Live data from Hacker News

Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team

annas-archive.org

211–220 of 560 posts

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

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I an exception? Yes, I think you're an exception, sorry. We will never have real data on this. But simply on its face, I find it extremely hard to believe that most consumers have a strong enough moral compass to go out of their way to buy something they already have access to. Maybe they will for a tiny handful of special books that they want hard copies of, or authors they really like, but not for most media t…

Books seem somewhat unique to me in that the physical product is better or at least different from the digital one, so it kind of makes sense to buy it even if you already have a digital copy. This is unlike e.g. streaming services where the paid service is strictly worse than the pirated one (e.g. no offline, doesn't work at all with some monitors/setups, only low bitrates allowed).

"Better" is of course subjective. Digital is better to me: I can read the digital version on my laptop, phone, or e-reader. I prefer the e-reader, but don't like to carry it everywhere; at the very least I can always read on my phone if that's all I have on me.

I'm someone who used to be a voracious reader. In my childhood alone I would devour paperbacks and hardcovers like nobody's business. My summers were spent destroying the full summer reading list distributed by my school in weeks, and then going to the library to find more things to read. I have had thousands and thousands of physical books in my hands during my life. But I still prefer digital.

I only purchase digital books that either have no DRM, or stripable DRM.

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

#212
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about writers?

IIRC it was shown that piracy increases sales for books. For example, if you pirated an ebook and liked it, you'd likely buy a physical copy.

This is true for me! For authors like, I might read a few epubs, then buy their entire series in hardcover (or paperback if no hardcover is available) to have in my bookshelves for rainy days.

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

#214

> In recent weeks we’ve seen increased attacks on our mission. A pretty rich thing to say when your mission is piracy. I'm not against piracy at all, quite the contrary, but this is quite laughable.

Piracy is done with ships. Anna's is doing digital conservation, which is sorely needed in a rapidly changing world.

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

#215
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious how they’re funded. How they are able to stay online. Surely there must be people, governments etc with deep pockets that would want to take them down?

You can donate to get access to faster download mirrors. I'd guess this is the main source of their revenue. https://annas-archive.org/donate

Can you donate to them without someone claiming you're donating money to a criminal enterprise and getting you in trouble? I mean, without using bitcoins

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

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This strikes me as a bit ironic, if you're serious, as you list your current work as covering the entirety of the Beatles discography. Are you paying them for the rights?

I don't think this is a useful path to go down; there's a legal precedent for cover songs, and perhaps he did pay the fee: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/question-when-mechan...

I actually think it's ironic for precisely that reason. Similar to covering music, there is a legal precedent for making books available in public libraries - though most cover artists don't pay the royalties, and in this case this online library is not paying the GP. In the case that GP did in fact pay the fee, I rescind my criticism.

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

#217
post #61

Shadow libraries maintainers deserve a Nobel prize for their contributions to humanity. Satoshi would be proud.

Perhaps he could spare a few coins, chump change to him to help out.

Might need more than a few as the price would tank if his wallets came out of dormancy.

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

#218
post #209
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 don't think I follow. There's no recommendation engine in AA, right? Do you download a bunch of books from AA, read them, then if you happened to like one enough, you will buy it from a local bookstore?

That’s exactly how I do it. I enjoy reading DRM-free epubs on my Kobo, and whenever I finished a book I enjoyed, I buy it from the local sci-fi bookshop. I buy about 90% of all books I read.

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

#219
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about writers?

IIRC it was shown that piracy increases sales for books. For example, if you pirated an ebook and liked it, you'd likely buy a physical copy.

That's absurd. I could potentially believe the conclusion that piracy doesn't take away from sales (that is, most people who pirate would otherwise do without, and not buy a copy). But the idea that many/most (or even some significantly-small percentage) of people who pirate will buy copies of the things they like? No, that doesn't pass the sniff test.

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

#220

Isn't it humorous how citizens are pro Anna's archive, but governments are against it? Bit of additional evidence for elitism and such.

What about writers?

Depends. I've seen some in favor and some against. Academics who have their papers paywalled by publishing entities against their own wills are generally for it.
Post reply on HN