Calibre tidy line breaks

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Globe Trotsky

It's definitely EPUB which was downloaded from Z-Library. Screenshot attached.

It may be an EPUB now, but it was almost certainly converted from PDF. Original epubs don't have those line breaks; they're a sure sign of a bad PDF conversion.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Globe Trotsky

It's definitely EPUB which was downloaded from Z-Library. Screenshot attached.

That's the problem. A pirate site and much piracy starts with either scans (to PDF) or PDFs.

Only download PD PDFs from Archive Org, as their epubs are worse and don't ever download from Z-library.

Someone converted a PDF to epub. No ebook published as a proper reflowable epub is like that.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It may be an EPUB now, but it was almost certainly converted from PDF. Original epubs don't have those line breaks; they're a sure sign of a bad PDF conversion.

Yes, and there is no such thing as a good PDF conversion unless it's manually proofed and edited in a wordprocessor.

[JSWolf]

Please don't give the OP any more help as the eBook he wants help with is pirated.

I too am done here.

[Globe Trotsky]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not to mention the issue with some ligatures (llama comes out as l ama for instance).

I prefer to read on Kindle. I never read on desktop. So difficult to see the issues until I have transferred the book to the Kindle. But thanks for response.

[Globe Trotsky]

Originally Posted by Karellen

@Globe Trotsky

Careful how you answer the question "Where did the epub come from". It has no bearing to your original question on how to fix the problem.
There be wolves among the sheep.

Thanks for the advice Karellen!

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Karellen

@Globe Trotsky

Careful how you answer the question "Where did the epub come from". It has no bearing to your original question on how to fix the problem.
There be wolves among the sheep.

But the wolves are surely people that expect to get copyright work without paying the copyright holder / authorised retailer.

Sometimes the problem isn't easily fixed because of the source, i.e. a bootleg conversion to epub.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Quoth

But the wolves are surely people that expect to get copyright work without paying the copyright holder / authorised retailer.

"Expect"? There are many, many reasons why people commit piracy. Not all for pure greed. Affordability (students) or out of print/inaccessible are two that come to mind.

I am not supporting piracy, but it is a fact of life where potentially billions of people have, at some stage, committed an act of piracy. Even most, if not every single member on this forum, either with books, movies, tv shows, music or other media items, has done so. I see the piracy references in a lot of posts here, yet most are not called out. It's only when one or two particular vigilante members get involved in a thread that it slowly gets twisted into finger pointing and piracy accusations.

But in this case, I am pointing the finger at some members here that take a question and run in a different direction with it in an attempt to entrap another member under the guise of trying to be helpful. You can see it coming a mile away.

Unfortunately in this case, the OP ended up shooting himself in the foot. Obviously did not understand, or see, my warning in time.

This forum has drawn a line that separates legal/piracy. It is an arbitrary line and most members have become comfortable with that line and justify it in their own way. Yet it is all piracy. The one act that everyone here calls piracy is, in fact, legal where I live, and that is format shifting. If I have an original and legal copy of a book, I am entitled to make a digital version of it, as long as it is me making that version and not a downloaded copy.

Yesterday I went and purchased the new Robert Galbraith book -The Hallmarked Man (yay!!). Saw it listed on Dymocks at $34.99 but at some stage reduced to $26.99. While there, noticed the new Dan Brown novel The Secret of Secrets listed as $39.99. Went to Big W and Robert Galbraith was $18 (which I purcased). Dan Brown was $30. To me, this shows how large the markups are for book retailers. I know there are a lot of people that cannot afford $40 for a novel. As a side note, the pbook I purchased is not too far off from the cost of a Kindle download. Kindle download cost

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Karellen

"Expect"? There are many, many reasons why people commit piracy. Not all for pure greed. Affordability (students) or out of print/inaccessible are two that come to mind.

I am not supporting piracy, but it is a fact of life where potentially billions of people have, at some stage, committed an act of piracy. Even most, if not every single member on this forum, either with books, movies, tv shows, music or other media items, has done so. I see the piracy references in a lot of posts here, yet most are not called out. It's only when one or two particular vigilante members get involved in a thread that it slowly gets twisted into finger pointing and piracy accusations.

