“Most notorious” illegal shadow library sued by textbook publishers [Updated]

arstechnica.com “Most notorious” illegal shadow library sued by textbook publishers [Updated]

Previous efforts to unmask the people behind Libgen have failed.

“Most notorious” illegal shadow library sued by textbook publishers [Updated]::Previous efforts to unmask the people behind Libgen have failed.

33 comments

For anyone who might be tempted to fall for the guilt-tripping about authors, text books rarely generate any income for their authors and most would be happy to open source them (as many do nowadays). They're interested in getting useful materials out there (and the name recognition that comes from having their name on useful texts). They do not rely on book sales to make a living.

You should not feel guilty about pirating text books but you can help the authors out by asking your library to stock the text, borrowing it if your library has it (even if you've pirated a copy for keeps), and recommending it to others (with text that will show up on searches) if you found it useful.
- Aaron Schwartz approves this comment.
- Not to mention academic/research text where authors are actually forced to pay to publish, only to have the articles end up behind a pay wall of given journal. If the authors want their papers freely available, they have to pay extra fees to the journal (we are talking thousands of dollars scale). Not a cent goes back to the authors or even research funding bodies. Long live Libgen!
The update is hilarious.

Update: Publishers' lawyer Matthew Oppenheim told Ars that Libgen is a "thieves' den" of illegal books, and "there is no question" that Libgen's conduct is "massively illegal." Oppenheim said that "really, the only question is why it's been allowed to exist this long." He also said that it's possible that US companies may not realize that they are aiding Libgen's infringement, but publishers hope that when they "are confronted" with the fact "that this library is massively illegal, that hopefully they will voluntarily do the right thing" and cut off Libgen.

Seethe harder. Libgen is the savior of modern education.
- It's so obviously illegal that the best course of action is to try to get others to voluntarily stop using it? Ah yes.
The US Textbook industry single-handedly justifies the existence of Library Genesis (if it requires justification)
- The EU is not any better on that front. Looking a you Elsevier and Springer.
  
  Elsevier is probably the worst of them. When even authors want to stay away from a publisher due to their behavior, that means something.
  
  Elsevier is pure evil
- Buying and selling textbooks in college taught me more about American capitalism than my economics courses ever did
  
  What part of buying a textbook for $250 then selling it back in like-new condition to the same retailer for $20 three months later is bad for the consumer?
Can't thank libgen enough. Libgen exists to serve the original purpose of the Internet.
- Sending military information?
  
  Nah, that was ARPANET. The internet (www) was invented because particle physicists were too lazy to carry magnetic tapes with experimental data around CERN.
  
  Sharing knowledge
I'll stop using libgen when an ebook is cheaper than a hard copy.
- Honest question. Why should it be? Isn’t the actual print of the book a very small fraction of the cost? The majority of the cost is the IP. If for example a book is $50 and the book costs $1 to print are you saying that it should be $49 and that’s the point that would convince you to purchase?
  
  No production, storage, shipping... You think all of that costs $1? Also not every book is $50. A lot are way cheaper than that (around $10). So even $1 would be %10 which is not just a very small fraction (but again it's more than that). See below for a screenshot of Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone. Kindle edition is even more expensive than the paper copy ($10 vs $7). Not only that it is more expensive for no reason but it is about 40% more expensive compared to the $7 price of the physical copy (and I don't think I have to say this but I don't think that's a small fraction).
  
  Edit: also I never said I don't purchase any ebooks. I said I'll stop using libgen when ebooks are cheaper than physical copies. Whenever I see shit like the screenshot I have attached I just pirate the book. I am not going to spend $10 on an ebook when half of that is going into Bezo's pocket for no reason.
I’ll take this lawsuit as a recommendation. Hadn’t even heard of the site before now.
- Streisand effect alive and well
Libgen saved me so much money in college. They provide such a valuable service
The copyright industry contributes very little to actual authors, hoards knowledge and charges enourmously for access to works that were financed by public funds, and should have been in the public domain from the get go.

We need a serious reform of copyright law, which will not happen until we stop lobbyists from influencing legislators.
This is the best summary I could come up with:

But after briefly disappearing, Libgen popped back up and has been online ever since, operating in defiance of that order—as well as court orders "in several countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom," publishers' complaint filed yesterday said.

Those countries even tried ordering "Internet service providers to block access to Libgen Sites as a result of infringement actions," publishers said, all seemingly to no avail.

This includes tons of students whom publishers claimed are "bombarded with messages to use Libgen sites" on social media rather than paying full price for textbooks.

Instead of paying publishers to distribute books like a real library does, the complaint alleged, Libgen profits off pirated works by running advertisements alongside e-book downloads for things like online games and browser extensions.

Libgen staff, the publishers alleged, hide behind usernames like "librarian" or "bookwarrior" and rely "on proxy services that specifically conceal website operators’ identifying information."

Thanks in part to these US companies, Libgen operators can "rely on the anonymity of the Internet and their overseas locations to hide their names and addresses and frustrate enforcement efforts against them," publishers alleged.

The original article contains 873 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
🖤🏴🏴🏴
Added this on the post in !ubc@lemmy.ca, and it's a bit specific to our university, but it might help others too:

https://ubcwiki.ca/academics/classes/textbooks.html

33 comments