Torrents and torrents..

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by ricdiogo

As some of you have stated above, Project Gutenberg seriously encourages people to download our torrents and our entire catalog.

You may find further info here.

Please please DO download Project Gutenberg's torrents and our entire catalog as long as you can/are willing to.

And please _please_ make sure you share it, seeding it with your torrent client.

We don't want our volunteers' efforts to be lost forever if Project Gutenberg's website shuts down for any reason!

We don’t want our catalog to be hosted only by a few partner websites. Our dream is that everyone may share our entire colection.

You can create your own CD/DVD and share it with whoever you want. If you are willing to create special torrents for +70 or +50 years-after-death public domain countries, please subscribe our gutvol-d volunteers’ discussion list and ask for help.

That's a great attitude to have. Too bad more people don't share it.

[xchaotic]

Originally Posted by ricdiogo

As some of you have stated above, Project Gutenberg seriously encourages people to download our torrents and our entire catalog.

You may find further info here.

Please please DO download Project Gutenberg's torrents and our entire catalog as long as you can/are willing to.

And please _please_ make sure you share it, seeding it with your torrent client.

We don't want our volunteers' efforts to be lost forever if Project Gutenberg's website shuts down for any reason!

We don’t want our catalog to be hosted only by a few partner websites. Our dream is that everyone may share our entire colection.

You can create your own CD/DVD and share it with whoever you want. If you are willing to create special torrents for +70 or +50 years-after-death public domain countries, please subscribe our gutvol-d volunteers’ discussion list and ask for help.

Great to hear such an open and optimistic approach, however, my concern is if there's more than way to do, it will confuse people.
It's very true with Linux, which despite having numerous distributions and being free, has not reached any sensible adoption rate.
It is only after concrete business entities have formed that users could rely on for support, updates and a roadmap, that serious business started moving to linux.
Last I tried getting some project Gutenberg book on an iPhone, there was at least five different ways to do it: through a kindle app, through stanza directly, through stanza indirectly, through safari... that's confusing
If I start to read a book as webpage and continue on stnaza, it will not know where I've left off etc. Like I said it's a little confusing, so while I agree that you should promote openness and sharing, there should be one 'recommended' channel for mainstream readers of project Gutenberg books.
It's all about usability and the experience that people have..

[stustaff]

Lets keep things on track here,

Most people seem to think Torrents for individual authors is a good idea, Torrents for Genres are?? but a whole torrent would be bad?

So for starters if some torrents were created as a test and posted on here would that be allowed?

Can someone in charge give some guidance, personally i think it would be great, but I would never do it if MR arent in support of it and willing to allow the link if not the file to be posted here.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Lets keep things on track here,

Most people seem to think Torrents for individual authors is a good idea, Torrents for Genres are?? but a whole torrent would be bad?

So for starters if some torrents were created as a test and posted on here would that be allowed?

Can someone in charge give some guidance, personally i think it would be great, but I would never do it if MR arent in support of it and willing to allow the link if not the file to be posted here.

I believe you've already gotten all the guidance you are likely to get, stustaff.

For better or worse, it might also be relevant to note that several of the uploaders responsible for dozens (if not hundreds) of books, HarryT among them, have expressed in the past a disdain for torrents and/or "their" books being included therein.

The resistance seems bizarre to me... because unless Alex is making ****loads of money off of MobileRead, it is exactly the sort of website that has every possibility of disappearing off the earth from one day to the next without notice, taking with it thousands of public domain eBooks that belong neither to MobileRead nor to their compilers.

If you make the torrent, I will download and seed.

- Ahi

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by ahi

For better or worse, it might also be relevant to note that several of the uploaders responsible for dozens (if not hundreds) of books, HarryT among them, have expressed in the past a disdain for torrents and/or "their" books being included therein.

Thanks Ahi thats why I'm holding off for now, it would be good to get some feedback or thoughts but i just dont know I'm now starting to feel guilty about sharing these books that are 'supposedly' public domain.

[HarryT]

They ARE public domain - nothing "supposedly" about it. Do whatever you want with them!

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They ARE public domain - nothing "supposedly" about it. Do whatever you want with them!

Sorry HarryT perhaps teh wrong word.

