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Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

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Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#241

Post by connorgutman »

connorgutman wrote: post #142
null_object wrote: post #9

I know this won't be a popular take on HN, but while I can understand and to a certain extent sympathize with pirating movies (the intentional friction and arbitrary geographic limitations on access imposed by the multinational movie-industry conglomerates), I can't see stealing some poor author's work in the same light. Sure, people get hung-up about DRM (which can easily be removed by widely-accessible tools), but…

It's very simple actually. You (and most of HN) live in a tech industry bubble. Living wages in the U.S are terrible and disposable income is non-existent. I work a 9-5 just like everyone else but when it comes down to it I don't have the money to buy new books. I can either buy used paperback from a second-hand store, go to the library, or pirate an epub. None of these options pay the original author and are effecti…

No post body was provided.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#242

Post by nathancahill »

blakblakarak wrote: post #44
jhvkjhk wrote: post #5

They are so young! Does anyone know what will happen to them after the arrestment? I sincerely think they are doing charity.

No doubt they'll be chucked in a supermax prison in the arse-end of nowhere for fifty years.

They'll charge them like Aaron Swartz, where each piece of material is a separate count against them. The years of sentencing and fines will be astronomical.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#243

Post by sitkack »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #108
nudpiedo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I agree with you, tell me now how can I find "The book of Gossage" which is a singular classic book nowadays out of catalogue.

Agree, forget copyright, there needs to be an "abandonware" clause similar to the (unauthorized, I know) way software is treated. Plenty of books I have only been able to find on eBay and at sometimes insane prices.

Not only that, I looked into republishing some books from the 80s, it is impossible to know who currently could possibly have legitimate rights to do so!

For any work out of print, one should be able to republish it and pay a nominal fee directly to the library of congress.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#244

Post by PartiallyTyped »

thestevesie wrote: post #231
denvrede wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: I always hear about the gigantic military spending in the U.S. I would've expected it to be on top of this list. It can't be only 7. no?

Its large compared to other similar countries. So why doesn't the US just spend that money so we can be more like X trendy country I heard about on Y blog/podcast that is a fraction of the size of the US and does "EVERYTHING" better? Well, the case is that they have more money to spend because the US is subsidizing their military. So many of these countries are able to get away with tiny military budgets because of t…

the US does not subsidise other countries, not to the degree that you think anyways.

It’s also not a matter of spending more money. The US spends a lot more per capita on healthcare than everyone else, so money is not the issue.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#245

Post by dartharva »

Barrin92 wrote: post #177
connorgutman wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very simple actually. You (and most of HN) live in a tech industry bubble. Living wages in the U.S are terrible and disposable income is non-existent. I work a 9-5 just like everyone else but when it comes down to it I don't have the money to buy new books. I can either buy used paperback from a second-hand store, go to the library, or pirate an epub. None of these options pay the original author and are effecti…

If you're pirating Stephen King or a 300$ textbook from a guy who has tenure at Harvard I doubt anyone probably including the author cares but a fair amount of authors aren't making any more than you make. Friend of mine published her own graphic novel basically living in her parents attic and a day after it was out someone had ripped it and thrown it on a comic piracy site. That's not ethical. If you live on a 12-15…

Large-scale pirates that can actually reach a significant amount of people almost never rip-off indie creators, and even if they do, they are the least likely to impact sales - people are unlikely bother acquiring illegitimate copies of obscure indie works as against big-brand stuff whose names they have actually heard of.

I really doubt the sales of the graphic novel that friend of yours were impacted in any non-negligible way by it being ended up on a piracy site. If anything, it might as well have worked as an advertisement.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#246

Post by dartharva »

roel_v wrote: post #158
reisse wrote: post #12

I guess in 2022 "don't ever travel to countries that have extradition agreements with US" should've already been #0 opsec rule, above everything else. Sad for them. Does anyone know if Z-library provided torrent dumps?

