogue free?

[@PWingert1966]

Guided reading is essential to me as my sight has become much worse over the last several years and having a single panel zoomed-in makes it possible for me to read the text without having to zoom manually each bubble.

[@RannekoPlays]

All that stuff at 6:50 is specifically an apple problem. On Android you could always buy in the various Amazon owned apps because they could use their own payment processor and not pay a 30% fee to Apple or Google

[@_Ekaros]

Yeah, blame the right evil company. And stop being idiot hipster who supports Apple... Or accept that somethings just are extra work as you are willingly forcing app makers to give money to Apple...

[@benneballe]

I love these analyses of digital services, apps and tech from a critical nerd perspective. This could be a whole thing, I tell ya. My job is basically nerding this stuff from a somewhat critical perspective, working with competition law, privacy compliance, IT security, etc for a software development company, and the things I see every day, from ungrounded tech hype (AI, anyone?) to embarrassingly stupid mistakes of bad jobs by greedy corps. to absolutely illegal and unethical actions, is a phenomenally entertaining thing in the tech sector. It's infinite rant material. @nerdsync I would watch you talk about these topics all day!

[@tecpaocelotl]

Also, amazon sells the anthologies books more expensive. I have gotten them cheaper anywhere else. Comixology was interesting. Sucks now.

[@CybershamanX]

Re: The Crash. Yeah. Most people have been lulled into "purchasing" media stored on a server/the cloud. However, if the company goes away or the servers crash, your "purchases" are unreachable. We're struggling with the same problem in the video game community. It's why I usually purchase games exclusively through GOG, now. You can download the actual installers and back them up on your own media/server/machine. Yeah, I have yet to see any actual data on how much piracy "steals" from a company. They often point to the total number of illegal downloads and spout off about how each download equals a lost sale. There is no evidence that someone who downloads a pirated copy of a game would/could actually purchase the legal version. People download pirated games for all sorts of reasons. Some do it just because they can and might not even enjoy or even play a game they downloaded. And how about the people who can't afford to buy a game? They wouldn't/couldn't buy a game anyway, so, no, that doesn't equal a "lost" sale. At any rate, I'm sure that the number of people who want to even deal with the hassle and pitfalls of pirated software (if you equate each download to one individual person) is tiny compared to the number of actual paying customers. I don't know what drives corporations to complain to lawmakers about piracy. It could just be unbridled greed. Maybe they do think that they are "losing" sales. While I'm sure that if they could somehow block all pirate downloads they _might_ get a _little_ more money in their coffers, it couldn't be an amount of any relative worth. So, I really wonder what all of the shouting is about. What is the _actual_ reason? I don't know. I'm rambling now. I shall stop... 😜

[@tonythesuperperson]

Just the strangest wilful breaking of something that worked I’ve ever seen. All those years of solving problems, thrown out of the window.

[@pumpkinesoterica]

I remember hearing about this, but I don't use comixology because I don't have the money to just buy comics. That's really screwy, and I'm glad I don't really use it now. Also I can never see that piracy ad without remembering the fact my dad told me they used pirated music for it.

[@Oliviagarry69420]

Palpatine voice: ironic

[@paulheap1982]

Yeah, but was that actually true?

[@michaelturner2806]

For the ~ six months or so that I got into comics, I started with piracy to test out the waters. It was the opposite of convenience, especially since I was reading mostly on my phone. Comixology's guided view, where I could auto snap to the next panel, was a lifesaver, and I happily paid for the comics I was still reading, until I grew disinterested again. If that's removed or reduced, if I get back into comics, it'll probably be through piracy again.

[@AnimatedTerror]

Ruh roh Raggy! Once again laziness and greed is tarnishing and harming the comics book industry!

[@RealCoolGuy]

You know what would make comics more accessible than digital versions? Putting physical copies in stores like Wal-Mart and Target where people could actually see and pick them up

[@exilestudios9546]

That would then kill brick and mortar comic shops. We want fewer big corporations involved not more

[@RealCoolGuy]

@@exilestudios9546 Brick and mortar comic shops suck! They are extremely intimidating and inaccessible to new and potential new readers. When I was a kid we could pick up comic books at the local 7-Eleven

[@roesler]

Well, that's how comics work in Brazil. We have few comic book shops, which have a faithful following of collectors, but other than that comics are sold everywhere: newsstands, bookstores, even some grocery stores. This also means comics can be easily found even in small towns that can't support a dedicated shop. As a result, we have a much larger readership - even people who aren't part of the 'fandom' read some comics. They're just... available.

[@LPTheGas]

@@exilestudios9546 1) As someone else already pointed out, nothing of value would be lost, and 2) any time big corporations are involved, there are only two good options: get them gone COMPLETELY, or get more of them involved so they have to compete more with each other. "Fewer but still some" is always worse for the consumer.

