Came across this this evening and it’s an interesting problem – well, actually, it’s an infuriating problem for the cartoonist, and I can see why. Basically, the guy has a pledge level on his Patreon account where you can get access to his NSFW comics; people have been popping in, temporarily getting that level of Patreon access, seeing the comics, then canceling their accounts. As Patreon collects at the beginning of the month, that means that some of these people have figured out how to rip this guy off.
Now, I understand that Patreon itself currently lets people do that. Doesn’t matter: it’s not ethical to rip people off. I also understand that people think that saying ‘it’s not ethical to rip people off’ is spitting in the wind. Doesn’t matter: it’s not ethical to to rip people off. I even understand that virtually everybody does it – and before you say ‘only people who view porn* do’ I would remind you that YouTube’s business model revolves around people not complaining when their video gets ripped; so yeah, you probably have done it, too, if only passively. Doesn’t matter: it’s not ethical to to rip people off. I am admittedly prejudiced about this – I have a Patreon myself – but I think that if you’re encountering somebody who is trying to sell you a product, elementary politeness should prevent you from exploiting a security weakness that would allow you to acquire that product for free.
I just don’t know how Patreon plans to address this loophole. Because they should. And probably in a way that will end up unavoidably inconveniencing the people who weren’t schmucks to begin with.
Moe Lane
*Which these NSFW things presumably are. I wouldn’t know, having neither subscribed to this guy’s Patreon and/or pirated his stuff.
I have an idea: Don’t let people have access to your stuff until you get the money.
That would solve the problem, but I don’t know if Patreon is wired to allow that.
The only thing I can think of is coupling it to Kickstarter. There, you pay the money and then get the product. So Patreon at ground level, and Kickstarter the higher levels, while clumsy, should work.
And I read that comic too. It’s a darn shame what people are doing, and I hope we fix it, because this is such a good way to get Art, actual Art, back in people’s lives, as opposed to the swill the Leftist gatekeepers “feed” us.
Last, maybe mention the Comic/Artist in question? We are Republicans here, we pay for stuff, and he could use the money. And on a self-serving level, if word gets out that the Right pays, while the Left steals, we just might find our tastes being catered to. Wouldn’t that be something…..
The only reason I didn’t is because the dude was giving off a big ‘post in haste and anger’ vibe, and I figured he was going to end up deleting that angry rant as soon as he calmed down. Which, in point of fact, he did. I don’t know WHAT the optimally ethical thing to do there is.
One way for Patreon to do that is to require payment of at least one month’s amount before allowing access, and not refunding it, as that would at least have folks thinking twice before signing up and trying that. If they cancel within 5 days of the next month then they won’t be billed the following month….and keep those who do on a list, to track and ban repeat offenders. Patreon won’t be worth much if they keep allowing this to happen on their platform. Its hard to monetize theft once folks are on to you…
I’m more or less against his posture.
If I’m buying access to Bonus Content, I think the ability to see how much content there actually is, and what it consists of, before money changes hands is perfectly valid.
If you don’t like what’s being offered, no harm, no foul. Walk away from the transaction and lose the access.
Now, if you take screenshots and torrent them, then I have an issue.
But in this case, nothing like that seems to have occurred.
I’ve visited several webcomics that offer bonus content for a fee, and it’s always a pig in a poke. I refuse to buy those on general principles. (I’m pretty sure that none of them featured nudity, but it IS the internet.)