"Does anyone know if Z-library provided torrent dumps? " They didn't, but pilimi.org does (have to access via Tor to get the torrents). That said, there have been 0 seeders since the original ZLib bust. https://twitter.com/AnnaArchivist/status/1592654308516179970 (pilimi author) says there should be an http mirror now, and I'm probably stupid but I can't find it anywhere. Seems to me it's the end of Z-Library. The en…

Here it is: https://annas-archive.org/

I sincerely hope Anna stays safe though. They can (and will) come for her and her team too.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#247

Post by uniqueuid »

phpisatrash wrote: post #167

Me and my colleagues will be affected by the end of Z library and co related projects. Here in Brazil and for sure in most second and third world countries, people don't have money to spend in books. You can argue that people can go to the library, but in most cases it's even expensive to take a bus or taxi even a Uber. I'm a law student at an university in brazil. Law books are really expensive. Even though my unive…

It sucks, but search for used versions of those books. As long as you're willing to wait a week or two, you can often get used books internationally for Also ask your professors if they can share relevant parts of the books they use. Many countries outside the English-speaking world have partial copyright exemptions for education.

A last resort may be to ask professors whether they can apply for evaluation copies. Publishers often give free copies to educators so they can evaluate books for their curriculum. Sadly, it's mostly digital versions today.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#248

Post by WillPostForFood »

denvrede wrote: post #192
Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It is disgraceful how our tax dollars are used to prop up failed business models and oppress the little guy U.S. Government Spending, FY 2022 Top 10 Spending by Category $ 1.22 T Social Security $ 914 B Health $ 865 B Income Security $ 767 B National Defense $ 755 B Medicare $ 677 B Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services How do you explain this data? Source: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-fin…

Genuine question: I always hear about the gigantic military spending in the U.S. I would've expected it to be on top of this list. It can't be only 7. no?

When talking about spending, some people exclude programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, income security programs from their list of spending because it doesn't need to be approved every year - it is classified as 'Mandatory Spending' and is 63% of the budget.

The remaining spending, has to be approved every year is classified as 'Discretionary Spending'. When you just look at discretionary spending, the military budget is the biggest piece. But if someone says the US spends most of its budget on military spending, it is false and deceptive.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#249

Post by karaterobot »

denvrede wrote: post #192
Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It is disgraceful how our tax dollars are used to prop up failed business models and oppress the little guy U.S. Government Spending, FY 2022 Top 10 Spending by Category $ 1.22 T Social Security $ 914 B Health $ 865 B Income Security $ 767 B National Defense $ 755 B Medicare $ 677 B Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services How do you explain this data? Source: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-fin…

Genuine question: I always hear about the gigantic military spending in the U.S. I would've expected it to be on top of this list. It can't be only 7. no?

A lot of military spending is disguised (not to say maliciously) as funding to other agencies. For example, that number is probably just the Pentagon's budget, and wouldn't include things like Veterans Affairs (which is about $300 billion) or foreign aid (around $50 billion) or the Department of Homeland Security (around $50 billion) or our nuclear force ($35 billion), etc.

Even some of NASA's funding is for monitoring nukes.

The point is that it's actually kind of hard to calculate how much we spend on defense, because it's hard to know what to count, but it's certainly more than it looks like. Over $1 trillion is a safe guess.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#250

Post by calibas »

Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #173
zb1plus wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. It is disgraceful how our tax dollars are used to prop up failed business models and oppress the little guy. Just another example of how supposedly democratic states only serve the interests of the elite.

>It is disgraceful how our tax dollars are used to prop up failed business models and oppress the little guy U.S. Government Spending, FY 2022 Top 10 Spending by Category $ 1.22 T Social Security $ 914 B Health $ 865 B Income Security $ 767 B National Defense $ 755 B Medicare $ 677 B Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services How do you explain this data? Source: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-fin…

According to a different official government site, it's $1.2 T on National Defense...

https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function

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