E-book of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol outsells the hardback on Amazon

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Slite

Piratebay as such, no. Whats behind the website (i.e. the torrent sharers) very much so

Hmmm... I disagree--the network between the torrent sharers are still publicly accessible.

A darknet would be a password protected, invitation only torrent website and its torrent sharers. No?

Originally Posted by kennyc

Just as the CD industry has learned.

Agreed. Music piracy is of no genuine relevance to the music industry... short of being a way to extort protection fees from occasional unlucky customers of theirs.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it people have to mention Apple's new vaporware tablet which isn't a real product? This ruins a perfectly good article.

Utterly, utterly ruined. By Gods!

- Ahi

[Slite]

Originally Posted by ahi

Hmmm... I disagree--the network between the torrent sharers are still publicly accessible.

A darknet would be a password protected, invitation only torrent website and its torrent sharers. No?

Depends on ones definition of Darknet doesnt it? A Darknet for me is something that is on the shady side of the Interwebs, regardless if it is open or closed

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by ahi

.....


Utterly, utterly ruined. By Gods!

- Ahi

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ahi

Utterly, utterly ruined. By Gods!

- Ahi

What it does is take away any credibility the author had up until that point.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What it does is take away any credibility the author had up until that point.

Truth in that.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by ahi

To be fair though... the piratebay is hardly a darknet. And it is may well be responsible for far more (in terms of number of downloads) ebook piracy than darknets are.

Of course, Pirate Bay or any other torrent search engine, and even the grandfather of them all, UseNet, are part of the lightnet. You are probably correct that they still account for the majority of pirated media transactions, but there is no way to tell for *sure* since the real darknets cannot be tracked. I do think that a lot of the stuff that ends up on torrents or UseNet probably originated in one of the darknets, but that is just my guess.

Just to stay on topic a little bit, "The Lost Symbol" has appeared on the torrent trackers and on UseNet in multiple formats already.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Slite

Depends on ones definition of Darknet doesnt it? A Darknet for me is something that is on the shady side of the Interwebs, regardless if it is open or closed

If your a descriptivist. Otherwise this definition seems reasonable.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What it does is take away any credibility the author had up until that point.

ALL of it!

Originally Posted by Dave_S

I do think that a lot of the stuff that ends up on torrents or UseNet probably originated in one of the darknets, but that is just my guess.

You are probably correct. There is doubtless a unique danger of being ID'd as "the original copyright infringer"... as that would make darknets ideal for initial release of pirate booty--yarrr!

- Ahi

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Of course, Pirate Bay or any other torrent search engine, and even the grandfather of them all, UseNet, are part of the lightnet. You are probably correct that they still account for the majority of pirated media transactions, but there is no way to tell for *sure* since the real darknets cannot be tracked. I do think that a lot of the stuff that ends up on torrents or UseNet probably originated in one of the darknets, but that is just my guess.

Just to stay on topic a little bit, "The Lost Symbol" has appeared on the torrent trackers and on UseNet in multiple formats already.

You're forgetting one: IRC. It's still alive and kicking...

[Superlucky]

I did an experiment because of this thread. I went to The Pirate Bay, got the pdf, added tags, cropped it a little and used calibre to convert it to an epub.

It's perfectly readable. If it were not available as an ebook, this copy would suit my needs just fine. Try it - it's not nearly as ugly as you think. I'm pretty shocked at how good it turned out.


I actually think that some authors may be helped by piracy. I did not want to read James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, but I promised a friend I would only if I could find it for free. I liked it, and when Bright, Shiny Morning came out I purchased it and told lots of people how much I liked it. The publisher lost nothing, as I would never have purchased AMLP, and they gained my purchase of BSM plus some good word of mouth on both books.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Superlucky

I actually think that some authors may be helped by piracy. I did not want to read James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, but I promised a friend I would only if I could find it for free. I liked it, and when Bright, Shiny Morning came out I purchased it and told lots of people how much I liked it. The publisher lost nothing, as I would never have purchased AMLP, and they gained my purchase of BSM plus some good word of mouth on both books.

While there is some benefit to introducing you to an author, don't you think that after being introduced to his work and by your own admission enjoying the book, don't you think it reasonable that you should buy that first one too, any other response is nothing more than a rationalisation.

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by Crowl

While there is some benefit to introducing you to an author, don't you think that after being introduced to his work and by your own admission enjoying the book, don't you think it reasonable that you should buy that first one too, any other response is nothing more than a rationalisation.

The rationalization is sufficient and logical.

In other words, no, I don't think it's reasonable. The purchase of the subsequent book and the recommendations it elicited were contingent upon there being a pirated copy of the first book. To the author and publisher it was an unquantifiable net gain. I will buy any book the guy publishes from now on and will continue to recommend his books to others. I think that is reasonable compensation for the poor-quality pirated copy that I downloaded.

[neilmarr]

Hardback, paperback, ebook, discounted, pirated, whatever; *The Lost Symbol* is a waste of good reading time. I finished it last night and feel cheated of several hours that could have been better spent.

On top of Brown's usual carboard characters and unbelievable dialogue, the story is impossibly unlikely with no real motive for anyone being involved, the boring and obvious 'clues' lead nowhere, and the tale doesn't climax -- it merely peters out.

How the heck any editor could let this roll beats me. Utter tripe. Should never have seen the light of day, far less been hyped to high heaven as 'the publishing event of all time'.

I've read all Brown's earlier work and -- although not exactly high literature -- I've always thought him a sound, workmanlike author who turns in a good job. Not any more. *The Lost Symbol* reads like a rough first draft that needs drastic revision on all fronts -- especially the storyline itself.

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Hardback, paperback, ebook, discounted, pirated, whatever; *The Lost Symbol* is a waste of good reading time. I finished it last night and feel cheated of several hours that could have been better spent.

On top of Brown's usual carboard characters and unbelievable dialogue, the story is impossibly unlikely with no real motive for anyone being involved, the boring and obvious 'clues' lead nowhere, and the tale doesn't climax -- it merely peters out.

How the heck any editor could let this roll beats me. Utter tripe. Should never have seen the light of day, far less been hyped to high heaven as 'the publishing event of all time'.

I've read all Brown's earlier work and -- although not exactly high literature -- I've always thought him a sound, workmanlike author who turns in a good job. Not any more. *The Lost Symbol* reads like a rough first draft that needs drastic revision on all fronts -- especially the storyline itself.

I'm about a half the way in, so maybe I should withhold judgement, but I keep waiting for it to start. At this point in Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci COde I was rapt. I expected, as you say, "cardboard characters and unbelievable dialogue", but I expected an exciting plot and adept, vivid descriptions of art and architecture. So far it's just an annoying overuse of italics and mini-cliffhangers where the "cliffs" are so small you can step off them. *sigh*

[Superlucky]

This is fun:

The interactive Dan Brown plot generator

[Over]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

I've read all Brown's earlier work and -- although not exactly high literature -- I've always thought him a sound, workmanlike author who turns in a good job. Not any more. *The Lost Symbol* reads like a rough first draft that needs drastic revision on all fronts -- especially the storyline itself.

You just don't edit Dan Brown's books. He's like Chuck Norris of literature. You just don't mess with him.