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Library.nu and Ifile.it Shut Down
Ralph Spoilsport writes "A coalition of 17 publishing companies has shut down library.nu and ifile.it, charging them with pirating ebooks. This comes less than a month after megaupload was shut down, and SOPA was stopped. If the busting of cyberlockers continues at this pace and online library sharing dismantled, this under-reported story may well be the tip of a very big iceberg — one quite beyond the P&L sheets of publishers and striking at basic human rights as outlined in the contradictions of the UN Charter. Is this a big deal — a grim coalition of corporate power? Or just mopping up some scurvy old pirates? Or somewhere in between?"
Adds new submitter roaryk, "According to the complaint, the sites offered users access to 400,000 e-books and made more than $11 million in revenue in the process. The admins, Fidel Nunez and Irina Ivanova, have been tracked down using their PayPal donation account, which was not anonymous. Despite the claims of the industry the site admins say they were barely able to cover the server costs with the revenue."
I've heard of these buildings, many even publicly sponsored, where books are shared, and one does not need to pay the publisher for the privilege of reading their work. I propose these houses of corruption be banned, so they stop stealing from the coffers of the rich!
Seem like a matter of time before others join in on all the "fun". Encyclopedia Britannica sues to have Wikipedia taken down could be a future headline IMO.
If you honestly believe what you are saying and/or are not a troll you need to get off the MegaMediaNewsSteam. I haven't heard anyone I know that still downloads their wares and were actually affected by MegaUpload going bunk. The best thing about the "pirates" is that they are extremely resourceful and have many, many different outlets to get their files. If you ask me, MegaUpload was probably the worst tool to use for this anyway. There are many more ways to get files and are just as effective. Hell, IRC was and still is better that MU.
Unless you have permission. It's called freedom of speech. It's for expressing your opinions. It's for communicating your thoughts. It's not for sitting on your rear end and downloading some movie without paying for it. Calling downloading a "human right" is an insult to Martin Luther King, Peter Zenger, and everyone else who fought for our right to express ourselves.
Sad
Well, something is. Just not what you think.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I borrowed a newspaper today. I didn't pay for it, but I still read it.
Also, I have 3 books at home which aren't mine (borrowed, not stolen).
Basically, that's at least 30 euro of lost revenue for the industry.
Yet I don't feel guilty...
MegaUpload and similar sites were used by general population, and outright made money from copyright theft. It was very similar to selling warez on streets, they just tried to hide it behind "clever" subscription models and affiliate programs. Yes, serious pirates will always be able to get their files, but when the circle is small enough companies don't care. They care about what most of population does, and they can easily make it harder and inconvenient enough for general population.
It's true - sure we no longer have to endure the GNAA posts, but there were only ever a few of those per story, and they never got modded up. Seems like a solution looking for a problem.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Actually, in many countries authors are already compensated for the lending of their books in public libraries by a public lending right. Although not in the U.S... I suspect if publishers tried to pull that here, they'd get some seriously negative PR.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
It's not for sitting on your rear end and downloading some movie without paying for it. Calling downloading a "human right" is an insult to Martin Luther King, Peter Zenger, and everyone else who fought for our right to express ourselves.
Considering that library.nu was a site for book piracy, I think your comment is a bit misguided. Frankly, I suspect Martin Luther King would probably have been okay with someone downloading "Why We Can't Wait" from library.nu.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Why is it that I never hear about these places until they close?
The people who have suffered most is those who used these services for legitimate content, and there were quite considerable numbers of people who did so... Quite a few open source projects used such sites, for instance its not uncommon to have downloaded linux based firmware images for various devices including android phones from such sites.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
The flag is so subtle that I hadn't even noticed it...
Wasn't there a big shitstorm over *one* post being deleted a few years back? I think it was due to a court order or something of the like... maybe about the HDCP keys or something? Bah.
I think the fact that posts *cannot* be deleted makes people consider what they are going to post a little more carefully. Aside from the usual spam and idiocy, I generally find the commentary here to be of a higher quality in general than places like Reddit or the comments section in other news sites. I feel that this is going to go into the shitter now.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
This is just further proof that existing IP laws are sufficient and we don't NEED draconian measures like SOPA or ACTA to stop piracy.
