The general public have never given two hoots about comics history, and care less with each generation. As for collectors who won't indulge in piracy being "elitists", I guess that makes every collector before the invention of file sharing an elitist then.ISPYSHHHGUY wrote: Instead, we're seeing the equivalent of elitists hanging onto their booty, where the wider public has no affordable access to this stuff------the democracy of putting out mass-produced dvd-rom archives can only get this stuff accross to the wider audience it deserves.
Comic collecting has survived quite well all these years without piracy, and collectors have been well served by learning about comic history through books, articles, and blogs. Old comics still turn up on eBay and at marts at very reasonable prices. (Unless one thinks a fiver for a 1930s comic in excellent condition is unreasonable.) No one needs every single episode of Kelly's Eye or Black Bob on disc to appreciate what great artists Solano Lopez and Jack Prout were. No one needs every issue of Sparky on zip drive to know what a brilliant humour comic it was. I'm not rich by any means so my motto has always been I buy what I can afford and go without the rest. That used to be how most collector's felt, until the internet gave some the expectation of gaining something for nothing.
