Alternative option is not to pirate the books and instead read the public domain ones that are just free. Project Gutenberg is a good completely legit source of free books.
If libraries didn’t already exist and you tried to make one now, you would be arrested and likely get pretty hefty sentencing for copyright infringement.
Books are one of the few things I am more than willing to pay full price for.
Sure the publishers eat a lot of the money, but the authors don’t do too badly.
The very nature of a book (unless something is published as an e-book only) keeps it from being enshittfied like streaming audio and video services. If someone were to print an ad in the book, I could just rip it out and throw it away.
Books are one of the last places where you just will not see an ad or be tracked, or have popups, and other irritating “features”.
If it’s legal for the Zuck to torrent all the books, it’s legal for me to torrent a few books.
Alternative option is not to pirate the books and instead read the public domain ones that are just free. Project Gutenberg is a good completely legit source of free books.
If libraries didn’t already exist and you tried to make one now, you would be arrested and likely get pretty hefty sentencing for copyright infringement.
Books are one of the few things I am more than willing to pay full price for.
Sure the publishers eat a lot of the money, but the authors don’t do too badly.
The very nature of a book (unless something is published as an e-book only) keeps it from being enshittfied like streaming audio and video services. If someone were to print an ad in the book, I could just rip it out and throw it away.
Books are one of the last places where you just will not see an ad or be tracked, or have popups, and other irritating “features”.
Books are good.
Books used to come with ads all the time in the early 20th century, especially cheap paperbacks.
I’ve seen some children’s books with popups.
Slightly more seriously though, I do have some books that have an advertisement for something else from the author or publisher.
I feel like being I am pedantic on the points here so I will make a point of saying that I agree with the spirit of your comment.