This is definitely a solid step in the right direction, but it still lacks a lot of punch considering the massive volume of publishers that opted out of the DRM free down offering, such as Marvel, DC, Boom! and Dark Horse.
In this review I'm going to look at the benefits and the limitations of the offering to show just how great it is while still discussing the weaknesses as well.
Let's start with the announcement letter posted all over online, in case you haven't seen it. Here it is [below], in it's entirety, as it was posted on that day on Comixology's Tumblr, (just in case they change it later), as well as the link to the original posting where I found it.
Dearest readers,
I’m excited to share some big news with you: comiXology now offers DRM-free backups.
This new feature allows you to download and store local copies of books in PDF and CBZ format.
For our launch, participating publishers include Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Zenescope Entertainment, MonkeyBrain Comics, Thrillbent, and Top Shelf Productions. In addition, our Submit creators and small publishers are now able to choose to make their books available DRM-free.
As always, you can continue to enjoy all of your purchases - whether available as a DRM-free backup or not - on the comiXology platform in our exclusive cinematic Guided View reading experience, anytime and anywhere. No files required.
Offering DRM-free backups to you and our customers-to-be is another step in taking comics further, and serves our mission to turn everyone on the face of the planet into a comics fan. There is much more to come.
You can find the list of books you own that support DRM-free backup at comixology.com in the MY BACKUPS tab of the My Books area.
Learn more about DRM-free books HERE or on our FAQ page.
Enjoy!
David
David Steinberger
CEO & Co-Founder
Let me start by talking about some of the positives regarding this news.
One of the biggest universal weaknesses for buying digital comics from Comixology was that I never actually owned a physical copy of the digital file. The books I purchased were perpetually stuck in the cloud. That created a for me concern that if Comixology ever went out of business, I would lose the products I paid for. Digital comics through Comixology always felt too Farmville for me; paying real money for intangible content. And while I can never touch a digital comic, like I can a book, I always wanted to possess the digital file as a form of tangible ownership.
This offering opens the door to buying digital content that you can download, store locally and own, while still having it available in the cloud. This is a big step forward.
This means that the art on the pages and the dialog balloons are not marred, blocked, blurred or in any ways scuffed by a big "THIS IS OUR PROPERTY" watermark as to interfere with the reading experience.
Another positive is that Comixology is allowing the downloads in two different formats; CBZ and PDF. This gives users some options for downloading their book specific to the reader they have.
Another huge positive, as anyone who reads these digital files on their phone or tablet will know, is that the Comixology App stores purchased books into the local device memory instead of on the memory card. And these books can quickly consume everything bit of memory your device has.
I once made the mistake of accidentally clicking the "download all books" button from within the app. This proceeded to download every book I purchased, roughly 125 books in all. That's about 5 GB of books on a device that only had 3GB of the 8GB total internal memory free. That caused some issues I don't want to talk about. Let's just say I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself.
This new download feature will allow you to store your books where you want, internal or external memory, external hard drive, your own cloud service... literally anywhere. With external memory storage capacities hitting 64GB... it is safe to say; that's a buttload of comics.
And the last positive I see at this point is this; FINALLY! Someone has paved a way for readers to legally download their comics. It was really starting to feel like the recording industry all over again.
This is a great step forward.
But it is such a tiny step really. There are some issues I see with with this new program and I would like to discuss them here. Let me start this negative side of the review with this disclaimer. In the release letter, above, David Steinberger states that this is just a start and that "there is much more to come." So some of these problems may be resolved in the future, but for now, here are the issues.
As a person who doesn't typically read much from the big two outside of the Hulk, She-Hulk and Aquaman, this particular problem doesn't affect me as much, but I know it is a big issue for others and I am a fan of Dark Horse and Boom! and many others so this does impact me some.
Many publishers are not part of the DRM free download. DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Asylum, Boom! and many others are off the table; for now.
So this means not all your digital content can be downloaded through Comixology's offering. This can be frustrating. For me, the books that I really want aren't available through legal means.This is not Comixology's fault. Each publisher has the right to exclude their content from the DRM-Free program. This means that Marvel, DC, Boom!, et al chose not to participate. Maybe in time they will see a hit in digital sales and change their minds, but for now they are out.
The interface for downloading the books is little wonky.
In the image on the left you can see that they have added a new tab titled My Backups to the My Books section of the site. So yet again, instead of a simple alphabetized list of all of my books, they added another tab called "My Backups".
My backups is the closest thing to a complete alphabetized list of all my books, but guess what, all my books aren't there (see problem 1).
As a matter of convenience, Comixology added the download options to books in the list of recent purchases if the download is available. This is nice for downloading your recent purchases quickly, but this doesn't make it easy downloading books you purchased a year ago.
One last issue I have is that because these downloads are no longer part of the Comixology program once you download them, you can't open them with the Comixology app. You also lose the "Cinematic Reading Experience" you get within Comixology.
All in all this is great first step, but there is much lacking right now. Don't expect to go out and be able to mass download your books, especially if you are mainly into the big two or Dark Horse.
While I cannot find the reference online any more, there is rumor that each DRM-File is watermarked in a way that is traceable back to your account. So if you think that Digital Comic Book swapping online will harken back the days of Napster... be forewarned, if your book is caught being shared online you run the risk of your account on Comixology being closed permanently which means all those digital DC, Marvel and Dark Horse books you purchased would be lost forever.
In the mean time I will continue using the tool I wrote for archiving my Comixology Books that aren't available for download today.
Until next time... remember you always have responsible alternatives.
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