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Hey I just wanted to point out that this might be the first civil discussion that has ever existed in the history of the internet and we should be proud of this fact haha

Again, there's nothing wrong with being a collector and preserving a copy for your own personal enjoyment. People who want to preserve the contents in a way that can be appreciated by hundreds/thousands/millions/unlimited numbers of people who don't have access to the physical mag are those who have answered the call of the scanner. Scanning is literally about creating a digital copy that does not depend upon the possession or even the existence of the physical mag to be enjoyed. No one is disputing that preserving physical copies is also important, but the fact remains that the best scan is created from a destroyed mag. And so, like I said, there are scanners, and there are collectors. If all scanners were ALSO collectors, then we wouldn't have nearly so many quality scans. Luckily, most of these magazines are fairly common with thousands of copies (or more) floating around out there and periodically showing up on sale, and so far as I know, no one has ever destroyed the last copy in existence of a mag in order to scan it, so there's no reason that scanners can't continue to do their job to the best of their abilities, guilt-free.

Seems like you're missing the point. Do we have the legal right to release scans for free? No. And we sure as hell don't have the right to try to profit off of them (which is why scanners with Patreons really upset me). No one is arguing that our scans are legal or that we own our scans. What we're arguing is that the publishers don't own our scans, either. They can ask for them to be removed, they could conceivably even pursue a harder punishment, but they can't just turn around and slap a price sticker on them and sell them as if they were product they created, even if the words and images within that derivative product are their own. Based on your last statement though, it sounds like you are morally opposed to everything this site is about and against the existence of all scans (of gaming mags, at least, none of which are old enough to be exempt from copyright - not that the "original" copyright law was anywhere NEAR life + 70 years), so I've gotta ask, why are you here?

I don't want to argue across forums on two separate sites. The question was, can a mag be scanned without debinding. I answered that yes, yes it can. But it will not be as good as a debound scan. It simply isn't possible in most instances. If you're scanning skimpy 70 page stapled mags, then yes, you can make a pretty good scan of a bound mag. But the quality is still almost definitely going to be at least slightly better on a properly debound mag being squeezed through an ADF. And if you're talking about a thick square bound mag, forget about trying to make a scan while bound that can compare to an unbound scan. Its impossible, and I'm sure every scanner here would agree with that point. If you're happy with your own scans, that's all that matters. And there's nothing stopping the original poster of the question from continuing to try to scan the mag while bound (though he has admitted being dissatisfied with the results). If "good enough" is good enough, then all's well. But if "best possible" is the goal, then debinding is almost always necessary. I say again, this isn't my own isolated opinion, but rather one shared by every regularly productive scanner I've ever met on any site, and its the reason why the majority of mags released here are debound. So my only point is that anyone wanting the best possible scan needs to accept the fact that they can't have both that AND be able to keep their mag intact. It's a sacrifice either way. If you want the best possible scan, you can't have an intact mag. And if you want an intact mag, you can't have the best possible scan. If keeping the mag intact is important to you, no worries. No one is forcing anyone to debind anything against their will, and depending on the length and binding of the mag, a pretty good scan of a bound mag might be possible given enough extra time and effort. I personally take offense at the implication that someone choosing to sacrifice one copy of a mag in order to create the best possible scan that can reach unlimited numbers of people until the end of time (so long as the data isn't lost) is somehow doing less for preservation than someone who lets a mag rot in their closet for 30 years before selling it on eBay to someone else who will do the same ad infinitum until the pages become so brown and brittle it can't even be read. There are mags here which have been downloaded by thousands of people. I sincerely doubt any single physical mag could ever change hands that many times to reach that many people. At any rate, any scan is better than no scan and all scans are appreciated. So I hope to one day see you release some of your scans which I've been hearing about for years.

They specifically say it will be a mix of original data elements and scans. I assume most of their older stuff will be scans and all of the newer stuff will be digital.

I don’t want to confuse things further but is it possible they have access to the original files/pages from when the magazine was published and will be using those in the archive?

