Ebooks on bittorrent!

[Halo]

Originally Posted by DannyR

Personally I think torrents are a great resource and certainly preferable to a zip file containing everything which doesn't allow selective downloads.

I would be happy to have smaller zip files that allowed me to download everything within a specific genre. It would be nice to be able to download all of the mystery books with one click and then dump them onto my reader. I can tell whether I want to keep a book about 10 pages into reading it. I could easily delete the ones I don't want.

Another good place to start would be to provide zip files for the notable ebook uploads.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I don't really think that ebook files are big enough to even warrant the need for bittorrent. ebooks could even be much smaller if they are compressed with zip or something... which I think some are already anyway... like isn't ePub a zip container?

BOb

Pretty much all eBook formats (Mobi, LIT, LRF, etc) have "internal" data compression. One generally gains little or nothing from zipping up such files. The fact that they are compressed is one of the things which distinguishes a "genuine" eBook format from an "editable" format such as RTF.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by acidzebra

Anyhow, several of the people who are most active with regards to formatting and making books available on MR have already said they would not appreciate a torrent, and I respect that, although I do not understand it fully. But again, I would still appreciate "author packs", via torrent or not. Hunting and pecking your way to the books you like this is a pain.

One of the points of the eBook library on MR is to encourage people to visit the site, read what the uploader has to say about the book, add your own comments about it on the upload thread, etc. We do not want to facilitate "bulk downloads".

[Timoleon]

For large, legal, bulk size downloads I say the torrent is a good way to go. It was the only way I could pull the (legal) monster-sized Blackmask DVD off the Internet --- and I tried everything else first.

For everything else I say come to MobileRead.

Tim

[DannyR]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of the points of the eBook library on MR is to encourage people to visit the site, read what the uploader has to say about the book, add your own comments about it on the upload thread, etc. We do not want to facilitate "bulk downloads".

On the other hand, I would have come to the site a lot sooner if the existence of a torrent for ebooks had existed before now. I didn't even know you offered any ebooks until I saw this thread. I've just been browsing the site periodically over the past year because of the ebook reader reviews. The more services a site offers, the more traffic it will generate. So yes, I think you would want to facilitate bulk downloads. It *would* bring people in to discuss the books.

Gripping hand, some of those who come only to grab a lot of books probably are not staying anyway to discuss them, but their participation in a torrent helps keep it seeded and going, so you aren't losing anything offering the service. Those who are part of the community will appreciate the easy download ability and will stay and discuss the books.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by DannyR

On the other hand, I would have come to the site a lot sooner if the existence of a torrent for ebooks had existed before now. I didn't even know you offered any ebooks until I saw this thread. I've just been browsing the site periodically over the past year because of the ebook reader reviews. The more services a site offers, the more traffic it will generate. So yes, I think you would want to facilitate bulk downloads. It *would* bring people in to discuss the books.

I must admit that I'm a bit puzzled. If you hadn't realised that there were free books at this site, then might you not also have missed noticing that a (hypothetical) torrent was available?

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of the points of the eBook library on MR is to encourage people to visit the site, read what the uploader has to say about the book, add your own comments about it on the upload thread, etc. We do not want to facilitate "bulk downloads".

Then again,if we want to spend time talking on the forum, combining with the tasks of our daily life, I think that many would want to spend as little time as possible downloading some books,and as much time as possible actually enjoying them!

Like said before, what good is it to have 3 to 4 sublinks for every book to click?
Not to mention those of us who don't have that fast internet, it is just frustrating to take for ages.

Besides, maybe some people would like others to read their comments about the book, but other people really don't care about that.
I don't mind noone reading my comments.
If my book has errors and people want to complain, then I want them to read it first; because maybe I'm aware of the issue already and have posted it there.