[@lightskinnedlarry728]

They do kinda do this

[@hookedonfandom]

This all makes me so sad. And they seem to be taking the stance of ignoring it and hoping we all get over it.

[@ahmadalmutairi2035]

I live in Kuwait and the only source for digital comics is comixology, I read a lot of indie comics and with new update it was nearly impossible to find any! Amazon really made the worse downgrade ever.

[@robertwild9447]

@33:03 "Amazon's greed is more transparent than most PNG's found on google images". Damn, well said.

[@EKimatH]

I’m going to waste the emptiness of the comment section I’ve been blessed with by the patreon support early access ask: Why do you need so much old celery? With great power should also come great responsibility and I’m hella irresponsible never give me power

[@xManzi]

First of all, paying same price for physical and digital release is just plain greed an stupidity. Furthermore you don't have digital copy in any way, shape or form so you are basically paying for renting them (who reads comics more than 2 times) and waiting for someone to shutdown the service and you lose everything. And now this... I started collecting some comics on comixology but soon stopped when I thought about everything.

[@hope-cat4894]

Same reason to buy DVDs and not just only streaming. Companies love making products unaccessible after a certain period of time.

[@xManzi]

@@hope-cat4894 Yea, I go to cinema when movie is interesting to me. Then I make digital version of DVD. Same with comics. I just don't believe those companies... It's not in their interest to keep going forever...

[@starbrand3726]

And people still ask me why I only buy physical media.

[@tylerbear911]

I REALISED THIS ONLY YESTERDAY! I AM FILLED WITH RAGE STILL AND HAVE LOST SO MANY COMICS FROM ALL THIS. My little nerd heart is broken 💔

[@shaneoid361]

I just launched my comic "Night Twink" and someone suggested Amazon, I'm glad I watched this before putting it up on there, I think I'll avoid it!

[@wompastompa3692]

This is why I pirate copies of all of the comics I own. I get to view them however I want without having to worry about some company fucking everything up.

[@certifiednobody]

Dangerously based

[@aryantaywade298]

ok why are all the comments italicized?

[@certifiednobody]

@@aryantaywade298 might be an error on your end, I don't see anything wrong.

[@themangoman9315]

I am a person who buys physical books because I like holding a comic in my hands but digital comics should be easier to read because people need a reason to read comics online without pirating books

[@doorsfan173]

After Comixology and Amazon merged, I lost my Comixology account that was unaffiliated with my Amazon profile. I had previously tried to merge them and it wouldn't work, and I didn't realize Amazon was going to do this (I should have been more attentive). Customer service was no help. I had hundreds of digital comics on there, so this was a serious bummer.

[@Souredsoup]

This is why I always buy physical trade books. I never read digital books of any kind.

[@Amcsae]

Physical copies are the best!!!

[@themangoman9315]

If I have to read digital comics then I just pirate it

[@JP-vw6dj]

Oh man having to buy your comics on the website and not the app literally made me not use it anymore and move to marvel and dcs app. When dc had an app. Hated that “feature”

[@dragon232000]

companies like amazon don't want to compete they want a monopoly and this is why I shudder at the idea of one platform having all the streaming rights to movies, comics, video games, or tv shows.

[@NerdSyncProductions]

Head to bit.ly/3J8SfC8 to get a free 100 pack of blades when you purchase a razor. You must add both the 100 blade pack and the razor for the discount to apply. Thanks for checking out the channel sponsor! It helps me out a ton! 💜

[@wispywhitesmoke]

I love your new tagline of "curiosity and vulnerability" it captures everything youve made in recent years so well its inspiring great work scott

[@penburger]

I've downloaded digital comics for free, but in doing so I've become a fan of comics. Since then I have started collecting. I would have never gotten into comic books if it wasn't for comic piracy. Realistically if you like a comic you're going to want to read it physically rather than digitally anyway.

[@kadegetslaid634]

Same here, piracy was my only option honestly as an Australian to read comics as a kid, got me into comics now i collect physically

[@Nergalsama01]

Geez, I'm so happy that I downloaded the drm-free comics I had from Comixology and have them safely backed-up. This really sucks.

[@Lycandros]

I swear companies spend more money fighting against piracy and making sure only they can make money selling stuff then they'd "loose" from those things.

[@quesoblanco444]

Even when Comixology was good I was still paying the same price for digital as physical, why? (and I did lose all I bought as well, im pretty sour on digital media)

[@sveticus]

To be fair, a lot of the locking down of purchasing in-app was only on Apple devices because of Apple store policies. I was still able to purchase in-app on Android devices up until very recently when Google made their policies more like Apple’s

[@emilybarnaby2838]

I really prefer physical media to digital, so I had barely touched ComiXology, but I'm loving getting all this context about what everyone on twitter was mad about. Also, that cut between shots at 17:55 looks so cool!

[@JelloFluoride]

I've had a kindle for a few years and frankly I HATE the user interface. I never use the kindle store for the same reason. I just download all of my books.

