2 ms·

LibGen is the most generic name ever, had to look it up. Turns out that LibGen is a collection of pirated books. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesi

by bagels 2y ago

LibGen is the most generic name ever, had to look it up. Turns out that LibGen is a collection of pirated books. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
It's not just a collection, it's the collection. It contains almost every scientific book ever printed, for one thing. Frankly, it's a massive boon to researchers. It's like a top-tier research university library at your fingertips, and usually more convenient than the real thing.
- reddalo 2y ago
  Also free. That helps. But the sad state of the affairs is that if Aaron Swartz does it, he ends up dead; if Meta does it, everything is fine.
  - A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
    A lot of people would gladly pay. I'm a paying subscriber to Anna's Archive, which vastly improves the experience of that site. (It's borderline unusable without a subscription.) Thing is, the Elsevier/Springer model makes it incredibly difficult to pay them. With single papers or book chapters in the $30-40 range, an afternoon's research can easily cost $600. (Note that the authors and reviewers don't get royalties on this, and the Editor-in-Chief of any given journal usually only makes a small stipend!) There are services like DeepDyve, but they're intentionally gimped and difficult to use, because their user interface is 100% built around preventing you from downloading or screenshotting the papers you "rent"! If the publishers set up a $100/month all-open-access program, and if the experience were at least halfway decent, I'd bet that a lot of people sign up. And that's not cheap!
- mistercheph 2y ago
  Funny that the world where almost all human knowledge and art is free and accessible for everyone exists in parallel to one where articles about which McDonalds meal are you are paywalled, and funny which world civilized nations have chosen in order to protect The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and all the artists whose livelihoods depend on reruns of iCarly.
perihelions 2y ago
Shadow libraries are a heavily-discussed, recurring topic on HN, https://hn.algolia.com/?query=libgen&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=libgen&type=all ("LibGen") https://hn.algolia.com/?query=anna's%20archive&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=anna's%20archive&type=all ("Anna's Archive") https://hn.algolia.com/?query=z%20library&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=z%20library&type=all ("Z-Library") https://hn.algolia.com/?query=scihub&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=scihub&type=all ("SciHub")
ppp999 2y ago
A lot less generic than X

by bagels 2y ago

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago

It's not just a collection, it's the collection. It contains almost every scientific book ever printed, for one thing. Frankly, it's a massive boon to researchers. It's like a top-tier research university library at your fingertips, and usually more convenient than the real thing.

reddalo 2y ago
Also free. That helps. But the sad state of the affairs is that if Aaron Swartz does it, he ends up dead; if Meta does it, everything is fine.
- A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
  A lot of people would gladly pay. I'm a paying subscriber to Anna's Archive, which vastly improves the experience of that site. (It's borderline unusable without a subscription.) Thing is, the Elsevier/Springer model makes it incredibly difficult to pay them. With single papers or book chapters in the $30-40 range, an afternoon's research can easily cost $600. (Note that the authors and reviewers don't get royalties on this, and the Editor-in-Chief of any given journal usually only makes a small stipend!) There are services like DeepDyve, but they're intentionally gimped and difficult to use, because their user interface is 100% built around preventing you from downloading or screenshotting the papers you "rent"! If the publishers set up a $100/month all-open-access program, and if the experience were at least halfway decent, I'd bet that a lot of people sign up. And that's not cheap!
mistercheph 2y ago
Funny that the world where almost all human knowledge and art is free and accessible for everyone exists in parallel to one where articles about which McDonalds meal are you are paywalled, and funny which world civilized nations have chosen in order to protect The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and all the artists whose livelihoods depend on reruns of iCarly.

perihelions 2y ago

Shadow libraries are a heavily-discussed, recurring topic on HN, https://hn.algolia.com/?query=libgen&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=libgen&type=all ("LibGen") https://hn.algolia.com/?query=anna's%20archive&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=anna's%20archive&type=all ("Anna's Archive") https://hn.algolia.com/?query=z%20library&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=z%20library&type=all ("Z-Library") https://hn.algolia.com/?query=scihub&type=all https://hn.algolia.com/?query=scihub&type=all ("SciHub")

ppp999 2y ago

A lot less generic than X