LITG pointed me to a program that allows you to download comic books from Marvel’s digital comic service.  Almost every streaming service on the web from YouTube to Last.Fm have been hacked to allow users to easily download media in convenient and portable formats.  LITG says after they contacted Marvel about the software, Marvel DCU was changed to render the software useless.  The downloader was quickly updated and works again.

Marvel’s digital comics, as I wrote about last year, are a good start providing a small but unlimited amount of comics for a monthly fee.  Aside from the sparse selection, Marvel failed to include a download option to let users put comics on their hard drives or portable devices, which is one of the major attractions of pirated comics.

Marvel continues to learn hard lessons about file-sharing, from suing torrent websites to now fighting a ripping tool.  Just as fast as Marvel updates their website, the developer updates his software.  If Marvel updates its site again, it’ll start am arms race that costs them time and resources, but just gives this developer more publicity.  The developer is giving out his software for free; he can stop anytime. 

As Sony, Apple, and every software company can attest, fighting pirates is a full-time job.  For some bizarre reason, these companies are willing to waste resources just to fight these developers rather than embrace them.  Marvel could license this downloader for a fraction of the cost is would have taken to develop themselves, maybe throw an ad on it, and give it out so people can get more value for Marvel’s digital service.  It would inspire more people to join.  As long as Marvel regularly updates the digital collection, subscribers will have a reason to keep paying the fees. 

Marvel shouldn’t worry about downloaders sharing comics they download: people already scan every new comic on the day of release in higher quality than Marvel provides.  So Marvel already has competition that still wins with every feature: greater selection, better quality, and free.  Making an unstable service with small selection and DRM isn’t going to convert anyone.