What I mean by that is that I appreciate the work those people have put in and wouldnt want to do something that they are not happy with even IF it is possible.

e.g If one of my photos was in the public domain and someone used it to promote something I wasnt in agreement with then that may make me unhappy and less likely to release more photos in the future.

It may just be that I am used to my images even though in the PD and available for people to download freely, often people will email to ask if its ok to use the image for X.Y or Z. Its just a nice way of doing things to me.

[vivlio]

Hey guys,hi again.I have more of a terrabyte on books,textbooks and so on.Oh yeah I love it.My personal physical library has more than 10,000$ worth books and a bit of more than 1,000 titles.Why are torrents bad?Even pirated titles?
Some foolish editors don't provide preview material of new titles on google books.I had to download a copy before buying.I saved money from buying an awful,ridiculous medical textbook, a supposed 5 star and bestseller on amazon.No I didn't keep the downloaded copy.
I've got ebook editions of textbooks costing to me more than 100$ each in my netbook.From torrents.
I never download or read mediocries like St.King's stupid books,never read stupid comics.Average level and below, modern fiction literature.I read only classics, in luxurious skin bonded editions.
Life is too small to waste it on reading average or worthless fantasy stories.

I pay to certain magazines even a 200$ subscription, I need them for my work as a future to be doctor,yes I could pirate them, but what would the meaning be?

Just bought the new ipod touch 64GB, it's good.
The current ebook reader models are not satisfactory at all.I'll go for the plasticlogic model,I don't care about the cost.

Ahi is right on his post, a torrent with the free books here would be great.I'd gladly seed it.

Keep seeding.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They ARE public domain - nothing "supposedly" about it. Do whatever you want with them!

You yourself expressed in the past, Harry, that you would be upset by certain (namely commercial, if I recall correctly) use of public domain eBooks you uploaded.

Patricia stated in the past:

Originally Posted by Patricia

I would be extremely reluctant to see my uploads on a torrent site, in company with so much illicit material. I don't even have torrent software on any of my computers.
Surely it is not a such a hardship to visit this site and get the latest versions from us?

How many other people have various degrees of disdain for liberal use of "their" eBooks? And how many would decide to try to do something that goes beyond a simple polite complaint/request to opt out?

That is the question, for whoever decides to go against the flow and setup a torrent of MobileRead offered public domain eBooks.

- Ahi

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ahi

You yourself expressed in the past, Harry, that you would be upset by certain (namely commercial, if I recall correctly) use of public domain eBooks you uploaded.

Yes, I would be, because I think that it's unethical to attempt to commercially profit from someone else's work in that way.

HOWEVER, my personal feelings on the matter are completely irrelevent when it comes to a discussion of what can or cannot actually be done.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, I would be, because I think that it's unethical to attempt to commercially profit from someone else's work in that way.

HOWEVER, my personal feelings on the matter are completely irrelevent when it comes to a discussion of what can or cannot actually be done.

Yours may be, that of someone else who feels strongly enough to harass or sue to get their way would be anything but irrelevant.

Would you not agree?

Or does that seem too far fetched in a MobileRead context?

- Ahi

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, I would be, because I think that it's unethical to attempt to commercially profit from someone else's work in that way.

So anybody who sells PD material is unethical?

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

So anybody who sells PD material is unethical?

I imagine it is a natural consequence of seeing value neither in paper books nor in professional typography... since those are the main ways that a publisher can add value to public domain content.

Not to say that is Harry's specific personal view, but rather that it does seem to be the view of many MobileRead members.

- Ahi

[Greg Anos]

If I may be permitted to comment...

I recommend the following answer, PM each uploader and ask. Some will say yes and some will say no and some won't respond. Build your torrent from those who say yes. This way much of the site will be available and nobody will have their labor appropriated without their permission.

In my case, anybody who wants to read my stuff deserves the eyestrain they get.... (That's a yes, by the way.)

RSE

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

If I may be permitted to comment...

I recommend the following answer, PM each uploader and ask. Some will say yes and some will say no and some won't respond. Build your torrent from those who say yes. This way much of the site will be available and nobody will have their labor appropriated without their permission.

In my case, anybody who wants to read my stuff deserves the eyestrain they get.... (That's a yes, by the way.)

RSE

Thanks for your support!

Why PM instead of querying on the forum out in the open? Positive responses might well affect a change of mind of those who might, by their initial gut feeling, be against the idea.

- Ahi