In my anarchist circles, other things are recommended before z-lib, which is a second-to-last resort.
There's an ebook piracy scheme that's been going on longer than z-lib, but it's a little bit more complicated to use than just a website, so it kinda flies under the radar.
> anarchist circles
Okay well, demanding ethical piracy from everyone except for the piracy that you use is pretty NIMBY of you.
And anyway, I'm not sure why you're being downvoted! This humorless website...
It's a bummer for humanity, but the people running z-lib should have known what they were getting into by charging for a fast lane.
My tracker gives you points based on site and IRC activity which you can use to buy invites and ratio.
Donation gives your username a different colour in the shoutbox. I think you can pick colour if you donate enough.
In my experience downloading books from IRC isn’t as annoying as getting them from zlibrary etc but the selection isn’t as good.
Pray tell.
slsk is also an old thing that sometimes surprises, though it's not the best for books
much newer is telegram bots for all sorts of things, from sci-hub replacement to general ebooks
I wish congress would do what they are supposed to do. The constitution clearly states that Congress can blablah (copyright) WITH THE PURPOSE OF ADVANCING science and useful arts. That's the only purpose of copyright.
Now, for books, compare what you can get on zlibrary, with what you can buy at amazon. Never mind comparing it to a local bookstore. It becomes obvious quickly that the superior move for advancing the arts (not just availability) is to let them exist.
This is the problem: copyright kills availability. After 2-3 weeks (months for some books, and the only books lasting years are textbooks, which also ought to be free, for different reasons) books aren't economical to print anymore. This means that after 6 months or so new works disappear into a black hole because for-profit firms don't distribute them anymore, and copyright means nobody else is doing it either (certainly libraries don't hold on to them. I mean you can get lucky, but ...)
Same thing goes for movies. Theater release. TV release. Netflix release. Say this takes a year (these days). After that, good luck getting hold of a movie.
Now can anyone tell me how creating a 6-month event horizon for all books, after which they disappear into a black hole forever, advances science and useful arts ...
They can even keep Disney in power for all I care. How about you have to prove 1000 sales in a year to retain copyright?
You can buy invites to private trackers too. It's complicated.
The difference is you've never heard of the private trackers.
One thing's for sure: Congress has completely abrogated its role in resolving these matters to everyone's liking.
> I have no sympathy
Like piracy exists, massive piracy, de jure, that's the status quo, it would be extremely reductionist and flawed to be like, "Well piracy is illegal." Like every person you like has probably pirated something, something expensive. I bet one of your favorite professors or TAs has probably copied a book for people: they're facilitating piracy. Something something log in your eye.
I'm not saying you're wrong or right or whatever. I'm saying every meaningful IP related question nowadays requires years of courtroom litigation to Just Get a Fucking Answer. It's chaos.