“Most notorious” illegal shadow library sued by textbook publishers [Updated]::Previous efforts to unmask the people behind Libgen have failed.
The update is hilarious.
Update: Publishers’ lawyer Matthew Oppenheim told Ars that Libgen is a “thieves’ den” of illegal books, and “there is no question” that Libgen’s conduct is “massively illegal.” Oppenheim said that “really, the only question is why it’s been allowed to exist this long.” He also said that it’s possible that US companies may not realize that they are aiding Libgen’s infringement, but publishers hope that when they “are confronted” with the fact “that this library is massively illegal, that hopefully they will voluntarily do the right thing” and cut off Libgen.
Seethe harder. Libgen is the savior of modern education.
It’s so obviously illegal that the best course of action is to try to get others to voluntarily stop using it? Ah yes.
Can’t thank libgen enough. Libgen exists to serve the original purpose of the Internet.
Sending military information?
Sharing knowledge
Nah, that was ARPANET. The internet (www) was invented because particle physicists were too lazy to carry magnetic tapes with experimental data around CERN.
Thank god! I’m also too lazy to carry around my magnetic tapes. I’m glad that happened.
I’ll stop using libgen when an ebook is cheaper than a hard copy.
Honest question. Why should it be? Isn’t the actual print of the book a very small fraction of the cost? The majority of the cost is the IP. If for example a book is $50 and the book costs $1 to print are you saying that it should be $49 and that’s the point that would convince you to purchase?
No production, storage, shipping… You think all of that costs $1? Also not every book is $50. A lot are way cheaper than that (around $10). So even $1 would be %10 which is not just a very small fraction (but again it’s more than that). See below for a screenshot of Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone. Kindle edition is even more expensive than the paper copy ($10 vs $7). Not only that it is more expensive for no reason but it is about 40% more expensive compared to the $7 price of the physical copy (and I don’t think I have to say this but I don’t think that’s a small fraction).
Edit: also I never said I don’t purchase any ebooks. I said I’ll stop using libgen when ebooks are cheaper than physical copies. Whenever I see shit like the screenshot I have attached I just pirate the book. I am not going to spend $10 on an ebook when half of that is going into Bezo’s pocket for no reason.
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I’ll take this lawsuit as a recommendation. Hadn’t even heard of the site before now.
Streisand effect alive and well
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The copyright industry contributes very little to actual authors, hoards knowledge and charges enourmously for access to works that were financed by public funds, and should have been in the public domain from the get go.
We need a serious reform of copyright law, which will not happen until we stop lobbyists from influencing legislators.
🖤🏴🏴🏴
Added this on the post in !ubc@lemmy.ca, and it’s a bit specific to our university, but it might help others too:
