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ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

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Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#381

Post by collegeburner »

friendlypeg wrote: post #50
collegeburner wrote: post #10

bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion still up on TOR. fuck them i aint paying for my textbooks. never had a book bill higher than $50 and not about to start now.

Am I the only one who believes the high textbook pricing are reasonable given the small consumer base?

idk but i don't. cause the expensive textbooks are not the $40 ones my upper level classes have. they're the $200 intro class ones where 1000s of students take the course from a single school and there's some shitty online access code bs paired with it.

also, it is def not "reasonable" to repeatedly re-release editions just to make old ones useless.

i usually enjoy reading the $40 upper level ones a lot more btw.

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#382

Post by jrm4 »

fortran77 wrote: post #116
jrm4 wrote: post #22

As a lawyer, I can't recommend it, but I absolutely cannot discern any moral difference whatsoever between reading a library book for free and purchasing it later if I like it, and doing the same first thing by downloading the ebook from somewhere "unapproved." It's all very silly.

Oh it's stealing. Someone wants to get paid for the work, and they're entitled to get paid. I think people who know it's stealing, but are willing to download books anyway because of their personal risk/reward calculation (or perhaps they dislike the author and don't mind stealing from him!), have an intact moral compass: They know right from wrong. I wonder about people who try to rationalize the crime of book-steal…

And as a lawyer, I don't like when people conflate "copyright infringement" with theft.

Stealing/theft is best thought of not as "getting a thing for free that you're not entitled to" -- it's "depriving someone of their property," which copying ain't.

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#383

Post by pozdnyshev »

ccine wrote: post #200

I have tried my best to skim through all the discussions and no one seems to have noticed the demand for zlibrary in third world countries. In a country like China, it is the only avenue for most researchers and students at the bottom to gain expertise. When you talk about classism, you should not ignore such groups.

No post body was provided.

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#385

Post by jl6 »

survirtual wrote: post #358
areoform wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much for your efforts! I have steadily become convinced that we should make a multi-billion year backup of all of humanity's knowledge. All of it. Something that, - is resilient (can survive a nuclear explosion) - requires no power - doesn't require software to read/reboot from - (theoretically) lasts for at least 1 billion years Copying from the Long Now Foundation's projects, I think we can achieve the…

Just use this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_optical_data_storage 5d is a bit dramatic but it is a femtosecond laser writing of quartz crystal that should, in theory, be stable for billions of years and can hold hundreds of terabytes. Seems to be just what is needed.

Sadly it appears to be early-stage R&D vaporware.

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#386

Post by user3939382 »

BirAdam wrote: post #345
ccine wrote: post #200

I have tried my best to skim through all the discussions and no one seems to have noticed the demand for zlibrary in third world countries. In a country like China, it is the only avenue for most researchers and students at the bottom to gain expertise. When you talk about classism, you should not ignore such groups.

In my experience, people in the USA don’t extend their moral virtues to foreign countries, and when they do it’s common for this to be done in an unequal fashion. Often, people will respond telling you that you’re guilty of “what-about-ism” despite you merely universalizing a value that they themselves claim to have. I’ve ceased trying to converse about moral virtues with my fellow Americans as a result. It’s every b…

That's a new trend, to dismiss hypocrisy by calling it whataboutism.

IMHO the latter only legitimately applies where the comparison is tangential/apples to oranges, or if "two wrongs don't make a right" is being argued.

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#387

Post by pdimitar »

hacknewslogin wrote: post #371
areoform wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much for your efforts! I have steadily become convinced that we should make a multi-billion year backup of all of humanity's knowledge. All of it. Something that, - is resilient (can survive a nuclear explosion) - requires no power - doesn't require software to read/reboot from - (theoretically) lasts for at least 1 billion years Copying from the Long Now Foundation's projects, I think we can achieve the…

Instead of metal plates with a clear coat, maybe laser etching diamonds? a 5cm square of diamond can store 25 exabytes of data. They will weight less then metal as well. https://newatlas.com/electronics/2-inch-diamond-wafers-quant...

Holy shit, this reminds me of the Jedi / Sith holocrons.

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#388

Post by andrewla »

runjake wrote: post #169

z-lib.org is responsible for me buying more books in the past couple years than I’ve ever bought. It essentially acted like an in-person bookstore for me that allowed me to browse a book to determine whether it was worth buying. Before z-lib, I generally tended toward avoiding wasting money. I guess I’m back to that again. (I like paper copies of tech books and Kindle copies of novels so I can sync reading and highli…

Although I have grown increasingly frustrated with the Kindle ecosystem, I don't think this is a fair complaint. Amazon lets you download a sample of any book in their library, which is usually pretty substantial -- can be multiple chapters depending on the length of the book.

I use this mechanism as my "shopping cart" where I just freely download samples of books that seem even slightly interesting. Later I can browse through my backlog, start reading, and either file it away for later, buy it, or delete it if it's clear that it's not for me.

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#389

Post by Vt71fcAqt7 »

NoGravitas wrote: post #326
Vt71fcAqt7 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GP was using this definition: >an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market[0] >which had been developing for centuries earlier The use of capital has existed for thousands of years already. One could…

The ruling class before capitalism was not capitalist — the nature of property rights in land was very different under feudalism than it is under capitalism.

See dragonwriter's point above mine. Specific property rights are not necessary for capital to exist. Can you explain then why the nature of property rights was so different that ownership of it could not be consideres capital? Keep in mind that nobles could in fact sell their land at many points and places during medievil history.

Aditionaly, I made the case that one could say there is no capitalism. Could you explain, then, what capitalism is and why it would somehow only exist from the 18th century or later?

Re: ZLibrary domains have been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service

#390

Post by xerox13ster »

jl6 wrote: post #385
survirtual wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_optical_data_storage 5d is a bit dramatic but it is a femtosecond laser writing of quartz crystal that should, in theory, be stable for billions of years and can hold hundreds of terabytes. Seems to be just what is needed.

Sadly it appears to be early-stage R&D vaporware.

It was early stage R&D vaproware in 2013 when I read about it the first time.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/data-saved-quartz...

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