Academic article on scanner tags

[werthamlied]

Hi,

Thought that people might be interested in this peer reviewed article about comic book piracy and scanner tags.

It was published last week in a journal called FIRST MONDAY. The article analyzes the contents of 389 scanner tags that were attached to digital comic scans distributed on torrent networks. The article doesn't dig into the ethical disputes about piracy, but instead attempts to understand the motivations of scanners/pirates based on the tags attached to comics. The author concludes that "Unlike those who are engaged in other criminal activities, comic book pirates do not earn a single penny for their efforts. The scanners themselves foot the bill: buying new comics the day they are released, purchasing and upgrading high–resolution scanners, and investing countless hours in the digitization process. They also court considerable legal risks without any financial reward. The type of currency that matters to scanners is not measured in money; human attention is the prize that motivates them. They seek attention for themselves and recognition from their peers, but they are primarily concerned with focusing attention on comic books.... Comic book scanners serve the interest of a new type of comic book fan who privileges reading and storytelling over ownership and hoarding."

I would love to know what people think about this!

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/.../5247/4086

[werthamlied]

Hi folks,

Posted this in the general thread, but realized that it might make more sense here. Figured that users of this forum might be interested in this peer reviewed article about comic book piracy and scanner tags. It was published last week in a journal called FIRST MONDAY.

The article analyzes the contents of 389 scanner tags that were attached to digital comic scans distributed on torrent networks. The article doesn't dig into the ethical disputes about piracy, but instead attempts to understand the motivations of scanners/pirates based on the tags attached to comics. The author concludes that:

"Unlike those who are engaged in other criminal activities, comic book pirates do not earn a single penny for their efforts. The scanners themselves foot the bill: buying new comics the day they are released, purchasing and upgrading high–resolution scanners, and investing countless hours in the digitization process. They also court considerable legal risks without any financial reward. The type of currency that matters to scanners is not measured in money; human attention is the prize that motivates them. They seek attention for themselves and recognition from their peers, but they are primarily concerned with focusing attention on comic books.... Comic book scanners serve the interest of a new type of comic book fan who privileges reading and storytelling over ownership and hoarding."

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/.../5247/4086

I'm interested in knowing what members of the comic scanner community think about how they are represented in this article. I hope it's viewed as a fair and reasonably accurate portrayal of their motivations.

[Spud17]

There's no need to duplicate your thread in another forum just because this one's had no response yet.

Threads merged.
/mod.

[werthamlied]

There's no need to duplicate your thread in another forum just because this one's had no response yet.

Threads merged.
/mod.

Sorry. It just seemed like people in a comics forum would be more interested in comic scanner tags than people in the general forum. Wasn't trying to pull a fast one, and explained my rationale for posting in a different forum at the beginning of my post.

Would it be possible to merge these both inside the comics forum rather than the general forum? Thanks.

[Spud17]

Thread moved. If you want a thread moving in future, just ask a smod and one of us will happily move it to the appropriate forum. We don't bite you know.

[werthamlied]

Thread moved. If you want a thread moving in future, just ask a smod and one of us will happily move it to the appropriate forum. We don't bite you know.

Thanks, Spud. I appreciate it.