Free download of my book available without my permission. How does this work?

[Lostinspace]

Zlibrary still works for me today using ZLibrary - Z Library is search and download PDF files free! - Zlibrary.

I think that there is a difference between Zlibrary and sci-hub which are trying to make educational and scientific literature available without making unnecessary payments to predatory publishers and sites potentially harming authors of fiction.

With scientific articles, the work is done mostly by scientists paid by tax payers and, after submission, the articles are refereed by other publicly funded scientists. Finally the articles are bought by academic libraries out of more public funds except that scientists in poorer countries may have difficulty buying the articles. This model was developed by Robert Maxwell at Pergamon Press.

With educational books, the idea is that the publishers control the board setting and marking the students' exams. They can do this quite cheaply because they do not need experts to mark the answers. They just need someone to search the answers for the magic words. They then make their profit by selling the textbooks and revision guides which explain which magic words to use. An amusing consequence reported to me by a university lecturer was that students sometimes asked her which words to include in their answers.

 

[Danny McG]

Zlibrary still works for me today using ZLibrary - Z Library is search and download PDF files free! - Zlibrary.

I just tried that with downloading a random book - no way could I fight through all the ads to success

 

[Lostinspace]

As a test, I downloaded my first PDF which was "The History of Terrorism from Antiquity to Al Qaeda" by Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin. It seems formatted OK but very long and probably too difficult for me. I have an add blocker and only allow necessary scripts, which may help.

 

[Lostinspace]

As a test, I downloaded my first PDF which was "The History of Terrorism from Antiquity to Al Qaeda" by Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin. It seems formatted OK but very long and probably too difficult for me. I have an add blocker and only allow necessary scripts, which may help.

 

[Blake00]

I notice his gofundme page is gone too.. wonder how that old lawsuit went lol

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

notice his gofundme page is gone too.. wonder how that old lawsuit went lol

The ebookbike Lawsuit is Over

This is a guest post by John van Stry on his precedent-setting lawsuit against a book pirate. His trail-blazing legal battle was costly, but ultimately won what he wanted: a legal recognition of th…

madgeniusclub.com

A quick duckduckgo for 'ebookbike lawsuit' found the above link

 

[Danny McG]

It'll be interesting to see if any of the chronicles writers notice an increase in their book sales now zlibrary has been closed

 

[Danny McG]

Zlibrary still works for me today using ZLibrary - Z Library is search and download PDF files free! - Zlibrary.

This isn't the actual zlibrary - it's a far inferior copy site

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It'll be interesting to see if any of the chronicles writers notice an increase in their book sales now zlibrary has been closed

Somewhere else will spring up and take its place. It's like Whack-a-mole. Largely, I've given up on chasing any down.

 

[Danny McG]

The thing is, in a typical month I purchase half a dozen ebooks and I used to also download three or four from zlibrary, usually from writers I'd never heard of to see if I liked their stuff.

Now I'll still only be buying half a dozen ebooks but nothing else...all it's done is taken away me checking out different writers.

Thinking back I'm fairly sure I got Abendau's Heir from zlibrary but I remember that I legit bought the next ones (Sunset and Legacy) but otherwise I wouldn't have risked my money in the first place

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't remember giving this guy or any similar person permission to put my books on his site, so frankly he can take his self-righteous "information must be free" talk and shove it. I'll get by without the "exposure".

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thinking back I'm fairly sure I got Abendau's Heir from zlibrary but I remember that I legit bought the next ones (Sunset and Legacy) but otherwise I wouldn't have risked my money in the first place

You wee skitter.

 

[tinkerdan]

I think I mentioned these once here; but don't remember and am too lazy to look it up.

I was on twitter for something else--the only reason I ever signed up for twitter--[someone had started a twitter campaign against me because of a review I did]

I stumbled across someone twittering about having made my book available on a website that was supposedly designed for people to share their own work with other like minded people.

I had to do the take down thing there--they did take it down--I'm not sure if they sanctioned that user or what.

I don't mind giving away my stuff but I like to keep track of how many are given away and I found I can do that best at smashwords.

Unfortunately even with smashwords the book gets into the hands of people claiming to give it away--usually involves a subscription to their services

 

[Jo Zebedee]

On that note, and following from Danny's posts. I give my books to people I know all the time. Honestly, if you want one, just ask me directly. I also do periodic free weeks, particularly on Abendau's Heir, and 99p weeks. Don't feed the pirate sites.

 

[Toby Frost]

Absolutely, and you're completely entitled to do so (contracts permitting etc). In a way, I wouldn't mind so much if these pirates were honest about what they're doing ("We wanted this stuff for free so we stole it, and nobody cares enough to stop us"). It's the feeble justifications of these sites that irritate me: sub-Elon Musk stuff about promotion etc. It's just the tech-bro equivalent of wanting work done for free because it's "good exposure". The overall effect is that the act of writing a good novel is increasingly devalued and treated as if it's just a bit of fun rather than actual work, and that expecting to be paid for it is some kind of cheek. Funny how nobody ever offers to swap the bonuses of bankers and company directors with "exposure".

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It's unfortunate that this site doesn't allow me to give your post a double thumbs up, Toby.

 

[Toby Frost]

Well, thanks: I was half expecting to have to come in and explain that I was tired and emotional when I posted that!

 

[Danny McG]

Somewhere else will spring up and take its place. It's like Whack-a-mole. Largely, I've given up on chasing any down.

All the defunct zlibrary books are back now on "Anna's Archive" - you were right Jo

 

[JimC]

Ginny Heinlein used to have a terrible problem with piracy, both digital and hard copy. Had a closet full of examples.

She spent a lot of effort fighting it.

 

[Danny McG]

There's been a few clickbait clones of zlibrary popped up since the site closed, all wanting you to register and buy.
However none of them amount to very much, they're after your info..... you're better off going legit and purchasing properly.