Is this site legal?

[CyberCubed]

I stumbled upon this awhile ago:

[Mod Edit: Link removed.]

The site claims itself to be a library of scanned comics, and I would imagine DC or Marvel would come knocking on their doors with a lawsuit if they weren't allowed to do this.

I'm posting this here because they have almost every major TMNT comic series posted there for reading. Can anyone explain how they're allowed to do this?

[Roseangelo]

Definitely not legal. There are tons of file-sharing sites similar to this all across the Internet, be they sharing comics or anything else. Lawyers can't get to all of them, so they survive as long as they can. I can't explain why some seem to fly under the radar and some don't, but the ones that survive are no more legal than anything else.

[Andrew NDB]

On borrowed time.

[Ninja_Shoe_Repair]

anyone know a quick easy way to download entire books from that site?

[Cipher]

Illegal or not, it's not like there's any profit being made off of most of the issues right now. Part of me wants to say "Anything that gets the word out." Some of this stuff is just too hard to find until a reprint comes along.

At which point, I whole-heartedly agree, it shouldn't be available online.

[PAAATE]

Duuuude, I wish it was legal! That would take a load off my hard drives.

[Powder]

Well... No one has to report it.

[gobo]

Originally Posted by Powder

Well... No one has to report it.

Sorry I was on the phone with the FBI. What were you saying?

[saiyan_monkey]

The sites wicked. It has loads of good stuff in it. I might start reading comics for fun.

[ToTheNines]

Thanks for showing me that lol. Now I can finally read Tales 29.

[CyberCubed]

That site seems like its been up for a long time though. Surely by now someone would have reported it to DC or Marvel?

In any case, it makes me wish companies would officially and legally scan old comics for people to read online. Not only are old comics getting hard to find, but not everyone has the money either.

Since we hardly ever get collected books nowadays, its a shame that some of the best TMNT stories will be forgotten since some people won't bother to track down the comics.

[DrSpengler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

In any case, it makes me wish companies would officially and legally scan old comics for people to read online. Not only are old comics getting hard to find, but not everyone has the money either.

That's sort of how I feel about the site.

I own thousands of comic books and I HATE reading comics on my computer unless there is positively no alternative. So I wouldn't use a site like that to read current comics; I'd rather buy them.

However, there are a LOT of Golden Age and Silver Age individual issues that I've always wanted to read but have never been available, not even outside those pricy "Archive" hardbacks that cost upwards of $60-$70 bucks a pop.

For instance, as a huge fan of The Flash, I've always wanted to read National Comics #5 for Max Mercury's first appearance (as Quicksilver, mind you). Never been collected in any form by DC. So this site allowed me to read it. Made my day.

Likewise, there are a lot of other individual issues from the Golden Age that I'd like to read, primarily first appearances of certain supervillains, but without having to buy the $50 hardback collections. Mostly because I don't want to pay that kind of money for the other issues I don't want (for every Golden Age comic where the hero fights a supervillain, there are twenty where he fights generic mobsters and Nazis).

So yeah, a site like this is a godsend. With just a little tweaking, the major comic book publishers could do something like it on a legal level. Host all their comics up to a certain year and only use the original, non-cleaned-up scans of the issues. That way, if people want the complete retouched and remastered versions of those classic issues, there'll still be a market for their hardback Archive editions.

Until then, though, its up to illegal sites like this one. If they get shut down, I understand; they ARE stealing, after all. But a reasonable alternative, at least for some of the ancient, ubscure, never-gonna-be-reprinted treasures that they have available, would be very nice.

[oldmanwinters]

This is sort of how I feel about this subject:

[Cipher]

Well, I'm certainly filling my belly guilt-free of TMNT Adventure issues. They're impossible to find, and most of the material from the recent collected books isn't available on here.

And I finally read "The River." That was pretty solid.

[CyberCubed]

Well, they do have every Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Tales, Vol. 4, and Archie main series up. Not that I totally support this, but anyone who wants to catch up on TMNT stories they've never read before might as well before the site disappears.

They don't seem to have the Image series up though, or at least I can't find it there.

[Cipher]

Other thing this site is useful for - letters columns and editor's notes. I went through a handful of TMNT issues I only own in collected books/reprints/had read on the Mirage site or Wowio, just to see the original letters and announcements.

[ToTheNines]

Damn dude... looks like you got this thing ripped down lol. Hopefully it's just not working today.

[CyberCubed]

It's working right now. I'm sure somehow this site isn't unknown to DC/Marvel, but for some reason they're not doing anything much about it.

The site seems like it's been up for awhile, there are thousands of comics up there with new being submitted.

[shuriken]

I got some reading to do...

[Venom]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

They don't seem to have the Image series up though, or at least I can't find it there.

You can get the entire series, Big Bang #10, complete Puma Blues run on torrents.

On a side note, I'm waiting on half on Vol.3 to be on my doorstep any day.