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Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

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411–420 of 438 posts

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#411

I see things like this, and I wonder why the following software doesn't exist: I want a piece of software to which I can add a collection of files, say multiple TB. The software will then behave a bit like a BitTorrent tracker, and know which peer has which files. A peer joining this swarm will be able to say "I want to donate X GB of space", and the tracker would tell it "OK, then download and seed these files, whic…

I think BitTorrent has all the pieces needed for a fully distributed version of your idea. My initial thought is that you could publish a magnet link that points to a mutable DHT item, which in turn points to a torrent that has a JSON file with some metadata and a list of infohashes the publisher cares about. The client could then scrape the "leaf" torrents from multiple lists to get the peer counts and use that for local prioritization of what to store. By reusing existing torrents you could then share resources with standard torrent clients that are unaware of your system.

The list idea could be extended to nested lists (stavros recommends Internet Archive) for discoverability and composition.

If you go with v2 or hybrid torrents from the beginning you could deduplicate and cross seed files from different collections.

The lists could also be modified to have torrents to exclude, possibly using some salt + rehash idea to make it hard to reverse into a list of e.g. CSAM you don't want to publish as is.

Feels like a neat project that could interoperate nicely with existing torrents.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#412
post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

«Cinema's started filming the audience»?! You sign some consent form? In which country?

You're in their building, so I imagine your consent is stated as part of the ticket verbiage or in small print when you buy it. Regardless, closed-circuit cameras are pretty ubiquitous in private businesses, and have been for decades.

The idea of the poster was that customers are recorded during projection and that there is active real-time monitoring of said reception, e.g. to detect abuse.

So, "you are being watched as you watch". Not by an uncaring attendant, but by some actively processing automation.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#413
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can and will use legal means to go after anyone trying to use the network this way in order to make the content less discoverable and discourage others from following suit. Being coined as the Napster on Blockchain is the worst possible PR one can think of in their situation.

I suspect Russia could now help with this one :-)

But why would it, really? At this point it absolutely plans to rejoin world economy once things "blow over". And if becomes clear that it's not going to happen - there is even less reason to host some books in foreign languages that probably have "extremist" content in them.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#414
post #411

I see things like this, and I wonder why the following software doesn't exist: I want a piece of software to which I can add a collection of files, say multiple TB. The software will then behave a bit like a BitTorrent tracker, and know which peer has which files. A peer joining this swarm will be able to say "I want to donate X GB of space", and the tracker would tell it "OK, then download and seed these files, whic…

I think BitTorrent has all the pieces needed for a fully distributed version of your idea. My initial thought is that you could publish a magnet link that points to a mutable DHT item, which in turn points to a torrent that has a JSON file with some metadata and a list of infohashes the publisher cares about. The client could then scrape the "leaf" torrents from multiple lists to get the peer counts and use that for…

Thanks, that's exactly the feedback I was looking for! This sounds like it would work, though I'd have to see if it would scale to thousands or millions of files. Still, great for a PoC, thank you!

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine for a split second an idea of value that doesn't start and end with private profit

I'm a writer. I can imagine it. But the landlord, grocer, car dealer and pretty much everyone else dealing in physical things wants me to pay for what I consume. I'm not independently wealthy. The only reason I can afford to write books is because the publisher pays me. The only reason the publisher can pay me is because people buy the books. I can guarantee you that this type of behavior means I'm writing fewer book…

You could do kickstarter-type funding ahead of time.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#416
post #124

Again, it's just insane to me that we don't even much have a meaningful discussion of: "Hey, wait, literally everyone could have the entire library of Alexandria in their house for a couple hundred bucks per person. Like, all the knowledge ever. Maybe that should be considered the good default of things. At least one in every town that everyone could use, for free, forever, without restriction to ANY of the knowledge…

This is why I'm vehemently against further increasing copyright law, software patents, and treating Imaginary Property as something that can be owned. We finally build the tools to allow the free sharing of information and almost immediately a bunch of rent seeking lawyers lobby congress to make doing that illegal. I've always lived by the rule of "If you put it on the Internet, it's not yours anymore." Because that'…

can we just offer free text book for everyone? maybe also some online lecture. everything is there, I trust will need incorporate it into school, library and local community.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries these days also offer movies, music, and some even have games. Should digital versions of all that stuff be free for all as well?

What are the benefits vs. deadweight losses of a copyright-maximalist regime? Who benefits? Who loses? And to what extent? And what would the net total cost of rectifying any shift of advantage to a copyright-minmalist regime be? For that last, look to the net total annual revenues of commercial media. And keep in mind that we're carrying out this discussion on a technological ecosystem founded in very large part on…

> And keep in mind that we're carrying out this discussion on a technological ecosystem founded in very large part on FSF Free Software / Open Source software.

That's about as relevant as saying we should keep in mind we are carrying out this conversation on hardware mostly made in China (and most free software is also written on hardware made in China) so perhaps that is where we should be looking for answers.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#418
post #338
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a site asking you to commit piracy, i can totally see the some agency intercept it and replace the onion addresses with theirs so they can track everyone down.

If enough people find it okay to take such extreme measures for mundane, nearly victimless crimes, I hate to think what the future will be like. In the past, hoarding exploits was considered something for the military, for national security, and even there it was a hot debate and controversial and many parties/countries wanted restrictions like time limits until it's reported to the vendor. Entering homes was a thing…

A Man-in-the-middle attack against a HTTP website to de-anonymize people would not require a 0-day exploit.

I agree that it would be an extreme measure.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be perfectly honest this feels like a knee jerk response that fails to engage with what I am saying. Nowhere did I say I am being prevented from forming a voluntary collective. But obviously if I believe we should form an economy comprised of many collectives then I need to discuss this idea with other people! I literally cannot form a collective by myself. For my part I am working on a career trajectory that will…

There certainly is no shortage of people who believe as you do in collectives. Go ahead and form one with them. > you want to argue without really thinking about what I am saying I've thought about it for many decades. I'm not trying to suppress your discussion, ideas, or any efforts you may make towards creating a (voluntary) collective. Feel free. BTW, I read somewhere that over 10,000 collectives had been created…

> Where are they now? Oh, they all failed.

Failing and disappearing is a feature. Failing and lingering on through violence and coercion is the real sin.

Re: Pirate Library Mirror: Preserving 7TB of books (that are not in Libgen)

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without knowing what book it is who would sue? I doubt the FBI is investigating random HN comments for literature piracy.

There are companies specialized in this field who will track down offenders then make a deal with the copyright owners.

I'll let you know, but I'm pretty confident I'm safe.
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