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First, there were thousands of them. Someone having thousands of books is not unreasonable, of course, but both the breadth and depth of this collection is such

First, there were thousands of them. Someone having thousands of books is not unreasonable, of course, but both the breadth and depth of this collection is such that it is extremely unlikely it is someone's personal library. Sounds like my personal library actually. Second, the PDFs aren't the actual books. They are just short blurbs describing the book and containing download deep links into bookfreenow.com. A couple examples [1] [2]. Clicking to create an account so you can start downloading redirects through some ad companies (and possibly some shady affiliate marketing companies), eventually reaching some download site (I think) that tells you no free slots are available and asks you to make an account. Well that’s a lot harder to explain in charitable terms! So is this even piracy, or just some kind of scam based on the promise of piracy?

TremendousJudge 8y ago
probably the second one. at some point in the signup process it will offer a free trial and require a credit card. not sure what happens next because I've never proceeded, but I'm pretty sure they don't actually have the books they claim to have
vbezhenar 8y ago
It's a scam. I was searching some ebook for free and there are many links like that. It's funny that scammers might be more successful saving paid books than copyright warriors :)
- chipotle_coyote 8y ago
  It's funny that scammers might be more successful saving paid books than copyright warriors You'll never actually get the book, because they don't have it. It's a scam to try to trap people who are trying to find free downloads of ebooks rather than paying for them. (It's also kind of a funny definition of "save" you have there. With all due respect, if you want to save paid books, you should -- crazy as this may sound -- pay for them.)
  - vbezhenar 8y ago
    Saving is wrong word, I guess. I mean that someone who's trying to find a pirated book will just stop trying after few unsuccessful attempts. For example copyright owners are forcing Google to hide search results with pirated content. But may be polluting search results with fake content is better strategy.
- fjsolwmv 8y ago
  You can find the same thing for movie piracy in video form on YouTube. And old Napster/Kazaa had it for music files. The medium is the scammessage :-)

TremendousJudge 8y ago

probably the second one. at some point in the signup process it will offer a free trial and require a credit card. not sure what happens next because I've never proceeded, but I'm pretty sure they don't actually have the books they claim to have

vbezhenar 8y ago

It's a scam. I was searching some ebook for free and there are many links like that. It's funny that scammers might be more successful saving paid books than copyright warriors :)

chipotle_coyote 8y ago
It's funny that scammers might be more successful saving paid books than copyright warriors You'll never actually get the book, because they don't have it. It's a scam to try to trap people who are trying to find free downloads of ebooks rather than paying for them. (It's also kind of a funny definition of "save" you have there. With all due respect, if you want to save paid books, you should -- crazy as this may sound -- pay for them.)
- vbezhenar 8y ago
  Saving is wrong word, I guess. I mean that someone who's trying to find a pirated book will just stop trying after few unsuccessful attempts. For example copyright owners are forcing Google to hide search results with pirated content. But may be polluting search results with fake content is better strategy.
fjsolwmv 8y ago
You can find the same thing for movie piracy in video form on YouTube. And old Napster/Kazaa had it for music files. The medium is the scammessage :-)