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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)

#241

Post by degamad »

MarsIronPI wrote: post #203
NeutralCrane wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If knowledge is to be free, that means there should be no restrictions on how it is used. Even an open source license misses the point, because the implication is still that one person can dictate how another person can make use of knowledge. It’s still premised on the same dystopian view that a person can own an idea.

Not so. Stallman created copyleft licenses as a defense against the current implementation of copyright. Copyleft uses the existing system of copyright to protect authors of free software from people who want to use copyright to restrict distribution. It wouldn't be necessary if copyright didn't exist.

Important nit-pick:

Copyleft was created to protect users of free software from authors/distributors who tried to use copyright to control the software running on the users' computers.

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

#242

Post by phatfish »

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…

It's almost as if we are in a comment section where most peoples jobs exist due to "content" either being stolen (AI most recently) or crowd sourced under EULAs that effectively steal it.

Not that I think a back door to the shit Disney and other corporate content onwers pull is nessecarily a bad thing. But it is funny to see people here gaslight themselves into believing they have some moral right to just take what others have created.

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

#243

Post by pseingatl »

Micropayments (charged in mills, not cents) is the solution. Downloading books remains essentially "free" for the individual but the Internet scale is such that authors would receive compensation for their work. The Spotify model is better than downright piracy. It is very difficult to compete with free.

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

#244

Post by sucrosesucrose »

pruppy wrote: post #221
__rito__ wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is not bad faith argument, then I don't what is. When someone is violating an OSS licence, they are doing it for commercial gains and monetary profit. Nobody is angry at someone using FOSS software for himself with no money getting involved. As opposed to that, books, movies are pirated for personal consumption. Not monetary gains. If someone bought a $30 book, and then ran a BaaS with millions of VC money in…

Now that AI is decimating a lot of bullshit jobs we need a basic income of some kind. A universal one. That would enable the authors, activists and hackers to pursue what's meaningful, instead of the profit of the multinational leeches that do not need to adhere to laws, borders or taxes. If a zillion dollar corporations (Meta and the likes) can torrent Annas Archive and decimate the copyrights I see it a moral imper…

Universal basic income is dystopic. It's a way of finally making everyone completely dependent on the government. It's a Brave New World kind of dystopy.

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

#245

Post by Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe »

bruce511 wrote: post #239
pruppy wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that AI is decimating a lot of bullshit jobs we need a basic income of some kind. A universal one. That would enable the authors, activists and hackers to pursue what's meaningful, instead of the profit of the multinational leeches that do not need to adhere to laws, borders or taxes. If a zillion dollar corporations (Meta and the likes) can torrent Annas Archive and decimate the copyrights I see it a moral imper…

I too think Basic Income is a necessity. I don't think it can happen in the US (for cultural reasons) but I think elsewhere it can work. (And indeed in many places it kinda, sorta, already does). >> That would enable the authors, activists and hackers to pursue what's meaningful I would counsel not using the word "meaningful" in the context of BI. We already have a way of evaluating "meaningful", it's called "money".…

> I don't think it can happen in the US (for cultural reasons)

Cultural reasons are just a matter of spindoctoring/propaganda.

Nixon almost implemented a form of UBI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Assistance_Plan

In Alaska there's already a form of UBI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund

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

#246

Post by orangesilk »

sucrosesucrose wrote: post #244
pruppy wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that AI is decimating a lot of bullshit jobs we need a basic income of some kind. A universal one. That would enable the authors, activists and hackers to pursue what's meaningful, instead of the profit of the multinational leeches that do not need to adhere to laws, borders or taxes. If a zillion dollar corporations (Meta and the likes) can torrent Annas Archive and decimate the copyrights I see it a moral imper…

Universal basic income is dystopic. It's a way of finally making everyone completely dependent on the government. It's a Brave New World kind of dystopy.

Are you independent of your government yet?

I am dependend on government not giving subsidies to my competition. I am dependend on them not to raise taxes. I even depend on them for keeping the infrastrukture alive. If I cant trust the state I life in, it is time to move to a different state.

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

#247

Post by jamiejquinn »

bruce511 wrote: post #239
pruppy wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that AI is decimating a lot of bullshit jobs we need a basic income of some kind. A universal one. That would enable the authors, activists and hackers to pursue what's meaningful, instead of the profit of the multinational leeches that do not need to adhere to laws, borders or taxes. If a zillion dollar corporations (Meta and the likes) can torrent Annas Archive and decimate the copyrights I see it a moral imper…

I too think Basic Income is a necessity. I don't think it can happen in the US (for cultural reasons) but I think elsewhere it can work. (And indeed in many places it kinda, sorta, already does). >> That would enable the authors, activists and hackers to pursue what's meaningful I would counsel not using the word "meaningful" in the context of BI. We already have a way of evaluating "meaningful", it's called "money".…

I disagree with your definition of meaningful here. Society's willingness to pay is certainly a signal for meaning in an output but it seems quite inaccurate. Think of the number of artists and thinkers that weren't recognised in their lifetimes, their work was still meaningful but society hadn't discovered it yet.

Similarly, there are a number of things that would be incredibly meaningful to all of society (eradication of disease, nuclear fusion, etc) that we choose to deprioritise to instead eat fois gras and fight.

Sorry to jump down your throat on this, we're on the same side, I think BI is inevitable and worthwhile. But it's worth pointing out that BI enables more than just the meaningless things.

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

#248

Post by otherme123 »

gorgoiler wrote: post #211
zerobees wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Capitalism works great for shoes. You pay the proletariat for their labor and they labor away in your shoe factory. The shoe economy ticks over on scarcity. The knowledge economy is different. It’s hard to see how the system works in a world where everyone has the equivalent of a shoe replicator in their pocket. Ironically the “free market” only survives by having arbitrary regulations on shoe duplication enforced in…

The shoes would be free and not a market product, as is it currently air to breathe.

Free market is just the best way we know of dealing with scarcity, every other alternative that was attempted seems to fail sooner or later. If you invent a way to get an infinite amount of something, that something goes out of the free market rationing.

For the knowledge, a lot of free market more radical defenders don't believe at all in current state of "intelectual property", much less if et has to be enforced by the state. They are for "industial secrets" (if they leak, you lose them), NDAs (if they leak, you enforce the contract) and similar formulas.

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

#249

Post by mdgld »

mahdi7d1 wrote: post #151
pipes wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

Please say more about accessing HN from Iran, I’m very curious.

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

#250

Post by kennywinker »

mr_toad wrote: post #142
0x3f wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it works as AA seems to theorize, you'd need to: (a) work out how Google books exposes fragments of books, and see if there's a systematic way of using this to get whole books. For example, a naive approach might be to find any fragment of the book by searching some exact phrase. Then, you can search for an exact phrase from the start or end of the fragment it gave you, hoping it will show you the previous or next…

(c) avoid being hounded to death by a zealous district attorney.

Rip Aaron Swartz
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