Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

annas-archive.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 560 posts

Re: Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

#151

Post by bmacho »

bmacho wrote: post #145
tzs wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If #1 is a reference to a famous quote from Steward Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, it's only part of the quote. The rest is relevant: > On the one hand you have—the point you’re making Woz—is that information sort of wants to be expensive because it is so valuable—the right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information almost wants to be free because the costs of ge…

It's not a quote, but a statement. And even if it were a quote, random other quotes from the same person are not relevant. "This is just a part of the quote" people are so annoying. Like guess why it is "only a part of a quote"? Because some parts are neat, insightful and true, and some other parts are irrelevant and garbage. Sorry, this was a more general rant, because it is so annoying every single time . In this c…

If you are similarly annoyed with the random "it's only part of the quote" spam, you can use my text above and link it as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44944055

Re: Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

#154

Post by Mistletoe »

lysace wrote: post #59
boombapoom wrote: post #32

fuck those guys, annas archive is one of the last good things about the internet.

[flagged]

Can you expand more on any links between Russia and Anna’s? I’m not joining the downvote brigade on this one without asking.

Re: Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

#155

Post by _DeadFred_ »

jonahx wrote: post #133
thaumasiotes wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a real tension. There is no case where the inherent value of some commodity keeps its price high despite easy availability. That's the point of the "diamonds in the desert" thought experiment. Inherent value provides a ceiling on the price of whatever it is. Availability also provides a ceiling on the price. If I give you two theorems that say C < 300 and also C < 10, why would you describe those as being…

The tension arises because in some cases, at least for a while, the availability can be suppressed. Like when some expert releases an expensive ebook or video course "Secrets of X". Ofc many such books are scams, but assume for sake of argument the information is actually valuable. The initial buyers are motivated not to share it. It remains a scarce commodity for a while. But all it takes is one person to make a tor…

Copyright was created because we realized that it takes effort to put works together (in the original case it was educational information) but that distribution can be done without rewarding that initial effort. Which then results in the initial effort not happening. Which then ends up in a dumber, less intelligent, idea poor world without those works.

Society agreed to copyright because of the social benefit of having people willing to put effort/expense into creating works. We're not talking zero value internet BS, but real works. People who create the works don't make them scarce, their distribution is infinitely scalable. They just make it so that they are compensated.

Re: Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

#157

Post by Aerroon »

slt2021 wrote: post #138
Vektorceraptor wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what about the authors and creators of the works? They did it for free?

they already work almost for free, since all the money goes to the publisher and retailer. out of $20 book, the authors earn about $1 - $1.5, for e-books its about $1.7 - $2 The value from book sales goes to retailer and publisher: two large corporations, and in case of amazon - a single big corporation so please cry me a river about amazon's lost profits earned at the back of the book authors

Governments. You forgot governments. They take the bulk of the money, especially in Europe.

~25% VAT and then the publishers and retailers take their cut. The government takes another 40% in income and payroll taxes from that. The leftovers are what the author gets.

Buying from yourself is probably the biggest markup you can get.

Re: Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

#158

Post by Phelinofist »

lolive wrote: post #140

I choose the books I buy, from Anna's Archive. I choose the comics I buy from readComicsOnline. I choose the [european] graphic novels I buy from #WONTTELL. And I am one of the best customers of these 3 physical shops, in my town. So sure, I don't buy the latest trends based on ads. I investigate a lot to buy GREAT stuff. Sometimes the shopkeeper has headaches to find the obscure stuff I discovered online that NOBODY…

Can you recommend some of the obscure stuff?

Re: Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

#159

Post by sersi »

lolive wrote: post #140

I choose the books I buy, from Anna's Archive. I choose the comics I buy from readComicsOnline. I choose the [european] graphic novels I buy from #WONTTELL. And I am one of the best customers of these 3 physical shops, in my town. So sure, I don't buy the latest trends based on ads. I investigate a lot to buy GREAT stuff. Sometimes the shopkeeper has headaches to find the obscure stuff I discovered online that NOBODY…

I'm exactly the same. I tend to get the first book of any series that interests me and read a third before I decide whether to buy it or not. I do buy about 3-4 books a month (mostly epub drm free preferred) plus about 10 european graphic novels (paper books only) a month so I'm a heavy consumer I think.

Re: Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

#160

Post by kleiba »

om8 wrote: post #146
justin66 wrote: post #73

"Anna’s Archive itself has organized some of the largest scrapes: we acquired tens of millions of files from IA Controlled Digital Lending" Not really helping in the big picture, here, guys.

Why? They acquired books, that’s what they do

The OP is referring to the ongoing legal struggles the IA is facing wrt. to their version of an online library (with digital book lending).
Post reply on HN