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Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

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Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#481

Post by franga2000 »

dredmorbius wrote: post #479
franga2000 wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that in any way conflicting with what I wrote? Of course the servers need maintenance and all of that - Tor is what allows the people doing that maintenance and funding to stay outside the reach of law enforcement even if they are on US soil.

That presumes the adminstrators exist, given that the site's two principals have been arrested. I refer you again to my initial reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33647659 > Unless you're privy to other information.

> Any present operator(s) and site(s) would have to remain outside the reach of US or other Western jurisdiction and extradition treaties.

Maybe I misunderstood. I thought this was referring to the scenario where more administrators did exist and in such a scenario, they could live two blocks away from the FBI headquarters and it wouldn't make a difference.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#484

Post by stevedewald »

franga2000 wrote: post #448
gruez wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But at the same time, their customer base in most cases are college kids. How do they expect them to pay? Student loans. When you flood an entire sector with money, it's only logical that prices go up.

> When you flood an entire sector with money, it's only logical that prices go up. Is it? The costs haven't increased and the value of money hasn't decreased. The only "logic" here is "the publishers are assholes".

I think you have it backwards. The supply of quality education hasn’t increased. Only the dollars chasing that supply have increased. Hence prices have gone up.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#485

Post by drkhn1234 »

phpisatrash wrote: post #167

Me and my colleagues will be affected by the end of Z library and co related projects. Here in Brazil and for sure in most second and third world countries, people don't have money to spend in books. You can argue that people can go to the library, but in most cases it's even expensive to take a bus or taxi even a Uber. I'm a law student at an university in brazil. Law books are really expensive. Even though my unive…

[dead]

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#486

Post by ketzu »

culopatin wrote: post #477
ketzu wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I misunderstanding something, or is this tweet circling the completely wrong part? Revenue vs payment is completely meaningless, because it is low due to advance payments. The 'important' part is revenue after profits vs royalties, or profit sharing, which seems to be around 8.3%.

Imagine working really hard to put content out and you have to agree to a deal of 8% you, 92% the one just distributing it for you. It’s like when artists were complaining that Spotify wasn’t paying them enough when in reality is their label sucking most of the earnings.

Just to prevent misunderstanding: I have no opinion on 8.3% profit sharing agreements being okay or not. I just noted that I think the tweet is putting the focus on the wrong part.

I have no opinion, because I have way too little info. The only info I am fairly certain about is authors are not forced into traditional publishing.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#487

Post by ROTMetro »

phpisatrash wrote: post #167

Me and my colleagues will be affected by the end of Z library and co related projects. Here in Brazil and for sure in most second and third world countries, people don't have money to spend in books. You can argue that people can go to the library, but in most cases it's even expensive to take a bus or taxi even a Uber. I'm a law student at an university in brazil. Law books are really expensive. Even though my unive…

It's 2022, if people wanted to make their knowledge freely available, they do. You can't claim that knowledge is not shared enough, today, in an age when you have more access to knowledge than people in the past.

You aren't paying for knowledge, you are paying to get knowledge in this form, a form that you apparently find useful. It took many people work to put that together, and those people chose to put their work into a framework that you feel you can just bypass and ignore the laws around.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#488

Post by ROTMetro »

Last time I saw this many people justifying their illegal/immoral actions was when I was in prison. Criminal thinking is criminal thinking, and often starts with small justifications to tear down a persons own walls against such behavior, or to tear them down in others to pull them to your sway and away from society/prosocial behavior. We 8 billion people can not live together without certain tradeoffs, and those tradeoffs even apply to you, even when you can get around them. This thread is heartbreaking to me, having done so much work on myself to rebuild those walls of acceptable/non acceptable behaviors, to see such rot in the basic morality of such smart people.

It's 2022, there is more access to information and knowledge than ever in human history. Anyone that wants to make their knowledge or information free to the world can do that easily. These books were SPECIFICALLY not made free public knowledge. That you want them does not mean you are entitled to the choices of others in how they want choose to distribute their works. That they have enough value to you to make you want to steal them shows that there is more to that than simple 'knowledge everyone should be entitled to', because that knowledge is available on the internet in other forms.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#489

Post by ROTMetro »

josh_fyi wrote: post #111

I was delighted when my book showed up on Z-library! I of course was never paid for authoring that book; indeed I paid a subvention to publish it with Harvard University Press. At some point, the rights were sold to the giant publisher Brill, which was charging $30 per chapter for a book that has no value by chapter. Luckily, some kind soul at University of Marburg uploaded it and Library Genesis still has it. https:…

I see you are taking the ticketmaster approach. You knowingly put your works into a contractual system that you can then condemn later so you can feel good and let the 'system' 'other' 'society' you were a part of be the bad one. I have news for you, that 'system' 'other' 'society' includes you, as the person who voluntarily agreed to let your work be locked away. But it's 'ticketmaster' that is bad, no you, who voluntarily contributed.

Re: Z-library founders arrested in Argentina

#490

Post by connorgutman »

gameshot911 wrote: post #406
connorgutman wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your sentiment, and trust me I really do want to support people like your friend, but no I literally do not have any money for recreational activities (and if I did I would buy a videogame or boardgame because it would last longer). I make $13.50 / h (which is above minimum wage here in Arizona) and go to school full-time. Rent is $1,000 (absolute cheapest I have found in my college town), groceries are…

If you can't afford to purchase it, and you can't acquire it by alternative legal means, then (ethically) you just don't get to enjoy it. Sorry. There are lots of things I want that I can't afford, either.

What privilege you must enjoy to have such fucking stupid "ethics" lmao. You wouldn't last a day in my shoes. Money only gets you so far in life, kindness and mutual aid goes a lot further.
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