The laws are there. They can be enforced without censorship and stepping all over peoples' rights.
http://www.wjunction.com/95-file-hosts-official-support
http://www.wjunction.com/102-file-host-discussion
Everyone is afraid of being scammed by new companies because there have been so many since the busts and after every other site shutdown. And just look at the forum in general - file uploading sites have official discussions and support persons, they're clearly seeing what kind of files people are uploading and on what kind of stuff the forum specializes in (file uploads, torrent seedboxes, remote desktops for quickly obtaining new warez releases and uploading them to file upload sites and spreading those links)
If you copy media you purchased, you're smart.
If you copy media you didn't purchase, you're cheap.
If you copy media you didn't purchase AND you make a profit off of it, you're a thief.
We do have to be careful that this doesn't turn into a slippery slope but, c'mon, making a profit off of other artists material which you don't have the rights to is just good old fashioned stealing no matter how you slice it.
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
These were absolutely essential for my scientific work, because I'm living in a very poor country and (if at all) academic publishers only allow authors to put papers and book drafts on their web page that cannot be used for quoting.
Now I'm really, really getting angry! As if Springer books priced at $150 or even $240 plus months of complicated ordering by the university to our library weren't already painful enough.
Thanks a lot, all you IP-property assholes. Eat shit and die!!!
(And yes, I have also published books including typesetting them in their entirety in LaTeX because the publisher was too lazy/saves costs/rips off academics. And no, I haven't seen a dime for any of this work...)
It's not made anyone a criminal for "reading a book" this is a crackdown on a site flagrantly facilitating copyright infringement. Boohoo.
It was a post containing text copyrighted by the Church of Scientology, and it happened in 2001.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
There are very few cases of copyright theft: when media cartels deny an artist the right to use their own work, even if there is no contract between the artist and the cartel. The rest which you seem to be talking about is copyright infrigement.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Check your local library's web site. Many public libraries now have the capability to check out e-books for up to three weeks. My local library has them in .mobi, .pdf and recently added Kindle formats.
Plus if you go into the library your friendly librarian might be able to recommend material you would never have thought to read. That's how I found "The Windup Girl"
There is a big difference between file sharing sites that are making money off file sharing services used primarily to share copyrighted materials and other file sharing sites like box.com, Dropbox, Skyfile.co, DropIr and SugarSync. There is a place for file sharing sites and Affilate programs seem to be the key indicator of a legitimate business site or a pirate haven. All these legitimate file sharing sites have a good system for dealing with copyright content that ends up on their sites, the pirate sites do not take it down because they are making money off it. So we don't need SOPA or PIPA they system works today, pirating sites are taken down seems like every week.
Many libraries do have ebook lending programs. They have a set number of licensed copies they can "lend". You must wait for people to "return" the ebook before you can get a copy. Yes... you have to wait. The main advantage I see is that I never have to pay overdue fees to the library since my book just expires when its "returned".
Most of it? It's a temporary dip. The pro-culture-theft crowd was saying the same thing when Napster was shut down, I'm sure the idea of average Joes using something as technically complicated as torrents seemed at least as ridiculous back then as the idea of average Joes running their torrents over untraceable, unstoppable darknets seems now.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This has most likely changed in the last couple of years. The service a lot of libraries is known as OverDrive and it offers a lot of recent fiction. I usually download a couple of Dresden File books before going overseas.
Check that library again.
Just roll over, shrug their shoulders, and say "oh well"?
No, Mr. Media Giant, I expect you to die.</Goldfinger>
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
This
I really don't like copyright infringers. They give the rest of the internet users a bad name. I've downloaded share of illegal content but I've since stopped doing it for the exact reasons you point out. If I don't think something is worth the price the copyright owner is asking, I just simply don't watch/listen/read it. There's enough other media on the internet for free, or with price and terms that I do agree with that I don't need to pirate stuff if I feel it isn't worth the price. Sure I may not get to see all the new movies, but I really don't feel like I'm missing much.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I still see no evidence that posts are actually *deleted* when flagged. The FAQ seems to suggest that they are modded to -1:
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"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Considering how often they seem to be extending copyright, you can probably expect to see that in the next few years when we find ourselves dealing with perpetual copyrights.
Although, given that Congress can copyright works in the public domain, we might not need to wait that long before things like Project Gutenberg become a thing of the past.
