Quote:
Originally Posted by unboggling
4. I'd be interested in learning what one of those alleged "good, membership-only" book-piracy sites looks like, how much it costs, what the membership/joining process is, the quality of the selection and formats available. Until that experiment, if ever, I will avoid piracy sites and pirated copies.
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To my knowledge, no torrent websites charge users. They just don't have open registration to anybody. Usually there is an interview process on IRC, invitations from members, or occasional open registration.
The only paid piracy system is usenet (which is a bulletin board system in which files happen to be able to be exchanged). It is not specifically made for piracy and you pay a usenet provider (similar to how you would pay an ISP). The usenet provider has nothing to do with the act of piracy (some people do use usenet just as a message board). Other than that, some people buy accounts on direct download sites to speed up downloads, but that is entirely optional.
Also, I'm pretty sure there are no fiction ebook torrent websites. There just isn't enough demand I guess. There are, however, a few torrent websites that only deal with elearning ebooks.
Generally, the higher quality pirated ebooks can be found on general private torrent websites which contain a variety of different files (movies, music, comics, ebooks, tv shows, video games, etc.). However, the vast majority of materiel is scanned from printed books and is of low quality (although I did see one file with 2500 retail ebooks). The only other means that people use to get pirated ebooks is IRC or warez forums (forums with direct download links).
As for formats, most often the ebooks are in pdf, epub, mobi, or lit. Oftentimes, they have just been converted with Calibre, though.
Overall, it's far easier to just buy the book from a legitimate retailer, but if you are already tech savvy you may be able to find a fairly limited selection of pirated ebooks.