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Isles8008 · 09-14-2012, 11:58 AM

I know this is an old thread, but just in case anyone is still looking, the Blackmask Online DVD of 10,000 classic PDF eBooks is now being sold on eBay for a mere $5.98 (free S&H). Here is the link. I bought one of these a few weeks ago and it is really great. The order was shipped quickly and the eBooks will arrive on one DVD. Just open the disk on your computer and drag the "PDF ebooks" folder onto your desktop to copy the files to your computer's hard drive. They will take up 3.76 GB of space. From there, you can select the files you want to add to your reader. DO NOT try to copy the files directly from the disc to your eReader as this will most like freeze your computer (I learned this the hard way).

As a previous commenter stated, the actual PDF file names are rather obscure (abbreviations are used, like "ptart.pdf" for Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), but the DVD includes a fully searchable table of contents on .htm pages. Just click on a genre, like fiction.htm, and a page will open up (usually your default browser page) and you will be provided with an alphabetical list of authors links and titles. Click on the author, it moves you down the page to their titles, then click on the eBook you want to download and a pop-up box will appear. It is really quite simple.

Most of these PDF files also have searchable table of contents links to each part of the book or chapter. They all have the old Blackmask Online logo and formatting. Before the site was shut down due to the unscrupulous behavior of its original owner (a DMCA notice was filed for his "backdoor" sale of copyrighted pulp fiction books, like Doc Savage and The Shadow series, and this took the website offline). Blackmask Online was one of the first popular free eBooks websites, back in the days before the Amazon Kindle. David Moynihan organized massive collections of classic eBooks, including technically OOP pulp fiction novels from the 1930s and 40s, a genre that was extremely rare to find in eBook format at the time. As Blackmask's popularity grew, a few of these titles got him in trouble where their old rights holders realized their new, electronic financial potential. Moynihan also had a habit of taking eBooks published by the community efforts of Project Gutenberg, reformatting the texts, and slapping his own copyright on them when he sold them in compilation DVDs. They did all the work, he organized the files and sold them, an action that is apparently legal, but looked down upon. This deeply offended many in the early eReading community, and if you do a Google search for his name you get a mix of "eBook pioneer" and "shameless profiteer" sentiments. The original Blackmask Online 10,000 PDFs DVD sold for $25.00. Today, similar collections are available for a fraction of that cost, but remember, this was back in 2004-2006, well before the eBooks boom of 2007 (thank you Amazon). Blackmask Online makes for an interesting story, as the future of eBook sales has been rife with legal tangles and rights controversies.

So, if you would like to step into the WayBack Machine and own one of the first massive libraries of public domain PDFs, you can still do so, and for less than $6.00. I recently did pay over $20 for an eBooks collection, but the total number of titles is over 400,000. Times have changed. I hope this can be of some help to those of you looking for large collections of eBooks, just to know that you have them. There is an incredible feeling that comes along with the knowledge that on your computer, 10,000 or 400,000 eBooks are at the ready for your reading pleasure!

09-14-2012, 11:58 AM	#15
Isles8008 Connoisseur Posts: 91 Karma: 529000 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Onyx Boox M92, Nexus 10, Kindle Paperwhite, iRiver Story HD	The old Blackmask Online DVDs available on eBay I know this is an old thread, but just in case anyone is still looking, the Blackmask Online DVD of 10,000 classic PDF eBooks is now being sold on eBay for a mere $5.98 (free S&H). Here is the link. I bought one of these a few weeks ago and it is really great. The order was shipped quickly and the eBooks will arrive on one DVD. Just open the disk on your computer and drag the "PDF ebooks" folder onto your desktop to copy the files to your computer's hard drive. They will take up 3.76 GB of space. From there, you can select the files you want to add to your reader. DO NOT try to copy the files directly from the disc to your eReader as this will most like freeze your computer (I learned this the hard way). As a previous commenter stated, the actual PDF file names are rather obscure (abbreviations are used, like "ptart.pdf" for Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), but the DVD includes a fully searchable table of contents on .htm pages. Just click on a genre, like fiction.htm, and a page will open up (usually your default browser page) and you will be provided with an alphabetical list of authors links and titles. Click on the author, it moves you down the page to their titles, then click on the eBook you want to download and a pop-up box will appear. It is really quite simple. Most of these PDF files also have searchable table of contents links to each part of the book or chapter. They all have the old Blackmask Online logo and formatting. Before the site was shut down due to the unscrupulous behavior of its original owner (a DMCA notice was filed for his "backdoor" sale of copyrighted pulp fiction books, like Doc Savage and The Shadow series, and this took the website offline). Blackmask Online was one of the first popular free eBooks websites, back in the days before the Amazon Kindle. David Moynihan organized massive collections of classic eBooks, including technically OOP pulp fiction novels from the 1930s and 40s, a genre that was extremely rare to find in eBook format at the time. As Blackmask's popularity grew, a few of these titles got him in trouble where their old rights holders realized their new, electronic financial potential. Moynihan also had a habit of taking eBooks published by the community efforts of Project Gutenberg, reformatting the texts, and slapping his own copyright on them when he sold them in compilation DVDs. They did all the work, he organized the files and sold them, an action that is apparently legal, but looked down upon. This deeply offended many in the early eReading community, and if you do a Google search for his name you get a mix of "eBook pioneer" and "shameless profiteer" sentiments. The original Blackmask Online 10,000 PDFs DVD sold for $25.00. Today, similar collections are available for a fraction of that cost, but remember, this was back in 2004-2006, well before the eBooks boom of 2007 (thank you Amazon). Blackmask Online makes for an interesting story, as the future of eBook sales has been rife with legal tangles and rights controversies. So, if you would like to step into the WayBack Machine and own one of the first massive libraries of public domain PDFs, you can still do so, and for less than $6.00. I recently did pay over $20 for an eBooks collection, but the total number of titles is over 400,000. Times have changed. I hope this can be of some help to those of you looking for large collections of eBooks, just to know that you have them. There is an incredible feeling that comes along with the knowledge that on your computer, 10,000 or 400,000 eBooks are at the ready for your reading pleasure!