5 ms·

Thats easy. Check out library genesis, Anna's archive, and scihub for content. Piracy isnt theft if buying isnt ownership.

adamnemecek 9mo ago
None of these does full text search.
- jszymborski 9mo ago
  And they are under constant threat by nation states. sci-hub hasn't seen new papers in ages.
- greenavocado 9mo ago
  Build a local index
  - adamnemecek 9mo ago
    My problem is finding references I don't know about.
- droopyEyelids 9mo ago
  zlibrary does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Library
  - adamnemecek 9mo ago
    Huh, the search is not amazing but it will have to do. Thanks! Are there others?
    - teraflop 9mo ago
      The Internet Archive supports full-text search on (AFAIK) its entire scanned book collection, even books that aren't available for borrowing.
      - adamnemecek 9mo ago
        This is actually pretty good.
  - clueless 9mo ago
    I'd wonder if you'd ever consider putting up a downloadable mirror of their full-text search db?
GorbachevyChase 9mo ago
Ironic those doing the most for making information open and accessible are the criminals.
- direwolf20 9mo ago
  Of course. When it's criminal to make information open and accessible, only criminals will make information open and accessible.
- al_borland 9mo ago
  A centuries old problem. Early translations of the Bible to English were illegal or required licenses. William Tyndale was put to death for translating the Bible into English, which would have been an act to make information open and accessible.
  - josephcsible 9mo ago
    > William Tyndale was put to death for translating the Bible into English That's not what he was put to death for. See https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/tyndales-heresy https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/tyndales-her... and https://www.chinakasreflections.com/did-the-roman-catholic-church-kill-william-tyndale-just-because-he-translated-the-greek-bible-into-english-language/ https://www.chinakasreflections.com/did-the-roman-catholic-c...
    - bijant 9mo ago
      Sure, just like Aaron Swartz was persecuted for "recklessly damaging a protected computer" and "wire fraud" not for any other reasons at all and btw the State wasn't at all involved in murdering him, he did that to himself, probably because he felt guilty for having damaged so many computers....
kevin42 9mo ago
I’m genuinely curious how you feel about LLMs being trained on pirated material. Not being snarky here. Your comment reflects the old “information wants to be free” ideals that used to dominate places like HN, Slashdot, and Reddit. But since LLMs arrived, a lot of the loudest voices here argue the opposite position when it comes to training data. I’ve been trying to understand whether people have actually changed their views, or whether it’s mostly a shift in who is speaking up now.
- spongebobstoes 9mo ago
  why would that change anything? copyright is still a tax on the whole of society for the benefit of rich people and corporations. it opposes innovation, evolution and progress maybe a short copyright would be fine (10 year fixed?) but copyright as-is seems indefensible to me
  - mystraline 9mo ago
    > copyright is still a tax on the whole of society for the benefit of rich people and corporations. it opposes innovation, evolution and progress The original reason for copyright, patents, and trademarks made sense. We want people to create and share. And unlike the old guild solutions from Europe, copyright and patents were a tradeoff to encourage the arts and science. But what's a good tradeoff? Thats a big copyright question. 17 years? 34 years? Life of author? 75 years? How about individual non-commercial use? Or abandoned works? And patents aren't even in scope, but we see similar abuses against the raison d'etra of them. Patents were supposed to entail a full reproduction of invention. Now, its a game of how incomplete can we make the filing while still getting protection. Or worse yet, really dumb shit has been patented like 1 click or the XOR patent, or that asshole Chakrabarty who patented living organisms. There were good reasons for a fair copyright and patent law for furtherance of the art and sciences. That narrative was lost long ago. Now, only the violators can really push ahead. And they can't talk about it. (Trademark law has never really had much complaints, aside trademarking a color. If you buy from XYZ company, you want to buy from them, not a counterfeit. And it relates back to coats of arms, again, representing a family or a charge.)
- 9mo ago

adamnemecek 9mo ago

None of these does full text search.

jszymborski 9mo ago
And they are under constant threat by nation states. sci-hub hasn't seen new papers in ages.
greenavocado 9mo ago
Build a local index
- adamnemecek 9mo ago
  My problem is finding references I don't know about.
droopyEyelids 9mo ago
zlibrary does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Library
- adamnemecek 9mo ago
  Huh, the search is not amazing but it will have to do. Thanks! Are there others?
  - teraflop 9mo ago
    The Internet Archive supports full-text search on (AFAIK) its entire scanned book collection, even books that aren't available for borrowing.
    - adamnemecek 9mo ago
      This is actually pretty good.
- clueless 9mo ago
  I'd wonder if you'd ever consider putting up a downloadable mirror of their full-text search db?

GorbachevyChase 9mo ago

Ironic those doing the most for making information open and accessible are the criminals.

direwolf20 9mo ago
Of course. When it's criminal to make information open and accessible, only criminals will make information open and accessible.
al_borland 9mo ago
A centuries old problem. Early translations of the Bible to English were illegal or required licenses. William Tyndale was put to death for translating the Bible into English, which would have been an act to make information open and accessible.
- josephcsible 9mo ago
  > William Tyndale was put to death for translating the Bible into English That's not what he was put to death for. See https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/tyndales-heresy https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/tyndales-her... and https://www.chinakasreflections.com/did-the-roman-catholic-church-kill-william-tyndale-just-because-he-translated-the-greek-bible-into-english-language/ https://www.chinakasreflections.com/did-the-roman-catholic-c...
  - bijant 9mo ago
    Sure, just like Aaron Swartz was persecuted for "recklessly damaging a protected computer" and "wire fraud" not for any other reasons at all and btw the State wasn't at all involved in murdering him, he did that to himself, probably because he felt guilty for having damaged so many computers....

kevin42 9mo ago

I’m genuinely curious how you feel about LLMs being trained on pirated material. Not being snarky here. Your comment reflects the old “information wants to be free” ideals that used to dominate places like HN, Slashdot, and Reddit. But since LLMs arrived, a lot of the loudest voices here argue the opposite position when it comes to training data. I’ve been trying to understand whether people have actually changed their views, or whether it’s mostly a shift in who is speaking up now.

spongebobstoes 9mo ago
why would that change anything? copyright is still a tax on the whole of society for the benefit of rich people and corporations. it opposes innovation, evolution and progress maybe a short copyright would be fine (10 year fixed?) but copyright as-is seems indefensible to me
- mystraline 9mo ago
  > copyright is still a tax on the whole of society for the benefit of rich people and corporations. it opposes innovation, evolution and progress The original reason for copyright, patents, and trademarks made sense. We want people to create and share. And unlike the old guild solutions from Europe, copyright and patents were a tradeoff to encourage the arts and science. But what's a good tradeoff? Thats a big copyright question. 17 years? 34 years? Life of author? 75 years? How about individual non-commercial use? Or abandoned works? And patents aren't even in scope, but we see similar abuses against the raison d'etra of them. Patents were supposed to entail a full reproduction of invention. Now, its a game of how incomplete can we make the filing while still getting protection. Or worse yet, really dumb shit has been patented like 1 click or the XOR patent, or that asshole Chakrabarty who patented living organisms. There were good reasons for a fair copyright and patent law for furtherance of the art and sciences. That narrative was lost long ago. Now, only the violators can really push ahead. And they can't talk about it. (Trademark law has never really had much complaints, aside trademarking a color. If you buy from XYZ company, you want to buy from them, not a counterfeit. And it relates back to coats of arms, again, representing a family or a charge.)
9mo ago