@ran
Yep, Rob is right, L.C.B.S. is the acronym for local comic book store. I see it used elsewhere and thought it was more common. My apologies.
It's very probable that a business license is required but I do not think a business license is too difficult to obtain. When I registered my Trade name, I was handed paperwork to fill out for a business license and I was given a gov't URL if I wanted to fill out the paperwork online. I'm in Alberta, so between Edmonton and Calgary there are a fair amount of rural towns, villages, hamlets, etc.. From what I've heard (so it may just be hearsay), you and your friends pool together your order to meet Diamond's minimum, maybe set-up an online presence [like an eBay store], and then you pick-up the box of comics that were ordered from the nearest FEDEX depot. Maintain that month after month, in order to keep a good standing with Diamond. Basically, operating the store out of your basement.
I can see how "fans have to pool together their resources to order direct from Diamond" misses all the details I just mentioned above.
I should have written that
fans pool together their resources to become a comic book store and order direct from Diamond@Rob
The article you linked describes how much harder it is for a small publisher to distribute with Diamond. I read Chris's blog regularly and I agree that the minimums will hurt up-and-coming artists and independent publishers. If I published a comic book, and not enough orders came in from the comic book stores, book 2 could no longer be offered through Diamond- regardless of its (let's pretend it's great) merits. The example that Chris used was that if Scott Pilgrim 1 was to be measured by Diamond's standards of sales today, there would not be a Scott Pilgrim 2.
Fun Fact: Do you know what it costs to be a direct market retailer? $600 minimum order each month. A cost between 4 and 10 times less than what it costs to be a publisher, apparently. Figure that one out.