Comixology allows DRM Free Downloads (if the publishers say it's okay)!

EDIT:  I've since looked for DRM-free Dynamite comics and don't know which ones are available in that format.   I mentioned that I could now buy Gail Simone's Red Sonja run, but at the moment it is not available DRM free through Comixology. :(  Keep an eye out, people!

EDIT 2:  I reached out to Dynamite Comics and they replied that they intend to get all of their titles available DRM-free, and that it's an ongoing process.

I received an email earlier today from Comixology saying that DRM-free backup copies of some of my comics are now available to download.  What's funny is I've never bought any comics from Comixology.  But, a while ago, I did sign up for account to claim a free comic and try out their system.  That happened to be an Image Comic so I got the email, otherwise I might not have known about this for a while.  This is great news.  Why?  Let me tell you:

• Now smaller publishers who don't like or want DRM are able to sell their digital comics their way without the cost of setting up their own storefront.
• Image's digital store isn't very user friendly, as I have pointed out earlier.  Though I'd rather Image gets all the proceeds instead of Comixology getting a cut, Comixology has a much better store, a cloud reader, and more of Image's back catalog online.  That's right, Comixology has more of Image's comics available digitally---including trades, which you can't buy digitally from Image (though sometimes the trades cost more than the individual issues, and I prefer the singles with the back matter anyway).
• This is going to put more pressure on other publishers, as well as leading people to comb these named DRM-free publisher's catalogs (as I have been doing, for instance this looks interesting).  Publishers follow the money, and the money will follow DRM free content.  At least, mine will.
• DRM-free titles selling better has been demonstrated in other media formats too, AuthorEarnings.com just observed on the Kindle store: "At almost every price point, we see the thousands of titles without DRM significantly out-earning the thousands of titles with DRM. In fact, at the only two price points that appear to buck the general trend and which show DRM titles outselling non-DRM ones, we found that the reversal was due to 3 outlier DRM titles published by only two authors.
• It makes me not hate Comixology anymore which is good, because I hate hating things. 

(Does Comixology not have a title review system a la Amazon?  Just a 5-star rating system?  They really need to get on that.)

The publishers I've found listed that are going DRM-free are (some articles say "select titles from" so keep an eye out):

Image Comics, Dynamite Comics, Zenescope Comics, MonkeyBrain Comics, Thrillbent, Top Shelf Production, and IDW Publishing.

Those are the ones I could find in news stories (and this FAQ entry).  If you know of more let me know, I'll try to update this, but really I just want to check out their comics.

You can tell if an issue is available as a DRM-free download by looking for this icon (through the web only, it doesn't show up in the Android app for me):



Honestly I'd prefer they put a big skull-n-crossbones logo on the cover of any book that's not DRM-free, but this will do.  I wish I could search in a pool of only DRM free titles, or browse by DRM-free only.  Yes, I like to own the comics I pay for that much.

Let's see, I can buy Gail Simone's Red Sonja runs now, I can buy Warren Ellis' (and Chris Weston's) Ministry of Space, much of Mike Allred's Madman (and IT Girl, which I don't believe Image has up on their site?).  Oh my Gosh Garth Ennis' (and Amanda Conner's) The Pro. Tobin and Coover's Bandette looks absolutely gorgeous, I'll have to check that out.  Looking at books written by Alan Moore, From Hell is DRM-free but not Lost Girls?  They're both Top Shelf.  Hmm, so we do need to keep our eyes out, it's not necessarily catalog-wide.  I guess no buying from the Comixology Android app for me until it also shows whether a book is available without DRM.

I haven't seen anything about download limits (for instance if we can only download once per comic) or anything like that.  Hopefully Comixology won't allow that to be an option, sometimes backups get lost or corrupted, you know. 

For those worried about DRM-free comics ushering in a new age of piracy, the sky isn't falling, I promise.  If the big publishers are worried about piracy well guess what, every comic they have DRM-protected on Comixology is already freely available on some torrent site.  DRM-locking them didn't stop the piracy, in fact it punished paying customers by giving them an inferior product to what torrenters are downloading for free.  Yes think about that for a moment.  How could DC or Marvel know that I, a (theoretical) Comixology customer, am not a pirate?  Because I'm paying money for the book instead of downloading it from The Pirate Bay.  Maybe don't punish people who want to give you money, you know?

There were rumors of this news floating around a few days ago.  I speculated (to my friend, not on this blog) that Image would be down for DRM-free Comixology (of course), and I guessed Dynamite too, because they've recently participated in big Humble Bundle comic sales.  IDW has too with a Dr Who bundle, so I guess they're not much of a shocker either.  I'm pleasantly surprised by the rest, and I'd love to be surprised still by a full list of DRM-free publisher and titles.  Anybody?


Til then,

David