But in this case, I am pointing the finger at some members here that take a question and run in a different direction with it in an attempt to entrap another member under the guise of trying to be helpful. You can see it coming a mile away.

Unfortunately in this case, the OP ended up shooting himself in the foot. Obviously did not understand, or see, my warning in time.

An interesting point of view on justifying piracy.

I have offered help to several people with books that, to me, were very likely to have illegitimate origins. Until there is some blatant evidence that the book is indeed an illegal copy, I have offered help. Once evidence of piracy (IMNSHO) is supplied, I'm out of the discussion. This is pretty much in line with what I've read in comments by various administrators/moderators.

My opinion after the first post was that the ePub was a low quality PDF to ePub conversion. The page number, the odd line breaks, the em dashes for hyphens, etc. all pointed to that conclusion. That the OP did not realize that this was a conversion was also a glaring bit of evidence for the origin of the book.

I did find some humour in your justifications for piracy. Your "many, many reasons" seem to have boiled down to not wanting to pay for books and books that are no longer available.

Just BTW, if I search for The Color of Christ on Overdrive, it is available in quite a few public libraries. Other libraries that do not have a digital copy should be willing to obtain it on request.

And you might want to remember that piracy and discussions abetting piracy have resulted in legal action against several websites.

Originally Posted by Karellen

This forum has drawn a line that separates legal/piracy. It is an arbitrary line and most members have become comfortable with that line and justify it in their own way. Yet it is all piracy. The one act that everyone here calls piracy is, in fact, legal where I live, and that is format shifting. If I have an original and legal copy of a book, I am entitled to make a digital version of it, as long as it is me making that version and not a downloaded copy.

Depends on where you live. For me, I remove DRM and format shift. Since I am not distributing those ebooks to other people there is no copyright infringement which is the usual definition of ebook piracy. At most, I am violating the license terms which is a civil matter and subject to the usual legal quibbling about the validity of shrinkwrap licenses.

If I take a physical book, slice the spine off, scan the pages and convert the results of the scan into an ebook, that would be in a very iffy legal situation here since I have destroyed the original book to create the ebook. Unless I distribute the ebook, several court decisions here have stated such actions are allowable.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Karellen

"Expect"? There are many, many reasons why people commit piracy. Not all for pure greed. Affordability (students) or out of print/inaccessible are two that come to mind.

I am not supporting piracy, but it is a fact of life where potentially billions of people have, at some stage, committed an act of piracy. Even most, if not every single member on this forum, either with books, movies, tv shows, music or other media items, has done so. I see the piracy references in a lot of posts here, yet most are not called out. It's only when one or two particular vigilante members get involved in a thread that it slowly gets twisted into finger pointing and piracy accusations.

But in this case, I am pointing the finger at some members here that take a question and run in a different direction with it in an attempt to entrap another member under the guise of trying to be helpful. You can see it coming a mile away.

Unfortunately in this case, the OP ended up shooting himself in the foot. Obviously did not understand, or see, my warning in time.

This forum has drawn a line that separates legal/piracy. It is an arbitrary line and most members have become comfortable with that line and justify it in their own way. Yet it is all piracy. The one act that everyone here calls piracy is, in fact, legal where I live, and that is format shifting. If I have an original and legal copy of a book, I am entitled to make a digital version of it, as long as it is me making that version and not a downloaded copy.

Yesterday I went and purchased the new Robert Galbraith book -The Hallmarked Man (yay!!). Saw it listed on Dymocks at $34.99 but at some stage reduced to $26.99. While there, noticed the new Dan Brown novel The Secret of Secrets listed as $39.99. Went to Big W and Robert Galbraith was $18 (which I purcased). Dan Brown was $30. To me, this shows how large the markups are for book retailers. I know there are a lot of people that cannot afford $40 for a novel. As a side note, the pbook I purchased is not too far off from the cost of a Kindle download. Kindle download cost

The reason I asked was in case the book was freely available to download so we could take a look at it. I did not ask because I suspected piracy.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Karellen

. . . As a side note, the pbook I purchased is not too far off from the cost of a Kindle download.

