3 ms·
I have a friend who downloaded shit ton of books and never paid a dime. He thinks Z lib is one of the best things that happened to Internet.
by f6v 3y ago
I have a friend who downloaded shit ton of books and never paid a dime. He thinks Z lib is one of the best things that happened to Internet.
- hackan 3y agoIt indeed is, your friend is right.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoI can't disagree. University publishers have consolidated in an anti-trust manner to virtual monopolies, and so charge zillions for books that should be $20 instead of $200. Universities have become massive cash-extraction businesses swimming in coin, spending 10-100M's USD each on buildings in short order, while trying to keep up the pretense of academic purity. And then there are the journals that are so expensive that high school and college students and people in developing countries who cannot afford to get past their paywalls. This reinforces both an economic and a scientific elitism.
- refurb 3y agoWould you friend feel the same if they were an author or an artist who created the work and depended revenues from their work to put food in their mouth?
- ta123456789 3y agoAt least for science books, authors get paid very little or nothing. And no researcher/teacher relies on that for their income.
- refurb 3y agoThat actually makes it worse, not better. You’re basically denying authors the peanuts they get.
- ta123456789 3y agoLook up the incredible profit margins of publishers such as Elsevier or Springer. University researchers/teachers who publish books or articles through them often get paid nothing (zero), or very little. And they do not care, since their goal is get publications in prestigious venues, which helps them in their academic career. My point is that this stuff should be free, open access, published at low cost through university presses etc. So pirating academic books is basically fine.
- refurb 3y agoMy point is that this stuff should be free, open access, published at low cost through university presses etc. So pirating academic books is basically fine. That should be up to the author, no? If they decide to not make it open source and take a tiny profit, that's their decision since it's their work.
- f6v 3y agoWell they can publish it on LeanPub and charge 20$ instead of 200$(of which most goes to publisher). Some books are just predatory business.
- refurb 3y agoSure, but publishers do a lot of promotion, have upfront bonuses, guaranteed quantities. There is a reason why people go with publishers and don't self-publish. You're paying for the reach and marketing.