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

software.annas-archive.gl

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

#271

Post by globalnode »

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

The entire llm chatbot craze is only possible because of the proceeds of crime. im reluctant to pick-on the little guy here.

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

#272

Post by mathgeek »

bruce511 wrote: post #252
jamiejquinn wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (eradicat…

BI does not stop people doing meaningful things. Society will (mostly) reward things which add value. We have a very efficient system for that, and it doesn't go away under BI. We are already spending massive amounts of money on disease, fusion and so on. There's no issue there, and BI doesn't move that needle. At the moment society (especially in the US) operates on a "add value or starve" basis. (That's an over sim…

> allowing the meaningless is precisely its goal

I think you’re getting pushback because of this choice of language. It’s not the only goal, but it is a key feature. BI supports choices of how to spend your time and enables freedoms.

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

#273

Post by inigyou »

TurdF3rguson wrote: post #180
hedora wrote: post #15

I wonder how long it will be before they offer bounties for internet scrapes. Cloudflare captchas have made the internet unusable for me, and I'm sure it will only get worse over time. I'd much rather just browse (or even torrent) a copy of archive.is or similar. The latter would be much better for privacy, and hey, I run ad blockers anyway.

Someone on your network is likely playing one of the games that are monetized by bright data proxies, it was a thread on here a few days ago. It could be your smart TV. If you find the culprit and remove it there's a decent chance your ip reputation will improve enough to not see those captchas

When everyone's a bot, noöne is.

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

#274

Post by [deleted] »

Cider9986 wrote: post #226
NavneetKr wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to that link and almost ran a malicious script in my terminal for a supposed reCAPTCHA verification. Just before pressing enter, I verified it with gemini and it said it was a ClickFix script designed to steal passwords and other sensitive information. Because of all the weird things we have to do for CAPTCHA verification these days, I almost believed it was legitimate and went with the steps. It is really fri…

Trying to follow that link I have to go past multiple security warnings in my browser and the final destination blocks me for using a VPN. It won't even open in Brave.

[deleted]

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

#275

Post by mdp2021 »

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…

> most of it has nothing to do with taking any serious moral stance

If many people are immoral, curb the roots of immorality then, fight that one battle - do not shift it to others' sound behaviour exercised with proportion and judgement.

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

#276

Post by mathgeek »

rbanffy wrote: post #260
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.

> 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 To be considered open source software, the license cannot impose any restrictions on how the software is used. You are free to use the software for whatever purpose you want.

This is the same “beer not speech” argument that has been going on for decades. A quick search will show you why your claim is incomplete.

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

#278

Post by inigyou »

neilv wrote: post #18

The US should just find a way to quietly share literature access with the Russians, rather than letting piracy be promoted and facilitated for US consumers as freedom-fighter "archiving". Between all the piracy, and all the AI training and the purchase/visitor-circumventing AI services, the practice of writing and publishing genuinely good work is being wiped out. We're killing the goose that lays the eggs, for selfi…

AI publishing is just email spam, but for books. When the cost of creating worthless text is low, people do it.

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

#279

Post by inigyou »

mmooss wrote: post #121
atemerev wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese (and some other) AI companies buying fast access to their dataset.

So Anna's Archive is in some ways a front for AI companies, gathering the sources they can't get themselves?

Not really, AA is the source.

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

#280

Post by inigyou »

TZubiri wrote: post #98

I think this would cross the line from civil copyright claims into criminal activity https://chatgpt.com/share/6a4970e8-7fe8-83e9-8f81-3aefd76b6b... On another note, if Google's cybersecurity were always one rogue employee away from a massive leak, then it wouldn't be Google. What was the last Google leak you remember, defense in depth people.

AA is an openly criminal organisation. Their attitude to prosecution is "you'll never catch us lol"
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