Most of the books I want to read aren't available as an e-book, or like your case the price differential is small - even higher. So I mainly read p-books, which I buy from GleeBooks. I don't keep most of what I buy, either give it to someone I think will appreciate, or trade it at Urchin Books.

Gleebooks and Urchin are local independent bricks and mortar bookshops.

BR

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Depends on where you live. For me, I remove DRM and format shift. Since I am not distributing those ebooks to other people there is no copyright infringement which is the usual definition of ebook piracy. At most, I am violating the license terms which is a civil matter and subject to the usual legal quibbling about the validity of shrinkwrap licenses.

This is a link to the Australian Law Reform Commission which is a govt department that looks at ways laws can be reformed to meet current needs. They are currently reviewing the Copyright Act. I point to it as it has wording that is easier to read, rather than trying to wade through an Act. This is, in brief, the current exceptions to copyright for personal use... https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/...current-law-2/
sections 9.10, 9.11 and 9.12 are relevant.
In my country, your process is an infringement...
Further, the exception for books, newspapers and periodicals only allows users to make one copy in each format, and storing content in the cloud may require multiple copies

Originally Posted by DNSB

If I take a physical book, slice the spine off, scan the pages and convert the results of the scan into an ebook, that would be in a very iffy legal situation here since I have destroyed the original book to create the ebook. Unless I distribute the ebook, several court decisions here have stated such actions are allowable.

Here, as long as the original remains in possession (not sure about what state it needs to be in), there is no infringement. Lose the pbook, then you need to delete any digital versions.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The reason I asked was in case the book was freely available to download so we could take a look at it. I did not ask because I suspected piracy.

Haha, I don't believe it for a second. It is your "thing". You hunt for copies then when you can't find them, you yell fire.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Most of the books I want to read aren't available as an e-book, or like your case the price differential is small - even higher. So I mainly read p-books, which I buy from GleeBooks. I don't keep most of what I buy, either give it to someone I think will appreciate, or trade it at Urchin Books.

Gleebooks and Urchin are local independent bricks and mortar bookshops.

BR

Yes, I have a few like that as well. When family members donated all their unwanted books, the ones I kept were no longer in print or available online. The unwanted ones I then on-donated to the local church run second-hand bookshop.

Haven't heard of those two bookshops here in Melbourne. But most second hand bookshops are independent, like the one closest to me which has been an absolutely fantastic resource the last few years, enabling me to complete collections I had lost track of over the years.

[Jaws]

A general comment on piracy:

Making a copy without specific authorization is copyright infringement except in those few instances for which copying is allowed by law (and they're much narrower than commentary on the internet claims, let alone the dark web). For example, in the US libraries (never defined) are allowed to make a copy of out-of-print works for archival purposes. "Format-shifting" is very much a case-by-case circumstance, and depends a great deal on actually owning the source-copy in the same general physical form (mobi to epub is probably ok; VHS to DVD might be ok; printed edition to pdf to OCR to epub, probably not).


"Piracy" usually means that an infringing copy has been distributed to others, whether "free of charge" (Grokster) or whatever.

Not all copyright infringement is "piracy." For example, if a library were to make a copy of an in print work and put it on the shelf to replace a damaged, high-demand copy of a book/e-book that the publisher was refusing to provide to libraries, that would (in the US) be "copyright infringement" because it exceeds the exception in § 108; it would probably not be piracy. A new derivative work (some fan fiction, unauthorized novelizations of audio/audiovisual products, and so on), if it takes enough of the original, may be copyright infringement without creating a literal copy, but isn't piracy.

A copyright-infringer-making-copies-who-is-not-a-pirate has violated copyright law — but the publisher/author's remedy is so uncertain that lawyers simply will not take on the matter. That doesn't make it right; it just means no (practical) consequences.

Those who misuse/throw the terms "infringing" and "pirated" about without paying attention to the convoluted/unclear legal context usually have their own agenda, little knowledge of the facts, or both. They certainly do not help any conversation about whether the copy in question is "by right".