Remember Textbook Torrents? A few months ago they were forced to shut down after receiving
complaints from publishers for distributing torrents of textbook files -- only to
reopen shortly after. Well, apparently textbook publishing oligopolists have now laid down the smack on the torrent site operator himself. According to TorrentFreak:
Quote:
Geekman [admin of Textbook Torrents] told us that he felt that when it became clear to the copyright owners that simple threats to the site and its host wouldn’t be sufficient to close down the tracker, he himself became the next logical target: “We got word from several credible sources that there was a lawsuit in the works against myself personally,” he explained.
Geekman told us that he was sorry to have to shut down the site without notice, but in the absence of others immediately stepping up to take over the running of the site, he had no alternative. He also said that he was disappointed that nobody stepped in with a replacement site when TextBook Torrents was down for 3 weeks in August, but hopes that someone will do so now.
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Textbook Torrents is gone, but the last time I checked, Piratebay was still offering
torrents of pirated e-books. Shutting down individual sites is not going to help solve the problem of piracy. It's merely shifts Internet traffic to another place. What we need to begin with is more transparency in textbook pricing. Well, and perhaps some affordable larger-format e-book devices.
Thanks to Danny for the news!