<story><title>U.S. court orders LibGen to pay $30M to publishers, issues broad injunction</title><url>https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-court-orders-libgen-to-pay-30m-to-publishers-issues-broad-injunction-240925/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rexpop</author><text>[flagged]</text></item><item><author>aaomidi</author><text>In Iran it’s the only option. Sanctions basically make it impossible to buy books.</text></item><item><author>bananamerica</author><text>Here in Brazil shadow libraries essentially make research possible. Paying for ebooks in US dollar is prohibitive to most academics.</text></item><item><author>internetter</author><text>I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve used shadow libraries before.&lt;p&gt;1. More often or not, I am in search of a single piece of information. Buying hundreds of pages of writing is not economical for this goal&lt;p&gt;2. Sometimes, I own the physical copy and want to search it. Buying a digital copy is a waste when I already own the physical one&lt;p&gt;3. Occasionally, the content is available to me via my library, but in the case of point 1, traveling all the ways is a waste of time. Some people don’t have access to a library.&lt;p&gt;4. Sometimes, I want to decide between two books, or see if the book has what I want before I purchase it.&lt;p&gt;5. A few times, the content I want disappeared, but there it is at the shadow library.</text></item><item><author>internetter</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;annas-archive.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;critical-window.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;annas-archive.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;critical-window.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Years of this whack-a-mole, yet no clear use case found for banning shadow libraries. Books are highly information dense, making them an ideal target for archival. Shadow libraries are unique in their ability to search over all knowledge known to man, something that publishers refuse. They democratize access, resist censorship (some of which is happening in the land of the free), and provide better chance at preservation. There’s not even much evidence that shadow libraries detract from authors, who are already robbed by publishers (and most of the publisher’s funding comes from institutions, not individuals)&lt;p&gt;To hell with it. Viva la revolución. Let knowledge be free.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aleph_minus_one</author><text>Now guess which countries staged a coup against the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1953, which brought the current oppressive regime to its power:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>U.S. court orders LibGen to pay $30M to publishers, issues broad injunction</title><url>https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-court-orders-libgen-to-pay-30m-to-publishers-issues-broad-injunction-240925/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rexpop</author><text>[flagged]</text></item><item><author>aaomidi</author><text>In Iran it’s the only option. Sanctions basically make it impossible to buy books.</text></item><item><author>bananamerica</author><text>Here in Brazil shadow libraries essentially make research possible. Paying for ebooks in US dollar is prohibitive to most academics.</text></item><item><author>internetter</author><text>I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve used shadow libraries before.&lt;p&gt;1. More often or not, I am in search of a single piece of information. Buying hundreds of pages of writing is not economical for this goal&lt;p&gt;2. Sometimes, I own the physical copy and want to search it. Buying a digital copy is a waste when I already own the physical one&lt;p&gt;3. Occasionally, the content is available to me via my library, but in the case of point 1, traveling all the ways is a waste of time. Some people don’t have access to a library.&lt;p&gt;4. Sometimes, I want to decide between two books, or see if the book has what I want before I purchase it.&lt;p&gt;5. A few times, the content I want disappeared, but there it is at the shadow library.</text></item><item><author>internetter</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;annas-archive.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;critical-window.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;annas-archive.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;critical-window.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Years of this whack-a-mole, yet no clear use case found for banning shadow libraries. Books are highly information dense, making them an ideal target for archival. Shadow libraries are unique in their ability to search over all knowledge known to man, something that publishers refuse. They democratize access, resist censorship (some of which is happening in the land of the free), and provide better chance at preservation. There’s not even much evidence that shadow libraries detract from authors, who are already robbed by publishers (and most of the publisher’s funding comes from institutions, not individuals)&lt;p&gt;To hell with it. Viva la revolución. Let knowledge be free.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>amanaplanacanal</author><text>Blaming the innocents that live under a brutal regime seems counterproductive.</text></comment>