My personal take is, if you can't bear to destroy the mag, you're probably better off just accepting the role of the collector. There's no shame in that - there are certainly a heck of a lot more collectors in the world than there are scanners. But it's really hard to be both, unless you're satisfied with being a mediocre scanner (or unless you're rich enough to buy two copies of everything so you can scan one and keep the other.) Of course, the other reason scanners tend to debind their mags is that scanning bound mags on a flatbed is TEDIOUS work. Most people serious about scanning would rather scan 30 debound mags on an ADF scanner in the same amount of time that someone using a flatbed on a bound mag could scan one. I will stress, though, that debinding a mag has the potential to ruin a scan just as much or more than using a flatbed to scan a bound mag. Debinding must be done in such a way that you aren't cutting off part of the page. That means NO GUILLOTINE CUTTERS. Anyone using a guillotine cutter is just being lazy, and the resulting scan is no different from someone scanning a bound mag and then just cropping off the part of the page that's out of focus or shadowed due to the page curvature near the gutter. Whether you crop part of the page off with a cutter's blade or crop it digitally in Photoshop, a crop is a crop and your scan is missing part of the page.

This is Amazing!!

Let me understand your argument... you say that if a cosplayer is photographed then they receive automatic ownership of the photo?

For me it's more the preservation and being able to share the magazine than anything. I like the idea of being able to share it with a friend to enjoy, but it's also one of those things where I don't know where I'll run into another copy of these guides again, so I just like to be careful about these sorts of things.

Has anyone been able to scan mags without debinding? Of course. Tons of magazine scans are like that (not so many at RM, but still...) Has anyone been able to scan mags without debinding and have them look just as good as a mag that has been debound? No, probably not. Still-bound mags can be scanned. But they're never going to look as good as if they had been debound, period. And depending on the length and binding style of the mag, it will be either a challenge or nigh impossible getting it to look good enough to be accepted here. Scanning mags isn't something to be precious about. My view is: your goal as a scanner should always be to create a scan so good that you'll never have a need to look at the physical copy again. If you're happier reading the print copy, why bother making the scan in the first place?

First off. $35 hahaha don't I wish. I've spent around $800 on scanning equipment. As in: has no other function other than scanning and is used for no purpose other than for scanning mags. But I get your point. Second. My scans are stolen, all the time. As soon as I upload a scan here, it's reuploaded to someone else's Internet Archive account within hours (not right now while they're down, of course.) Heck, I even had the reverse happen once when one of my scans was "stolen" from the Internet Archive and uploaded HERE. As you say, you have to take it on the chin. What I'm NOT prepared to accept is someone else SELLING my scans. I did not create them expecting to be paid, and I certainly didn't create them so that someone else can make money off of them. If a publisher wants me to remove all of my scans from RM and purge them from the Internet, that's their right and I would have to comply. And it would totally make sense that they would want my "free" scans taken down if they had plans to sell their own scans. But though I'm no lawyer, it still feels to me like it would surely be illegal for a publisher to sell my scans without asking. So if they're going to be selling anything it would need to be something they made themselves or something they hired someone to make for them. Which to be fair, could be exactly what they're doing. There's rampant speculation in this thread simply because the information about the source of their digital archive is SO VAGUE, but they may very well be creating all of their scans in-house, making all of this worry over nothing. (Well, unless you happen to be someone who scanned issues of EGM and are worried you're gonna have to remove your scans, which I'd say is a pretty likely possibility).

...

We're a pretty civil place around here. I think it helps that most people who frequent the forums were alive when these things were being published in the first place, and with age comes back pain wisdom, or so I'm told. *huggles* Areala

With Game Informer shutting down a few months ago and EGM sharing this Kickstarter initiative, the need for Retromags will continuously be higher in demand. This EGM archive leaves a lot of uncertainties - they revived themselves several years ago with another website and have done a variety of projects over the years, with many disappearing - even their own website (egmnow.com) has removed various posts and now is mostly a depository of reviews. It's difficult to say what will be the longevity of the EGM archive. Certainly it would be wonderful to have this eternally - though this is beyond our control. I am mostly supporting this Kickstarter initiative due to the fact that many of the historical EGM contributors will be part of the compendium in some way and can cherish the hardcover book, though also recognize the archive may not necessarily be a website that will be accessible online for many years later in the future. Retromags provides a community collaboration external from corporate restrictions. Speaking of the Retromags community, can the administrators please share how the Retromags website is doing in terms of operations? Perhaps with the momentum of the EGM Kickstarter, now (or in the next few weeks) would also be a great time to revive further visibility messages for funding Retromags and share any concerns for its own operations into the future. Thanks to everyone who has volunteered their time in scanning magazines and many additional support initiatives. Your contributions have not gone unnoticed and you are all deeply appreciated!

I believe the Video Game History Foundation is building a website where this can be done. When it will ever go live, I couldn't say.