Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team • Hacker News Board

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

#321

Post by Wowfunhappy » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:17 PM UTC

glimshe wrote: post #208

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #165

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…

I would not buy a book after downloading it from Anna's archive. But that's the wrong question in my opinion. You should be asking why aren't most books available in a DRM free format? The main reason to download "pirated" books is that they get rid of all annoying barriers that exist in "legitimate" copies. It's a better product .

> You should be asking why aren't most books available in a DRM free format?

Because most people don't care! I wish they did, because I'm like you, I do care about owning DRM free media! I buy videos game from GOG wherever possible, and audiobooks from a combination of downpour.com and libro.fm. Guess what most people do? They buy games on Steam and audiobooks on Audible.

Audible is the one that really breaks my heart! Games and movies I understand, because the DRM free sources have such narrow selections, but I can find just about any audiobook I want on either Downpour or libro.fm; every once in a while I'll come across an audible exclusive, but it doesn't happen frequently. And yet, everybody uses Audible!

And, sure, there are known ways to strip Audible DRM, but with DRM free stores so readily accessible, why wouldn't you use those?

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

#322

Post by Aurornis » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:19 PM UTC

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…

> Am I an exception?

Years ago I was following development of an indie game. The developers wanted to provide a DRM-free experience.

The game had some online functionality (leaderboard or something). They were surprised when the number of accounts accessing the online functionality exceeded their sales by a dramatic number. The developer updates grew more and more sad as they switched from discussing new features to pleading with people to actually buy the game instead of copying it. Eventually they called it quits and gave up because the game, while very popular, was so widely pirated that few people actually paid.

Whenever the piracy topic comes up I hear people do mental gymnastics to justify it, like claiming they spend more than average and therefore their piracy is a net win. Yet when we get small peeks into numbers and statistics like with video game piracy, it’s not hard to see that the majority of people who pirate things are just doing it because they get what they want and don’t have to pay for it.

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

#323

Post by bigyabai » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:21 PM UTC

xvector wrote: post #252

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.

Super selfish of Anna's Archive to mention this. "Look what we did!" with zero thought to the consequences for others.

> the consequences for others.

The only people facing consequences are the license-holders. Online lending libraries aren't missing a copy now that AA archived it, and there's not really a substantial cost to the hosters in network bandwidth.

Am I missing something here? As a user I don't empathize with anyone but the archivers.

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

#324

Post by lucb1e » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:23 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #219

MYEUHD wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you and I would support the works we think are good, why wouldn't others? I keep noticing that people constantly expect worse morals from others than how they claim they are themselves

It's easy to add a "me too" onto the existing list but that's not my point. I think we generally can expect better from the average person than we instinctively do. If 50% of people are just as honest as we are (if we're average persons which, on average, we are), that would be easily worth it if free distribution of a book gets you a 3x bigger reach as compared to when people have to pay up front. I'm not aware of research confirming or refuting this (of course I'd like to believe that information can be free), but it doesn't seem so outlandish to me that we can ignore the option altogether by doing a sniff test

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

#325

Post by sureglymop » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:34 PM UTC

duckkg5 wrote: post #92

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

libgen is still there

Not accurate. You are probably looking at a site like https://libgen.ac/ which states clearly at the top: "Not a Part of Library Genesis. ex libgen.io, libgen.org" The real one has been down for a long time.

All original mirrors currently seem down. But other mirrors are up. Check here: https://open-slum.org/

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

#326

Post by aidenn0 » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:35 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #318

aidenn0 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's complicated. Many years ago, I was involved in a movie release group. Pretty much everybody in that group owned more VHSs/DVDs than the typical person. This is probably not surprising, since the time and effort one needs to put into that is rather large. Those who only downloaded were more of a mixed bag; some of them were not in the US and might not be able to see a domestic release of the movies any time soon.…

I spent a small fortune on a record collection. Then the record format was abandoned and it was all CDs. I spent a small fortune re-buying that same record collection, insofar as the records were even available as CDs. Then we went all digital (yes, I know CDs were already digital) and it became MP3s. So I ripped my CD collection and assigned them to a box in my attic. I will not be spending money on spotify or whate…

Oh, the transition to ephemeral copies definitely changes things, and was well after my active time a movie piracy group.

The (in)ability to loan, trade, and bequeath media is a real loss in the ephemeral media era, and should be a serious topic of any copyright reform.

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

#327

Post by CamperBob2 » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:35 PM UTC

alfalfasprout wrote: post #308

CamperBob2 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If wildly optimistic predictions of LLM proponents turn out to be correct then they will never buy a book again, they will have no reason to. And this is precisely what the copyright was designed to protect authors against. And under those circumstances, your opinion is that copyrighted books should continue to exist, with full legal protection? How could anyone, including the authors, possibly benefit from an obsole…

You say it's human progress. Many, many others would disagree.

If it happens, it won't matter what we think.

If it doesn't happen, it won't matter what we think.

(I think it's simply too early to tell, but it's fun to think about what will have to change if the AI cheerleaders turn out to be correct.)

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

#328

Post by horseradish7k » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:37 PM UTC

noble-lombax wrote: post #43

lode wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When accessing from Belgium the link is blocked by Cloudflare: Error HTTP 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons In response to a legal order, Cloudflare has taken steps to limit access to this website through Cloudflare's pass-through security and CDN services within Belgium

I actually didn't know there were more error codes beyond error code 429

visit http.cat

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

#329

Post by CamperBob2 » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:38 PM UTC

alfalfasprout wrote: post #311

CamperBob2 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if it helps me get my own job done more effectively, efficiently, and economically. That's how our society works. You and I benefit from this, too, not just Microsoft. If you don't like it, there's a process for changing how it works, but don't expect an easy path to success. Various people will object, and will have to be won over to your way of thinking.

> If you don't like it, there's a process for changing how it works Except the converse is true. Copyright law today governs how fair use works and even so, how material can be obtained, licensed, etc. To change it to explicitly allow what you're suggesting would require changing copyright law.

If you think copyright law as we know it will survive what's happening today, then... wow. No chance.

Copyright is not a natural right. We pulled it out of our asses, very recently at that, to meet socioeconomic goals that existed at the time. It can and will go back where it came from, if it turns out that AI is indeed a better way to organize, analyze, and distribute human knowledge.

Even if AI doesn't turn to be anything all that revolutionary, we'll still need to update the law to address both training input and ownership of generated content. Congress and eventually the international community will have to resolve a large number of conflicting legal judgments, unless we want to leave it up to SCOTUS in the US and various unelected judges and bureaucrats elsewhere.

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

#330

Post by qingcharles » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 9:39 PM UTC

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #225

akudha wrote: 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?

Allegedly, some companies with deep pockets have paid them for access to their collection. The collection turns out to be useful for training LLMs.

Can confirm this is happening. But the money paid is tiny. Think thousands of dollars, not millions. Not enough to keep the lights on. I would assume they do pretty well from donations.