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A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

zlib.zu1k.com

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Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#61

Post by xtian »

ROTMetro wrote: post #39

I hope every project you work on has it's source code stolen resulting in failure. And this is coming from a pretty crappy person, but this website sure does love stealing from authors (so that it can enjoy the fruits of their labor).

No one is entitled to a particular form of revenue. We live in an attention-based economy. Talented and savvy authors can find any number of ways to derive revenue from the attention their work attracts apart from charging IP tolls.

If not, they can always get a job where they have no ownership stake in the fruits of their labor, like almost every other job and 99.9% of people writing code for money.

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#62

Post by skyechurch »

ROTMetro wrote: post #39

I hope every project you work on has it's source code stolen resulting in failure. And this is coming from a pretty crappy person, but this website sure does love stealing from authors (so that it can enjoy the fruits of their labor).

Strong agree, I still haven't forgiven myself for that time ABBA starved to death after I taped "Dancing Queen" off the radio.

I use OverDrive/LibGen etc because it's generally more convenient than the public library. If I like a book enough to actually finish it, I buy a paper copy because ebooks are inherently inferior and probably always will be. If I was still a student I would use OverDrive/LibGen etc specifically to steal from textbook publishers who charge $100 for an 18th edition riddled with factual and grammatical errors in hope that they would go bankrupt, but it wouldn't work. We have a long way yet to go.

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#63

Post by jll29 »

yucky wrote: post #59
spigottoday wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not an author, are you. Not a lawyer either. When you have spent years honing your craft and spent many months creating a work so that you can buy what you need to live and can't afford to support your self and your family without that income and then YOU give that work away - then I may find some value in your self serving questions. By the way, the answer to your questions is yes.

> By the way, the answer to your questions is yes. You say it's theft to take pictures of the pages of a library book? I would need you to cite your sources please. If it matters, I recently ordered 6 hardcovers from an author who's book that I downloaded from libgen was so impressively written, well sourced and thought provoking that I just had to put his best works (the book I "stole" by downloading, and 5 of his o…

Germany has a system where the books purchased by libraries and also printers and scanners contain a fee that contributes to a fund for reimbursing copyright holders (Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort, cf. https://www.vgwort.de/startseite.html ). Very fast copiers/scanners are more expensive - inter alia - for that reason, according to a colleague of mine (I'm not an expert in this).

So you copying one page from a book in a library would still lead to some form of compensation, although one could debate whether it is fair or not, whereas using a P2P search engine to locate an online copy of a PDF would not.

Also, IMHO, the discussion of such online libraries should separate the topic of fair compensation of authors (I believe Norway or Finnland have "author stipends" paid by the government that one can apply) and the topic of locating and researching whether a book is what one needs or to one's liking.

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#64

Post by anothernewdude »

ROTMetro wrote: post #39

I hope every project you work on has it's source code stolen resulting in failure. And this is coming from a pretty crappy person, but this website sure does love stealing from authors (so that it can enjoy the fruits of their labor).

Copyright enjoys stealing culture from everyone

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#66

Post by mdaniel »

juuular wrote: post #43
cratermoon wrote: post #40

A question about z-lib, libgen, and regular libraries Suppose I check an e-book out of my local library. Because Reasons, the library doesn't "own" unlimited "copies" of the book, so each "copy" can only be checked out to one patron at a time and if there are enough holds then a patron can't renew a checked out book. In short, ebooks in libraries are just like regular paper books, except to you don't have leave your…

You might find this interesting: Reverse engineering yet another ebook format (Nemanja Mijailovic) https://mijailovic.net/2022/12/25/hkpropel/

With discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34125958

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#67

Post by akiselev »

ok123456 wrote: post #60
jerojero wrote: post #56

Something that has always bothered me about z-lib and libgen and so on is the impossibility of being able to tell quality from the different uploads. Sometimes the epubs are very good, with a good cover and metadata as well as chapters and no weird aberrations; other times, they're unreadable. But the only thing you have to judge quality is size and general description of the upload which in this website it's been re…

Large pdf and djvu files generally means low quality scans.

I think that really depends on the type of book. I've found the large PDFs to be by far the most reliable for books printed before the 20th century because - save for Google Books - no one's OCR is tuned for the kind of printing errors, age related wear and tear, and fonts used over the centuries.

Manuscripts (which are admittedly very niche) often have to be high resolution scans or photographs just to be readable, but zlib and libgen don't really have many of those.

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#68

Post by Tams80 »

jerojero wrote: post #56

Something that has always bothered me about z-lib and libgen and so on is the impossibility of being able to tell quality from the different uploads. Sometimes the epubs are very good, with a good cover and metadata as well as chapters and no weird aberrations; other times, they're unreadable. But the only thing you have to judge quality is size and general description of the upload which in this website it's been re…

Pirates being picky, eh?

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the access that libgen and z-lib provide and think on the whole it is beneficial to society. It is still not paying for people's work though.

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#69

Post by Tams80 »

cratermoon wrote: post #40

A question about z-lib, libgen, and regular libraries Suppose I check an e-book out of my local library. Because Reasons, the library doesn't "own" unlimited "copies" of the book, so each "copy" can only be checked out to one patron at a time and if there are enough holds then a patron can't renew a checked out book. In short, ebooks in libraries are just like regular paper books, except to you don't have leave your…

That's really down to your personal ethics and how much you are willing to tolerate.

As you're not distributing it, the chance of someone coming after you for downloading a non-legal copy is almost non-existent, and pretty much 0 if you've taken some basic precautions.

It sounds like you've answered your own question there; that as you'd read the majority of the book, that there's no real loss to you finishing it for free.

Re: A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the IPFS network

#70

Post by cratermoon »

juuular wrote: post #43
cratermoon wrote: post #40

A question about z-lib, libgen, and regular libraries Suppose I check an e-book out of my local library. Because Reasons, the library doesn't "own" unlimited "copies" of the book, so each "copy" can only be checked out to one patron at a time and if there are enough holds then a patron can't renew a checked out book. In short, ebooks in libraries are just like regular paper books, except to you don't have leave your…

You might find this interesting: Reverse engineering yet another ebook format (Nemanja Mijailovic) https://mijailovic.net/2022/12/25/hkpropel/

I did read that. The format he had wasn't really locked down, it was just a regular epub behind a crappy web-based viewer. The library epub downloads really do have DRM locks.
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