I believe I answer most of this here.Giving away some free content to promote a site is standard, normal, and good marketing. The SJis that are posted on the MCF are delayed by twenty or more issues; you have to be a subscriber to get the most recent issues. The Hypno-Pics Collective version is even more delayed. Every comic has our URL burned into it, so it's promotion whether or not there is a specific "products and services" section.
You've
never had to be a subscriber to get the covers, so it's not like we're giving away anything new there.
The ads were commissioned
specifically promote MCC. Of course they are being posted widely; I mean, they're
ads. Can you imagine a car company saying, "We're doing these great ads, but you can only watch them on the in-car DVD player once you've bought the car"?