Barnes and Noble and the Darknet

[TGS]

Sometimes, when my moral fibre is weak and I'm edging towards complete degeneracy, I skirt the edge of the Darknet. Well, today was just such a time, so I found myself on one of those file sharing search engine sites that we don't mention because we'll frighten the children, and what do you think I found there? On the welcome page a nice Flash banner ad for Barnes and Noble Nook - the clicking of which took me straight to here.

So it seems that they are quite willing to sell you a device on which you can read your ill-gotten ebooks, and advertise it in a place where you might go to get such ill-gotten ebooks, whilst at the same time being hysterical about the prospect of anybody actually daring to get such ebooks.

Talk about double standards!

[abo.saud]

will, I think they think you might buy a nook and start reading legal book
from their e-books store.
they look for profit so they put there ads in any site deal with e-books and have a lot
of visitor

[HansTWN]

They probably want to show how easy it can be to buy books legally. Isn't that one of the pirates' most frequently used arguments "it is such a hassle to buy legal ebooks"?

[mr ploppy]

I bought an ebook from Barnes & Noble last month, I had to get a friend in America to pay for it then email me the book. I would class that as a hassle.

[Steven Lake]

Yeah, I'm thinking that too. This might be more of an effort to make you a legal, paying customer rather than a illegal file sharer. There's also the potential that they're just using a context sensitive advertising system which just happened to pull this up from their database. I've seen that before.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

I bought an ebook from Barnes & Noble last month, I had to get a friend in America to pay for it then email me the book. I would class that as a hassle.

Can't blame B&N for problems under international law and contractual obligations to the publishers. But you can easily buy from B&N or others even from abroad, if you have need help, PM me.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

This might be more of an effort to make you a legal, paying customer* rather than a illegal file sharer. There's also the potential that they're just using a context sensitive advertising system which just happened to pull this up from their database. I've seen that before.

That might be right, I was really just pointing to the irony that if this is such a dark and evil place of wrongdoing, why would they want to be associated with it. I does make me think that, despite the hullabaloo about "piracy" there might be some sense in which publishers welcome it, or at least see it as not unambiguously bad. Now they couldn't ever say that of course - "come steal my stuff, and sod the mugs who pay for it", but there may be a way in which a certain amount of "piracy" is, or will be, good for business.


*Which I am, your honour, (most of the time at least) - though not usually of B&N!

[HansTWN]

Well, just like the FBI recruited some check forgers to catch other forgers later. Book sellers are not stupid (perhaps a few publishers are, though), you can't stop piracy completely. Why not try to win people over?

[Rich_D]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Can't blame B&N for problems under international law and contractual obligations to the publishers. But you can easily buy from B&N or others even from abroad, if you have need help, PM me.

I find it beautifully ironic that international nook users have to choose between violating international copyright laws to purchase a book or downloading pirated copies.

[jmaloney]

I doubt B&N specifically chose to put their ad there. They've likely paid into an advertising system that auto generates relevant ads based on the content of the site, and the site you were on uses that service. I would not in any way take that as B&N approving of the site on which you saw the ad.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Rich_D

I find it beautifully ironic that international nook users have to choose between violating international copyright laws to purchase a book or downloading pirated copies.

Not really, if you download from the US seller while being abroad you may only violate your country's tax laws. Theoretically you should declare the purchase, though nobody will care because of the minimal value. Any responsibility in the US is the seller's only. So I do it freely, because the local government doesn't tax pbooks I have sent by mail either.

It is just that the development of the internet has outstripped legal agreements and contracts between publishers and sellers. Now it is possible to buy goods in another country from your computer without ever going there

[HorridRedDog]

What I have looked at has been "out of print" books (darknet ebook versions if you will).

And while the proofreading quality of ebooks is poor, the quality of "out of print" ebooks is non existent.

If current darknet ebooks are of the same quality as "out of print" darknet ebooks then perhaps B&N doesn't mind you looking for darknet ebooks.

[Kypt]

Since I got the nook I'm pretty much paying for my books now unless I can't find them. There are several books that I've been wanting to buy but there is just no where I can get them from so I download if possible. If, however, it's not available on the darknet either, I cry a little inside.

[Steven Lake]

TGS, yeah totally agree and point taken. My biggest gripe though with the idiots in the big companies who complain about piracy is that they call it piracy, which is by definition the wrong term all together.

Piracy = Stealing something to make a profit.
File Sharing = Sharing something for free with no intent to make a profit

But, of course, piracy sounds more evil, so that's why they use it all the time.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by jmaloney

I doubt B&N specifically chose to put their ad there. They've likely paid into an advertising system that auto generates relevant ads based on the content of the site, and the site you were on uses that service. I would not in any way take that as B&N approving of the site on which you saw the ad.

+1

It is ironic, but almost certainly unintentional.