Another thing is,that not every one has the same interests...
Some people might want to download books to read them,others might want to download them to stockpile them, and show them to their friends, Others even use it to increase their already tens of Terrabyte of data containing harddisks,to get a higher score in P2P networks.
Whatever their reasons may be should not matter when downloading, because either way they're not doing anything illegal to do so.

As long as they are not selling them it should not matter why a person is downloading those books.

Bulkdownloads only offer the option of saving bandwidth and saving time.

[DannyR]

Originally Posted by Patricia

I must admit that I'm a bit puzzled. If you hadn't realised that there were free books at this site, then might you not also have missed noticing that a (hypothetical) torrent was available?

Not nearly as likely. Torrents tend to get widely distributed, especially if they are as useful as this one would likely be. And I often look at the various trackers associated with torrents I find useful to see what websites host them. I've discovered a number of interesting sites that way.

Several torrents holding various collections of Project Gutenberg books have made the rounds in the past, and always draw lots of downloaders.

[yvanleterrible]

Bit Torrent is just what its name implies, the moving of huge amounts of data. Philosophically that should not apply to MR because it's a tool for hoarding. We are a community. All those books were formated with care for our use and for discussion. The mandates behind this book collection are to maintain and augment the number of members and to promote the ebook as a support for culture. This is a book by book proposition, again unsuitable for mass transfer.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Bit Torrent is just what its name implies, the moving of huge amounts of data. Philosophically that should not apply to MR because it's a tool for hoarding. We are a community. All those books were formated with care for our use and for discussion. The mandates behind this book collection are to maintain and augment the number of members and to promote the ebook as a support for culture. This is a book by book proposition, again unsuitable for mass transfer.

Very well said, Yvan. That's it precisely.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

The mandates behind this book collection are to maintain and augment the number of members and to promote the ebook as a support for culture. This is a book by book proposition, again unsuitable for mass transfer.

I had totally missed that. Were can I read more about this to check that it really is so? Is there any document spelling it out?

Why does downloading on book at the time support culture more than downloading a lot of books?

I find downloading book from MR annoyingly hard. Going via the index it is very hard to find a specific author.

Also concering culture the books are usually missing information about what text they are based on and what texts have been used to proof read them. For example a friend who is a Lovecraft-fanatic told me that the Lovecraft collection here is not based on the best versions available. And what version it is based on was missing at least in the books.

[acidzebra]

Yeah, I too fail to see how transferring things one book at a time with many clicks in between is somehow more culturally significant than, say, downloading a zipped pack of Charles Dickens' work whether via torrent or plain download.

Because I'm going to download those works one way or the other.

Also I really thought these books were there to be read and enjoyed and are available because they are either out of copyright or explicitly in the public domain and other people care about making them available to all, but maybe I am wrong about that too.

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by acidzebra

Yeah too fail to see how transferring things one book at a time with many clicks in between is somehow more culturally significant than, say, downloading a zipped pack of Charles Dickens' work whether via torrent or plain download.

Because I'm going to download those works one way or the other.

Also I really thought these books were there to be read and enjoyed and are available because they are either out of copyright or explicitly in the public domain, but maybe I am wrong about that too.

Compared with the hours or days required to read each book (and, yes, they are all in the public domain), is it really so painful to add a minute to download it?

[acidzebra]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Compared with the hours or days required to read each book (and, yes, they are all in the public domain), is it really so painful to add a minute to download it?

I think that is a bizarre argument. Should I go back to downloading via a 56 k modem, too? Or maybe we should add lots of pop-ups that you have to click through. Why make life MORE difficult?

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by acidzebra

I think that is a bizarre argument. Should I go back to downloading via a 56 k modem, too? Or maybe we should add lots of pop-ups that you have to click through. Why make life MORE difficult?

I'm just trying to understand your adamant opinion. I'm lucky if I can read 100 books a year. If come here to get them, I'll spend hardly an hour or two over the year to find and download the latest versions. And I'll spend a gazillion hours reading and enjoying them. That's hardly a comparison with downloading many web pages daily via a slow modem.