[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by erikk

Thanks for the quick replies. Now that I know abut the blackmask issue I understand why I got all those hits in search that didn't make any sense. I've now read further into those threads and understand the issue better.

Blackmask had them up for a long time. Conde Nast finally got around to noticing them. Blackmask's proprietor chose to fight it in court, claiming that Conde Nast had effectively forfeited its rights by leaving the books lying fallow for years and making no attempt to develop the properties or republish the books. The court apparently disagreed, as the site went off the air shortly after.

So they're not in ebook format anywhere legit? I'm sure I can get access to the original blackmask DVD (a friend has the original) but to my knowledge the version I can get is .lit and that'll be a pain to convert.

The original Blackmask DVD should have all of the formats in which it issued books. That didn't include the Sony Reader, so conversion would be required in any case.

It's unfortunate that publishers lack of support drives people to alternate sources. I would have happily (ok I'll be honest, not happily but you know what I mean) paid for the books if there was an easy and affordable place to buy them. The music industry learned its lesson just barely in time; let's hope the ebook industry does too.

The music industry is still learning the lesson.

I suspect the book industry has a different set of motives. Someone on another forum a while back was railing about the fact that any comic book was available on the net in high quality scanned images the day after release, and he could help identify the pirates and who should he talk to to Do Something about it? The basic answer, from folks who should know, was "Nobody. Marvel and DC don't care that the books are scanned and on the net immediately. That's not where they make their money. They make their money licensing the characters to the movies."

I think that may be Conde Nast's motive. They aren't interested in re-issuing the titles as paper or ebooks. They just want to make sure the rights are nailed down and they get a fee if anyone decides to do a Doc Savage or Shadow movie or TV production.
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Dennis