Posted by BillG at abd92f7e.ipt.aol.com on January 18, 2000 at 14:44:10:
A great war is being waged in the alt.movies.kevin-smith newsgroup. Now, there are no bloody corpses and no Benedict Arnold-esque deceptions (well, maybe,) an argument is running rampant on the subject of bootlegging. The skirmish all started when some cat put up Kev's Oni Press comic books, in their entirity, up at his website. The justification of this act was dissected for a week or two, I was subject to alot of lame excuses (I'm from South Africa and I can't buy the comics! I don't have a credit card and I can't buy them! and the like) and some dumbass tried to write it off as saying "bootlegging is alright because it's a part of online culture." Now, here's where I stand on bootlegging. If you're hawking something you can't buy or will never be able to buy, like the Chasing Amy soundtrack, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash or the Sundance cut of Clerks, and you're not making a heavy profit, I say OK. If you're distributing something, like these comics, you're doing nothing but harming the sales of said book. The argument went on and on, and when the webmaster didn't take the books down and nobody offered a good reason to have them up, I e-mailed Jamie S. Rich, editor-in-chief of Oni Press. The comics were taken down, and some people aren't too happy. My stance on bootlegging is, of course, my opinion, but there is no excuse for putting an entire book up at a website when it's available through your local comic shop or through a mail-order company. If you think I'm right, come over to alt.movies.kevin-smith and back me up. If not, come over and bitch. Either way, I want opinions.