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Since this is the top comment currently, I will respond here. At one point in time I had a rather popular ML/AI textbook I offered in PDF format with some rest

Since this is the top comment currently, I will respond here. At one point in time I had a rather popular ML/AI textbook I offered in PDF format with some restrictions. I, at the time, thought most users would be reasonable and respect those restrictions. Unfortunately you as many others decided to no respect those restrictions. I cannot say it is due to that but my book was one of the more popular epubs/azw's on a few torrent trackers in the mid-to-early 2000's. I love that people are able to access these things, but it would be great if people who could, would donate money to pay for the production of these materials. Overall I got $1502.56 for my publishing a 1086 page text book which took about 2.6 years of my life. Obviously this is my throwaway account so try not to link this back to the actual book.

greatgoat420 6y ago
I like that this was downvoted for some reason. Anonymous cowards like free things, or hate people expressing a mild opinion?
- Meph504 6y ago
  Or maybe people just didn't think it was relevant.
  - greatgoat420 6y ago
    I will give you the fact that word2vec basically changed NLP forever, but it was a very popular download on more than one torrent tracker.
- rStar 6y ago
  was it available in hard copy as well? that you were paid in addition to the $1500 you got for pdf sales?
  - greatgoat420 6y ago
    I got a royalty advance, which I am not allowed to disclose(pdf sales were part of that, so not in addition to), but overall, it was way under minimum wage for the work done.
    - rStar 6y ago
      I appreciate the work you did and I hope it enriched your life in some meaningful way. I had family support for 1 year of undergraduate, and 4 years without that support. If I could find an english language foreign market edition of a textbook, usually printed on darn near see through paper, i’d get that. Otherwise I’d be on the hunt for a free pdf. As I was struggling to survive, I didn’t feel bad about it. I feel bad that you took the risk, created something beautiful, and felt shortchanged. On the other hand, I’m not willing to tell an undergraduate who can’t afford a $100-$200+ textbook to not do the thing which is in their best interest.
- higerordermap 6y ago
  1) even if most pdf readers enforce drm protection crackers will have other software to crack pdf/EPUB whatever 2) preventing copy pasting text, especially if book has eg: code samples, is silly.

greatgoat420 6y ago

I like that this was downvoted for some reason. Anonymous cowards like free things, or hate people expressing a mild opinion?

Meph504 6y ago
Or maybe people just didn't think it was relevant.
- greatgoat420 6y ago
  I will give you the fact that word2vec basically changed NLP forever, but it was a very popular download on more than one torrent tracker.
rStar 6y ago
was it available in hard copy as well? that you were paid in addition to the $1500 you got for pdf sales?
- greatgoat420 6y ago
  I got a royalty advance, which I am not allowed to disclose(pdf sales were part of that, so not in addition to), but overall, it was way under minimum wage for the work done.
  - rStar 6y ago
    I appreciate the work you did and I hope it enriched your life in some meaningful way. I had family support for 1 year of undergraduate, and 4 years without that support. If I could find an english language foreign market edition of a textbook, usually printed on darn near see through paper, i’d get that. Otherwise I’d be on the hunt for a free pdf. As I was struggling to survive, I didn’t feel bad about it. I feel bad that you took the risk, created something beautiful, and felt shortchanged. On the other hand, I’m not willing to tell an undergraduate who can’t afford a $100-$200+ textbook to not do the thing which is in their best interest.
higerordermap 6y ago
1) even if most pdf readers enforce drm protection crackers will have other software to crack pdf/EPUB whatever 2) preventing copy pasting text, especially if book has eg: code samples, is silly.