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At some point in the future, people will look back at things like this in utter confusion - jail-time and a massive waste of police resources in order to stop p

At some point in the future, people will look back at things like this in utter confusion - jail-time and a massive waste of police resources in order to stop people from sharing books…

CamperBob2 3y ago
They aren't worried about people sharing books at this point, or at least they shouldn't be. They're worried about people building their own models. Here's something I'd pay for (probably with some sort of sketchy crypto, sadly): send me a huge-ass hard drive (or array of drives) with a complete mirror of Z-Library, Library Genesis, and sci-hub on it.
- Pannoniae 3y ago
  Just go on Anna's Archive, happy downloading
  - CamperBob2 3y ago
    Not practical, and not safe (as this very article illustrates).
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  That will be a very reasonable thing to expect in a few years. Based on the rate of advancement of memory density and LLM tech I wrote this [0] a while back. Containment of "the human corpus" (all significant written works since antiquity) is a lost cause for the authorities. Stunts like this Australian thing are symbolic rituals by the dying publishing industry against a downhill battle. For a brief window you'll have Fahrenheit 451 style police trying to enforce physical warrants and seizure of "illegal reading materials", but proliferation, diminishing size, sheer utility and cost of enforcement will soon make the whole misadventure water under the bridge. Yeah, we will look back at early 21st century as a sorry bloody episode to be embarrassed by. [0] https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/2048-information-unchained-and-even-schoolgirls-win-nobel-prizes https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/2048-informatio...
  - VierScar 3y ago
    > Stunts like this Australian thing You mean OP's Austrian thing? Or something else? Australia's the one with the kangaroos and Austria the one with famous painters.
    - spacechild1 3y ago
      > Austria the one with famous painters As an Austrian, I hope you are talking about Klimt and Schiele.
      - nonrandomstring 3y ago
        :) I'm afraid that very funny comment might be lost on a few people. Forgive me for being so crude [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintings_by_Adolf_Hitler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintings_by_Adolf_Hitler
- jowea 3y ago
  Isn't anyone capable of building their own models technically sophisticated enough to get around basically any normal anti-piracy measure? Or for that matter has already downloaded all the books?
  - CamperBob2 3y ago
    Eventually, someone is going to figure out how to train these things in a distributed fashion. When that happens, the more people who own as much data as possible, the better.
- momirlan 3y ago
  problem is keeping up with the volume of new books/articles coming out daily.
ourmandave 3y ago
If you're an author whose livelihood depends on sales, would you still call it sharing?
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  Hopefully in the future we begin to understand that this way of supporting authors severely limits progress in our society due to our inability to share books as widely as possible.
- sandworm101 3y ago
  Yes. Many do. Dig deeper and it is often the publishers rather than creators pushing such bans. Authors want sales, but in such a competative industry the increased publicity from illegal sharing can be worth more than hypothetical lost sales. Publishers have different motivations as they manage catalogs rather than individual books.

At some point in the future, people will look back at things like this in utter confusion - jail-time and a massive waste of police resources in order to stop people from sharing books…

CamperBob2 3y ago

They aren't worried about people sharing books at this point, or at least they shouldn't be. They're worried about people building their own models. Here's something I'd pay for (probably with some sort of sketchy crypto, sadly): send me a huge-ass hard drive (or array of drives) with a complete mirror of Z-Library, Library Genesis, and sci-hub on it.

Pannoniae 3y ago
Just go on Anna's Archive, happy downloading
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  Not practical, and not safe (as this very article illustrates).
nonrandomstring 3y ago
That will be a very reasonable thing to expect in a few years. Based on the rate of advancement of memory density and LLM tech I wrote this [0] a while back. Containment of "the human corpus" (all significant written works since antiquity) is a lost cause for the authorities. Stunts like this Australian thing are symbolic rituals by the dying publishing industry against a downhill battle. For a brief window you'll have Fahrenheit 451 style police trying to enforce physical warrants and seizure of "illegal reading materials", but proliferation, diminishing size, sheer utility and cost of enforcement will soon make the whole misadventure water under the bridge. Yeah, we will look back at early 21st century as a sorry bloody episode to be embarrassed by. [0] https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/2048-information-unchained-and-even-schoolgirls-win-nobel-prizes https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/2048-informatio...
- VierScar 3y ago
  > Stunts like this Australian thing You mean OP's Austrian thing? Or something else? Australia's the one with the kangaroos and Austria the one with famous painters.
  - spacechild1 3y ago
    > Austria the one with famous painters As an Austrian, I hope you are talking about Klimt and Schiele.
    - nonrandomstring 3y ago
      :) I'm afraid that very funny comment might be lost on a few people. Forgive me for being so crude [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintings_by_Adolf_Hitler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paintings_by_Adolf_Hitler
jowea 3y ago
Isn't anyone capable of building their own models technically sophisticated enough to get around basically any normal anti-piracy measure? Or for that matter has already downloaded all the books?
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  Eventually, someone is going to figure out how to train these things in a distributed fashion. When that happens, the more people who own as much data as possible, the better.
momirlan 3y ago
problem is keeping up with the volume of new books/articles coming out daily.

ourmandave 3y ago

If you're an author whose livelihood depends on sales, would you still call it sharing?

TaylorAlexander 3y ago
Hopefully in the future we begin to understand that this way of supporting authors severely limits progress in our society due to our inability to share books as widely as possible.
sandworm101 3y ago
Yes. Many do. Dig deeper and it is often the publishers rather than creators pushing such bans. Authors want sales, but in such a competative industry the increased publicity from illegal sharing can be worth more than hypothetical lost sales. Publishers have different motivations as they manage catalogs rather than individual books.