[@zvonimirtomac7896]

As if comics weren't in a rough spot already

[@gronith]

This reminds me of how you can no longer watch Google purchased movie through a browser in any resolution but 480p unless your using safari. The windows youtube app doesn't work either. They implied it would be temporary but no it seems permanent. Seems like a drm issue. My projector doesnt like my screen sharing so I am pretty much screwed as I use a laptop to stream them.

[@beretperson]

What a dumpster fire Amazon has made, surprising no one.

[@daasnahk5058]

This really reeks like something amazon sprung this on the Kindle team and said bye at the door. So much functionality that just needs to be there that's missing.

[@seebadd2968]

My older model Ipad litterally can't even download the new app. So, I'm stuck with an app that's just a blue screen that says "Update now!" and when I click it it crashes. Gotta love (Read hate) Amazon.

[@NeedAVacay-y5u]

The program you spoke of about helping Comic shops was never "Officially" abandoned but before Amazon accuried them the link was "broken"

[@spartida3850]

haven’t watched the whole video yet but i’m not surprised, when everything’s only made for profit nothing good can last :(

[@HassanKhan0987]

Like good ol' Gabe Newell of Valve said " piracy is a service problem" if your service is shit, and pirates offer a better deal well then it's on you to compete. These big companies seem to have so much money but no sense

[@LordYamcha]

Well shit this has made my mood go off- why do they do such anti consumer shit😔- don't they want our money

[@chubbubdreamer6904]

They generally go on the idea of, "We have a monopoly, where they gonna go?"

[@thorstenschwarz3275]

I'm old school! I read comics on paper. And maybe it wasn't a bad decission when I see this.

[@HugoSan432]

Well this news ruined comixology for me. Piracy over Monopoly

[@KyleJones]

The buying experience is horrific now. It's defaulted to "One Click buy" which makes me buy each book individually. HATE IT!

[@HappyNBoy]

This sucks, man. I was always wary about comixology once it was bought by Amazon. I am glad I never bit the bullet and bought anything from them. This is a tragic turn of events. I'm heartbroken by the way these events are playing out in all types of media. It's broken.

[@LonkinPork]

as someone with two cats, *and* a dog, *and* a human partner, sharing less than 1000 square feet of living space, the line about 2-month-old celery taking up space in the fridge was just too real

[@ImperfectXIII]

Everything about this Amazon/Comixology merge has just... depressed me.

[@joemontondo9113]

The change to Comixology led to me canceling my Prime subscription and I have no intention of going back.

[@Randyhoar]

Did Amazon burn all of Comixology's servers with all their coding when Amazon purchased them? This makes no sense to me

[@0NlRAPTOR]

this problem is why I always buy hard copies of media, whether movies, music or books. there is the threat that what you paid for could be edited or simply vanish out of your library at any time by whim of a corporations that is counting pennies. Promises of unfettered access dont count against the reality of corporate practice. I have family that rely on digital media for all their entertainment and when those many companies go belly up or decide to retcon their agreements the family members will be screwed out of money they spent on an experience rather than an actual copy of the media.

[@juliiju0484]

Lex Luthor's Master plan

[@darkwoods1954]

I hate when websites update yet make their site worse to use. Though saying that I buy proper comics so digital doesn't effect me.

[@invisiblefan2387]

Maybe we should’ve listened to Stan Lee. Comics feel better in your hands. (I’m paraphrasing)

[@johnwerner69]

iPad is in my hands so i would say it counts

[@invisiblefan2387]

@@johnwerner69: what I mean is it’s nice to have the comic and not have it taken away if it doesn’t work. I’m not saying either way is wrong. But hard copies have their perks.

[@disneyfanaticsanonymous6344]

As a graphic designer who sometimes reads books on my phone, it pains me to hear this. It’s sad that corporations don’t listen to their customers anymore. I’m a Disney fan, so I should know a lot about that. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@thebatpig8424]

Yeah it’s bad now

[@ultimablackmage]

This is why I still buy the floppies over the bits & bytes. Yeah it takes up space, but I own it & can read it as The One Above All & The Presence intended.

[@Eight6455]

I generally just kinda get my comics for free - one of the perks of living in Africa- but sounds like it sucks for all y'all who live in a non third world country.

[@toromiguelangel]

Couldn't agree more. As I live in Mexico and only buy in physical collected works (from graphic novels to omnibuses), I used to buy my new comics digitally. Since, first the DC app disappeared and became only Comixiology, and then Comixiology turned into Kindle, I entirely stopped reading new comic books. Now I just read/watch the reviews of certain series by KZbinrs or bloggers and if I'm interested, I'll buy the graphic novel when it is collected several months later. Essentially Amazon lost a client (they don't care, they have millions that forgive them for every fault) as it is so cumbersome to buy a comic through them.