Z-Library to let users share physical books • Hacker News Board

Re: Z-Library to let users share physical books

#81

Post by tomodachi94 » Sun, Apr 09, 2023, 11:30 PM UTC

layer8 wrote: post #47

suddenclarity wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's ambitious. I've scanned a handful of books and although I don't know the page count, it's always been multi hour projects. Especially the editing afterwards to mark the text on the page and adjust warp tend to be time consuming. I even had a mounted tripod and remote to standardise.

vFlat Scan [0] automates the unwarping. [0] https://www.vflat.com/

There's also https://scantailor.org/ (and a maintained fork at https://github.com/4lex4/scantailor-advanced ) which semi-automates unwarping and other corrective tasks in scanned books.

Re: Z-Library to let users share physical books

#82

Post by jerojero » Sun, Apr 09, 2023, 11:54 PM UTC

blackoil wrote: post #8

What we need is a library that focuses only on out of print out difficult to get books. We don't need Harry Potter and likes on it. There are a million legal/illegal ways to get them.

Well it would be interesting to see who is using the libraries that we have and what are the book they're renting.

The purpose of a library should be to give access to reading materials to everyone, and I think the reality is that the majority of people do want to read Harry Potter.

I think ultimately what we need is more funding for libraries so that they can get more books, which obviously include hard to find books. In any case, most libraries allow you to request books and they can get these from the network of other state/country libraries. And if they don't have a hard to find book, maybe you could consider donating it to them, libraries take very good care of their hard to find books.

Re: Z-Library to let users share physical books

#83

Post by davidgerard » Mon, Apr 10, 2023, 8:06 AM UTC

matwood wrote: post #49

toyg wrote: post #5

The copyright police will fall on this like a ton of bricks. Publishers already hate libraries (yes they do), the last thing they want is more of them.

Hate is the wrong word. Publishers and libraries have a complicated, sometimes antagonistic relationship. It's also important to understand that 'publishers' are not homogenous. Outside of the big 4/5, many publishers love and go out of their way to support libraries. The issue is that the relationship is asymmetric. Even though publishers make good money from libraries, libraries need publishers more than publishers…

"Hate" gives you correct predictions of their behaviour, though.

Re: Z-Library to let users share physical books

#84

Post by andai » Mon, Apr 10, 2023, 10:36 PM UTC

beej71 wrote: post #72

hkt wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything though. There are some books I've only ever found through antiquarian shops and private libraries (eg http://londonlibrary.co.uk/ ) which are of historical and cultural value but which will probably never be digitised. Unless I do it, anyway. There's also a whole world of professional texts in law and other subjects which I've had to access by taking the £200 train down to London to physically sit in t…

I'm amazed at both what I can find and what I can't find at Anna's Archive. Part of me dies inside when rare books like that become effectively dead due to loss. It sucks when the copyright holders would prefer that to letting the book be free, but what possible incentive could they have for freeing a book?

>what possible incentive could they have for freeing a book?

Free PR? :) That sounds like the sort of thing that would get a lot of attention and goodwill, and maybe even some new loyal customers.