“zomg russian cyber criminals are using free books to fund their lavish lifestyles!!!1!1!!!1! you should go support corporate rent seeking publishers ‘creators’ by paying thousands for basic knowledge!!!11”

this shit sounds like it was written by a middle schooler making a history presentation. it’s hilarious

  • Moonrise2473@feddit.it
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    3 months ago

    Meanwhile, ai companies that are doing exactly the same are allowed to rack up billions in revenue.

    “It’s American for profit corporation, not a Russian cybercriminal!”

    • Christian@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      If the DoJ replaced google.com with a similar scare screen, a message about the AI feature appearing before search results, and photos of CEO yachts, that might actually give me hope for the future.

      Maybe include a screenshot of the AI Overview so there’s no ambiguity about what feature was problematic. Something like this: google ai overview

      Tangent - I remember reading a blog post when oink got seized saying that if the guy behind it was trying to make a profit rather than to create a library he would be respected like another Steve Jobs rather than being imprisoned. I still 100% believe that.

      RIP oink’s pink palace, I was a member for only two or three years but it opened up the world to me. Got invited from a guy at my undergrad I never met in person or knew his name, there was a local filesharing network on campus with a few hundred students on it and we had similar music tastes so would im occasionally. Hope you are doing well wherever you are now, meowfaceman.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Seems like a fairly reasonable way to live. Is that supposed to look lavish?

    Let’s see the lifestyles of the CEOs for Springer, Wiley, and Elsevier for comparison.

    • jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 months ago

      Those fucks forcing money into their pockets from science are the absolute dregs of society. I actually respect angel investors more since maybe they made a good decision with their money (that feels gross to just type, even!). The fact that a select few companies are able to make science pay to win is absolutely sickening.

      This is coming from someone that never even graduated college, let alone spending time in academia.

      • Crotaro@beehaw.org
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        3 months ago

        Memories once buried have been unearthed…

        But really, books already are not the way to make a fortune unless you are in the field of basically being able to dictate what books are used in every educational institution in an entire nation. How would they imagine a pirate, who shares these books, has server upkeep to pay and at best gets very sporadic donations, could afford a lavish lifestyle from this endeavour?

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    Note that with rare exceptions, creators are not supported by your purchases. Rather the studios, labels and publishers wh cheat creators are.

    If you want to support the creators, pay them directly, or go to one of their performances / signings / functions. But still pirate their work.

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      3 months ago

      That’s what I always do. There are smaller creators that I support via donations or patreon but I never pay directly for the content itself.