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Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

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Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#161

Post by john-titor »

whycome wrote: post #147
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #19

I live in a country where the selection of available books, especially in English, is very limited. Buying online from foreign markets comes with a long list of administrative hurdles and limits. If it were not for Anna's Archive and Z-Library, I would've never been able to read the books that shaped who I am today, or keep my passion for learning alive. Thanks, AA and ZLib! (Also, thank you to the authors whose book…

So you’re saying your entire current life is because of the proceeds of crime?! I’m kidding. Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. It belongs to us all

> Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. It belongs to us all

Imagine you're a professional writer and it's your main source of income. How would you feel if someone said this to you? Would you still want to write books?

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#162

Post by UltraSane »

mahdi7d1 wrote: post #152
mahdi7d1 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Iran and the administrative hurdles the op was mentioned are not an issue here because you just can't even buy intwrnationally to begin with so there is no hurdle you might need to circumvent. The few English books I have are largely illegal reprints of a pirated version or some old ancient printed version that have somehow gotten imported (no clue how or is there an actual legal way) I remember opening "th…

I rambled so much that I forgot to say what I laid all that introduction for. I'm not part of the market for these products. I don't have access to them nor even if I buy some imported (probably illegally and by single persons) or printed version, am I going to benefit them since I'm disconnected monetarily from yhe author. Me reading pirated versions of these books has no negative effects on the earnings of the auth…

You can definitely justify using pirated versions more than most people.

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#163

Post by [deleted] »

john-titor wrote: post #161
whycome wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’re saying your entire current life is because of the proceeds of crime?! I’m kidding. Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. It belongs to us all

> Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. It belongs to us all Imagine you're a professional writer and it's your main source of income. How would you feel if someone said this to you? Would you still want to write books?

[deleted]

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#164

Post by jwrallie »

pipes wrote: post #86
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #19

I live in a country where the selection of available books, especially in English, is very limited. Buying online from foreign markets comes with a long list of administrative hurdles and limits. If it were not for Anna's Archive and Z-Library, I would've never been able to read the books that shaped who I am today, or keep my passion for learning alive. Thanks, AA and ZLib! (Also, thank you to the authors whose book…

Look, fair enough from your perspective. But a lot of those books probably wouldn't exist if the author couldn't make some money from their work. I can't find the post but years ago on Reddit an author posted stats showing when her book turned up pirates online, real sales for it collapsed. Because of this I make a point of buying books, programming books especially. Yes I download pdfs, I use them as previews. This…

Not gonna argue with the point that we need to support authors, but “can be purchased” is a relative concept.

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#166

Post by nzeid »

zerobees wrote: post #159
whycome wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’re saying your entire current life is because of the proceeds of crime?! I’m kidding. Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. It belongs to us all

> Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. This is a common perspective on HN, but it's so jarring. Someone violates an open-source license and we grab our pitchforks. Someone pirates books and it's fine - really, the authors should be thanking us. Good books are incredibly challenging to write, more so than good software. It's not like you grab Harry Potter and say "I'm just gonna change character…

Taken out of context, you're right. But the parent comment couldn't buy these books even if they wanted to. I'd say there's a consensus that the primary motivation for piracy is hurdles to access having nothing to do with payment.

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#167

Post by Velocifyer »

merpkz wrote: post #36
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you get caught exfiltrating data they'll sue you for much more than $200K.

Copy data into extra large capacity micro sdcard and hide it in your rubiks cube, nobody will suspect a thing

Importantly, this would work way better on a speedcube than the rubick's brand cubes. Never use the rubick's brand rubicks cubes. I use the Moyu RS3m V5 maglev, and I think that it would work well for hiding uSD cards.

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#168

Post by dghlsakjg »

zerobees wrote: post #159
whycome wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’re saying your entire current life is because of the proceeds of crime?! I’m kidding. Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. It belongs to us all

> Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. This is a common perspective on HN, but it's so jarring. Someone violates an open-source license and we grab our pitchforks. Someone pirates books and it's fine - really, the authors should be thanking us. Good books are incredibly challenging to write, more so than good software. It's not like you grab Harry Potter and say "I'm just gonna change character…

There’s also the argument that copyright has been extended to the point of absurdity.

I respect copyright, but I can’t respect a lockup period that can push to 130 years or more. For example: if JK Rowling is alive in 4 years the first Harry Potter book will have a valid copyright extending from the 20th, 21st and into the 22nd century. Is it really defensible to say that your great, great (great?) grandchildren should benefit from a government mandated monopoly on your work?

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#169

Post by IncreasePosts »

DeepYogurt wrote: post #24

Anyone afraid of being laid off at google right now? Perhaps this is a backup :)

Doubtful that random employees just have access to the full archive. And among those few that do have access there are probably automated systems that will catch you once you start downloading even a small percent of the content

Re: Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty (2025)

#170

Post by TFNA »

zerobees wrote: post #159
whycome wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’re saying your entire current life is because of the proceeds of crime?! I’m kidding. Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. It belongs to us all

> Knowledge should be free. It was never created in a vacuum. This is a common perspective on HN, but it's so jarring. Someone violates an open-source license and we grab our pitchforks. Someone pirates books and it's fine - really, the authors should be thanking us. Good books are incredibly challenging to write, more so than good software. It's not like you grab Harry Potter and say "I'm just gonna change character…

> Someone violates an open-source license and we grab our pitchforks.

If you look back through the annals of Free Software, one often encounters the claim that the GPL was a way to use copyright against itself, and if there were no more copyright, there would be little need for these licenses.

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