Yep as someone that services and builds PCs 6 days a week I can tell you for home users the most popular is.....drumroll....plain old P2P. That's right, your fasttracks, your Gnucleus, although BT has gained some simply because of the high profile of TPB and the clients that are simple enough your grandma could use them. Next round i predict semi anon software that your grandma can run where they mix in some plausible deniability using encrypted cache stores just to make it extra painful for the *.A.As and may i say i hope it hurts.
Those bastards screw the artists, see meatloaf going bankrupt fighting the record companies for nearly 20 years because they had the brass balls to claim bat out of hell 1 never made a dime. Yeah the album that set a record for longest run on the top 200 never made a dime, and if you tickle my balls they play jingle bells. hell look at Cheap trick having to sue right now because the record company refuses to give them a cent of digital downloads because those didn't exist in the 70s therefor the record companies say tough shit. Pretty much ALL the major artists of the 70s aren't seeing a dime on iTunes, the record companies pocket every cent.
So until We, The People as well as the artists are given a seat at the bargaining table as a musician please rob these fuckers blind. Living a stone's throw from Memphis I've seen many a kid sign the record contracts with stars in their eyes only to get robbed blind by the record companies who take everything and use Hollywood accounting to give the kid a bill even if the album sells a million and they recorded it themselves. Honestly the fucking mob are more honest than those bastards and this whole thing is NOT about piracy, its about control and making sure they can continue to rob the artists. Hell artists got a bigger cut in the 1950s as a percentage than now, and thanks to "forever minus a single day" copyrights they can continue to rob the artist even after they are dead. But now they are scared, the combo of digital recording and the tubes mean new artists can just sign profit sharing deals with promotion companies and bypass the system, and thanks to digital they can't keep selling you the White Album like they did with album to 8 track to cassette to CD, this frightens them. Good DIAF you back stabbing leeches.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
they can easily make it harder and inconvenient enough for general population.
No, they can't. There is a fundamental contradiction that people like you don't understand: you can't have a population that has free, open access to digital communications, and at the same time restrict what data they are communicating to each other. Every single time the various agencies get together and close down one site, there are a dozen more that spring up to take its place. We have seen this pattern time and time again, every single warez group that has ever been closed down has been trumpeted as a "huge success against piracy", and yet here we are, in 2012, and piracy is everywhere. Remember DrinkOrDie? Operation Buccaneer - one of the largest, most expensive global anti-piracy enforcement actions in history, and yet here we are a decade later and piracy is as big as it ever was. And so it will be with MegaUpload.
but when the circle is small enough companies don't care.
You seem to have forgotten that PirateBay is still running... and if that ever goes down, there will be another ten to take its place. This battle is not winnable while it is still legal to own PCs and develop software. There will always be another Usenet, another BitTorrent, another Kazaa, and another PirateBay.
Yes. Otherwise, there would be no possible way publishers would allow libraries to lend digital copies. Think about it: reverse the earlier question. What's the difference between a library that "lends" infinite, permanent digital copies of books for free to anyone with a login, and a pirate site? A library that can distribute ebooks with no limitations whatsoever is no different than a pirate site, essentially, and renders the idea of copyright moot. If you think that the very idea of copyright is in and of itself immoral or unethical, then that's probably fine with you, but even if you think authors should produce work without copyright in the hope and expectation of what would amount to donations from motivated readers, putting libraries in a position to distribute along such a model would just make it that much less likely that the original author would ever see a dime from readers.
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Infringing copyright isn't theft. Copyright theft is when a record company takes the rights to their musicians' work. If I held a gun to your head and made you sign your copyrights over, that too would be copyright theft.
The publishing industries should stop listening to the advertiser's mantra "sell the sizzle, not the steak" and try to understand what the phrase means. You can't sell me a sizzle, but the sizzle might help you sell me a steak.
What's the difference between downloading a CD's worth of songs and checking the CD out from the library? It has dozens of movies, hundreds of CDs and thousands of books -- all free.
Since the invention of moveable type, the content sold the book. The music sold the record. Plays, concerts, and movies were the only exceptions. Study after study shows that music pirates spend more money on music than non-pirates. Attack piracy and you attack your best customers. I can think of little more foolish.
