4 ms·

an increased number of stories like this will make the book pirating underground a lot more attractive to a wider audience. it exists, it's not quite napster-li

an increased number of stories like this will make the book pirating underground a lot more attractive to a wider audience. it exists, it's not quite napster-like yet but it's getting there. no DRM, a potentially wider catalog, etc. this is a risk for publishers and loss-leaders (like amazon) alike.

jakubp 14y ago
There's something to what you sad. Isn't it ironic to see a situation that so closely mirrors piracy? - with DRMed books, Amazon says "yes, you >>have<< these ebooks, you paid for them [wink]", but Amazon actually can take them away from you and you can do nothing about it. You paid [for ebook copies] and are left with nothing - in piracy, a person who gets pirated copies of a book says "yes, if I want to read your books, dear authors/publishers, I'll pay for them [wink]", but that person can actually get any number of books from you for free. You paid [for publishing/marketing] and are left with nothing
- chris_wot 14y ago
  The irony is, all that you have to do is get your entire book list, then hunt down the books you already paid for and then you can get them DRM free. Then you never pay Amazon another cent. After all, they didn't want your money! If they have refused to let you buy content that you require, then I can see why some people feel a moral justification to pirate the books. It's really quite simple. If this happened in the U.S. then they could take court action against Amazon. If you are from overseas, you really have no recourse. Therefore, merely because of where you live, you are restricted from material that may enrich your life. That's discrimination, and I can well understand that someone might feel justified in breaking the law to download pirated books. Amazon... hurting themselves as only a greedy corporation can.
Heliosmaster 14y ago
you mean something like http://tuebl.com http://tuebl.com ?
rmc 14y ago
Piracy for books is quite interesting. There is already a lot of infastructure for sharing files (torrent sites et al.), but the new thing is how small books are. 1,000 books could be about the size of one standard def film (~ 1 GB). A lot of people are going to have a lot of books.
- EricDeb 14y ago
  I am quite surprised the pirating of eBooks has not taken off. The infrastructure certainly exists, but I'm not aware of any exclusive, prolific communities in a similar vein to music and tv shows/movies.
  - rmc 14y ago
    Me too. Though the big sites, like The Pirate Bay, have a lot of eBooks.
  - markesmith 14y ago
    There's http://libgen.org/ http://libgen.org/ and http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/ http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/ , both of which are vast.
jnazario 14y ago
as a follow up: http://www.themillions.com/2010/01/confessions-of-a-book-pirate.html http://www.themillions.com/2010/01/confessions-of-a-book-pir... "For some, however, the study may inspire more questions than answers. Who are the people downloading these books? How are they doing it and where is it happening? And, perhaps most critical for the publishing industry, why are people deciding to download books and why now? I decided to find out, and after a few hours of searching – stalled by a number dead links and password protected sites – I found, on an online forum focused on sharing books via BitTorrent, someone willing to talk." pretty neat insight into the book piracy underground.

jakubp 14y ago

There's something to what you sad. Isn't it ironic to see a situation that so closely mirrors piracy? - with DRMed books, Amazon says "yes, you >>have<< these ebooks, you paid for them [wink]", but Amazon actually can take them away from you and you can do nothing about it. You paid [for ebook copies] and are left with nothing - in piracy, a person who gets pirated copies of a book says "yes, if I want to read your books, dear authors/publishers, I'll pay for them [wink]", but that person can actually get any number of books from you for free. You paid [for publishing/marketing] and are left with nothing

chris_wot 14y ago
The irony is, all that you have to do is get your entire book list, then hunt down the books you already paid for and then you can get them DRM free. Then you never pay Amazon another cent. After all, they didn't want your money! If they have refused to let you buy content that you require, then I can see why some people feel a moral justification to pirate the books. It's really quite simple. If this happened in the U.S. then they could take court action against Amazon. If you are from overseas, you really have no recourse. Therefore, merely because of where you live, you are restricted from material that may enrich your life. That's discrimination, and I can well understand that someone might feel justified in breaking the law to download pirated books. Amazon... hurting themselves as only a greedy corporation can.

Heliosmaster 14y ago

you mean something like http://tuebl.com http://tuebl.com ?

rmc 14y ago

Piracy for books is quite interesting. There is already a lot of infastructure for sharing files (torrent sites et al.), but the new thing is how small books are. 1,000 books could be about the size of one standard def film (~ 1 GB). A lot of people are going to have a lot of books.

EricDeb 14y ago
I am quite surprised the pirating of eBooks has not taken off. The infrastructure certainly exists, but I'm not aware of any exclusive, prolific communities in a similar vein to music and tv shows/movies.
- rmc 14y ago
  Me too. Though the big sites, like The Pirate Bay, have a lot of eBooks.
- markesmith 14y ago
  There's http://libgen.org/ http://libgen.org/ and http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/ http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/ , both of which are vast.

jnazario 14y ago

as a follow up: http://www.themillions.com/2010/01/confessions-of-a-book-pirate.html http://www.themillions.com/2010/01/confessions-of-a-book-pir... "For some, however, the study may inspire more questions than answers. Who are the people downloading these books? How are they doing it and where is it happening? And, perhaps most critical for the publishing industry, why are people deciding to download books and why now? I decided to find out, and after a few hours of searching – stalled by a number dead links and password protected sites – I found, on an online forum focused on sharing books via BitTorrent, someone willing to talk." pretty neat insight into the book piracy underground.