p2pnet - rss feed: Marvel Comics go online
p2pnet news | DRM:- Led by Spiderman, US comic book company Marvel super-heroes are already doing very well on the big screen, and now they’re coming to a small one.
Yours.
At least, that’s what it hopes.
Today sees the launch of Marvel’s online subscription service featuring some of the company’s oldest super-heroes.
Monthly and annual subscriptions give users unlimited online access to the Marvel Digital Comics collection, says the company.
Price? $10 a month or $60 a year.
Will the company end up on the wrong end of a false advertising class-action?
The Marvel cyber site is called Digital Comics Unlimited. But its offerings are very definitely limited —- by DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control.
You can look, but you can’t touch, so to speak.
“Marvel Digital Comics are optimized for viewing on your computer screen and are not intended to be printed,” says the company.
Meanwhile, “As of November 2007 there are over 2,700 books, with more added every week!” - says Marvel.
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Marvel_Comics_go_online
November 13th, 2007 at 9:31 am
You “class action lawsuit” angle is a funny take on the whole “Unlimited” thing. I’m following Marvel pretty closely since my company launched our online comics in October. They are definitely miles ahead of DC, whose Zuda line is more like an American Idol for web comics — you can’t use any DC characters in them.
Our own online comic reader is DRM-free, made purely in JavaScript. No PDFs, no Flash, no downloads. Plus we’re open sourcing it and building it into other apps.
If you need to grow an audience from zero, you lower the barriers to entry. If you own several decades of characters, your legal team probably dictates what you can and cannot do DRM-wise.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
If i was into comic books like those i’d do it.
November 14th, 2007 at 12:50 am
I checked out the Marvel Digital comics. They advertised 250 free samples. Halfway through every sample, a window pops up requiring a username and password. The free samples are only PARTIAL GLIMPSES…NOT full samples of even ONE complete Marvel comic. That being said, the color and quality of the digital comics is EXCELLENT. Listen, I’m 43 going on 44 in about three weeks time. I used to collect comics back when I was 12 years old. Many of the most valuable comics are ones I use to OWN. The lame advertising aside, it’s COOL to see the awesome digital comics in a fantastic interface. It is pretty pricey at $60/year, since the digital realm doesn’t have the lasting power of hard copies. At the end of the year, I have zero physical comics to re-read. I must continue to subscribe to read the digital comics. I’d have nothing to pass-on to my son to read and no investment value. Hard copy comics still rule