However, I agree that those making money from piracy or counterfeiting are in fact stealing. In that case, something is indeed lost.
Free Martian Whores!
Noooo...they should embrace the valve model and realize while you will NEVER get rid of piracy you CAN turn a hell of a lot of those pirates into customers by embracing the big three concept, which is make it simple, make it easy, make it cheap. I knew a LOT of game pirates, yet almost none of them actually pirate games anymore...why? because of Steam, Steam makes it simple as "push button to get game" and makes it easy with instant patching and matchmaking, and more importantly they make it cheap with constant promos and sales to entice those that wouldn't pay full price.
You could do the same with TV and movies VERY easily, there is no damned reason why i shouldn't be able to buy an AVI of any episode of any show for say 25c. that roughly figures up to about what you'd pay for a box set on Amazon and if you showed the episode free in the clear in the first place you sure as hell aren't gonna affect piracy by giving me an AVI that would actually play on my dad's media tank. Same thing for movies, why should I be able to buy that 4 year old movie out of the Walmart bargain bin for $4 but a digital copy costs something like $20 and is DRMed out the ass? if its on DVD you sure as hell aren't affecting piracy by selling me an AVI because the pirates will have uploaded it years ago.
This is no different than how the RIAA kept shooting themselves in the face screaming " Music downloads will kill music!" and now are setting record profits thanks to iTunes. In fact as valve showed when they mad over 1700% PROFITS by selling L4D at $1.99 if the RIAA would lower that MP3 down to say a quarter a song they would be raking in truckloads of money and wiping out the pirates. So my friend this has NOTHING to do with pirates, it has to do with control and the ability to sell an infinite resource as a scare commodity and therefor charge assraping prices. go DIAF media companies, we won't miss you.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Someone has a sense of entitlement - "I don't want to pay for this, so instead of doing without or being responsible I'll just take it" - and so they make more and more run-arounds just so they can get their stuff for free.
If that's the pirates' mind set, then why do all the studies show that music pirates spend more money on music than non-pirates? No, the pirates didn't bring SOPA and the other evils, YOU, the publishers, did.
What on earth do you expect the reactions of the media giants to be?
I always expected them to not be learning-disabled but my expectations were incorrect. It's simple: give the content away, sell the container like it's been done for hundreds of years. I've been reading since 1958 and never had to pay to read before. I paid when I wanted and could afford to, by going to the bookstore instead of the library.
The war on piracy is nothing but incredibly stupid greed. "Hey, look, we can sell an ebook or record for the same price we're selling it now and not have printing, shipping, and distribution costs! Now all we have to do is make people stop doing it for free."
Illegal? Yes. Immoral? No. The only immoral actors here are the publishers themselves.
Free Martian Whores!
Actually the purpose is to crush the competition, gain control on innovations and facilitate a police state. Reducing piracy is icing on the cake.
But... the future refused to change.
When a comment is flagged, it gets sent to the editors to review on a case-by-case basis. We then pick from two options: ignore and downmod. Nothing gets deleted, and reporting a comment that is already at -1 won't do anything either way.
Plenty of people have tried to abuse it already, but because it's not automated, they're just wasting their time. Feel free to test it out if you'd like.
What box set is that?
Game of Thrones, Season 1
Episodes: 10
DVD: $34.99 or $3.50/episode
Blu-Ray: $44.99 or $4.50/episode
Chuck, Season 5 ...perhaps some older material and bigger box sets...
Episodes: 13
DVD: $29.99 or $2.31/episode
Blu-Ray: $39.99 or $3.08/episode
Star Trek TNG, all episodes (cheapest I could find at Amazon.com)
Episodes: 178
DVD: $229.99 or $1.29episode
StarGate SG-1, all episodes (only seem to sell 1 these days)
Episodes: 214 (might actually only be 213 in the box set, I believe the pilot episode is left out of some versions)
DVD: $146.69 or $0.69/episode
$0.25/episode is nowhere near the price levels at Amazon that I've seen.
( Not a commentary on your argument. )
Disagree -- you can stop /paid for/ piracy. The free shit carries on unabated.
-GiH
I guess no website can have advertisements because of the piracy boogeyman. Someone, somewhere might be copying something! We should waste extreme amounts of taxpayer dollars trying to stop what amounts to jaywalkers.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!