GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down • Hacker News Board

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#31

Post by st_goliath » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

phoe-krk wrote: post #7

mellosouls wrote: post #4

The notice is here: https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2021/04/2021-04-2... Kevin Wayne (repo owner presumably) is listed as co-author on the book that is published by Pearson, who have issued the notice. https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Sedgewic...

Yours sincerely, [private] Internet Investigator On behalf of: Pearson Education, Inc. ------------------------------------ Seems like another glorious victory of the overzealous online copyright strikers. Nothing out of the ordinary, will likely get sorted out in a day or two.

> Internet Investigator

Haha... that's a brilliant euphemism for "profession Google user". Or maybe we could call it "serial scrapist"?

Of all the silly titles I tried to come up with, this sure hadn't crossed my mind yet. And it has a catchy ring to it too.

"Internet Investigator" got to be somewhere up there between "Adult Software Engineer" (middle ground between "Junior" and "Senior") and "Server Captain/Commodore/Admiral".

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#32

Post by viraptor » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:02 PM UTC

fartcannon wrote: post #21

Is it time for a sci-hub like event to replace github? It would be better for the repository of nearly all modern public programming creativity be something more like Wikipedia, and less like LinkedIn.

Depending on your network model preference, there's a federated approach https://notabug.org/peers/forgefed and P2P https://radicle.xyz/ Unfortunately both are still in pretty early stages, but active.

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#33

Post by vector_spaces » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:03 PM UTC

2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #18

truth_ wrote: post #12

Not totally unrelated: Pearson is a piece of trash company. They sell very overpriced textbooks and always use DRM in online copies. They lobby for standardized tests in states and get them mandated. Students are put through them. And guess who provides the certificate required by teachers to evaluate those exam copies? Yes, Pearson. And they make a ton of money. Please watch this talk for more context (even if you d…

> very overpriced textbooks Not just way overpriced, the few Pearson books I happen to own are of an alarmingly low quality. The pages of a phone book look and feel like premium paper compared to my copy of Blitzer's College Algebra.

Not to mention some of them have wonderful anti-features, such as physical books that have a handful of online-only chapters that you can only access if you buy the textbook new, thereby reducing the value of used copies.

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#34

Post by truth_ » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

shakaijin wrote: post #22

truth_ wrote: post #12

Not totally unrelated: Pearson is a piece of trash company. They sell very overpriced textbooks and always use DRM in online copies. They lobby for standardized tests in states and get them mandated. Students are put through them. And guess who provides the certificate required by teachers to evaluate those exam copies? Yes, Pearson. And they make a ton of money. Please watch this talk for more context (even if you d…

Also, they release new versions of books all the time and force their use in classes, making it impossible to use 2nd hand textbooks in a lot of cases. *I mean, come on. How of ten do fundamental physics change... Pearson is a company that should not exist.

That's an unethical practice employed by some companies. Although in many cases it can be circumvented by buying old textbooks anyway.

I am glad that many CS authors nowadays make textbooks available for free. And companies like O'Reilly, Packt, and Manning provide DRM free copies.

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#35

Post by IceWreck » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:05 PM UTC

We should have a penalty/fine for fake DCMA requests.

Big corps keep sending automated DCMAs with little consequence and often the little guys do have the resources to fight back.

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#36

Post by janoc » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #17

caymanjim wrote: post #10

This isn't worth getting your feathers ruffled over. Some algorithm or barely-paid human automaton flagged it, someone higher up will notice it, it'll be added to an exception list, problem solved. It's not ideal, but it's not malicious or nefarious or even worth talking about every time something like this happens. It's a simple mistake that has a simple solution.

Why should someone's 'mistakes' damage my liberties and result in takedown of my property? this is textbook harassment.

That's a good question but for the wrong audience. Take it with the US Congress who has adopted so lopsided copyright law under the heavy lobbying of the music and movie industry in the wake of Napster.

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#37

Post by maweki » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

seaman1921 wrote: post #29

If this was a youtube channel takedown people would be mad at Google, but good to see at least here HN is blaming the bad actors like they should - ie. the copyright laws and its abusers.

People are mad at google for _automatic_ takedowns, as they enable bad actors and are arguably not in the spirit of the law.

In this case here, github does not employ an overzealous automated system. This is a manual DMCA claim and the issuer is the single actor here, who could be to blame.

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#38

Post by liliumregale » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #17

caymanjim wrote: post #10

This isn't worth getting your feathers ruffled over. Some algorithm or barely-paid human automaton flagged it, someone higher up will notice it, it'll be added to an exception list, problem solved. It's not ideal, but it's not malicious or nefarious or even worth talking about every time something like this happens. It's a simple mistake that has a simple solution.

Why should someone's 'mistakes' damage my liberties and result in takedown of my property? this is textbook harassment.

Is that a pun, because this was done by Pearson?

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#39

Post by matsemann » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

seaman1921 wrote: post #29

If this was a youtube channel takedown people would be mad at Google, but good to see at least here HN is blaming the bad actors like they should - ie. the copyright laws and its abusers.

Difference is that Github follows DMCA practices, while YouTube has their homemade system that bans you without a fair way of appealing.

Re: GitHub repository for Sedgewick's Algorithms is taken down

#40

Post by dan-robertson » Sat, May 01, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

seaman1921 wrote: post #29

If this was a youtube channel takedown people would be mad at Google, but good to see at least here HN is blaming the bad actors like they should - ie. the copyright laws and its abusers.

Google have their own system for copyright claims which people get mad about. GitHub follows the DMCA laws which they have to follow. I put it to you that your implied claim that these situations are basically the same is false.