Books you would love to buy but can't....

[BookCat]

I would love to buy the ebook of Famine by Liam O'Flaherty. I read this as a library book (physical) many years ago and it stayed in my mind. I would love to read it again, but don't want to purchase a pbook which it's a strain for me to read (I'm both short and long sighted), but it isn't available as an ebook. Botherations!

[BookCat]

I've just read back through some of this thread and noticed that the issue of pirating has been raised. I don't know if it's just in the UK, but access to pirate sites is blocked by internet providers. I think this is due to a law which came into force a few years ago, making the providers responsible for any pirating.
So it's virtually impossible to access pirate copies of ebooks, movies etc here. I'm sure that some expert techies find a way round it, but it's not worth the bother, and I would imagine that the law severely punishes offenders now.

Just thought I'd update you, though I notice that most peeps who have a location in their details and who have mentioned this issue aren't in the UK.

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I've just read back through some of this thread and noticed that the issue of pirating has been raised. I don't know if it's just in the UK, but access to pirate sites is blocked by internet providers. I think this is due to a law which came into force a few years ago, making the providers responsible for any pirating.
So it's virtually impossible to access pirate copies of ebooks, movies etc here. I'm sure that some expert techies find a way round it, but it's not worth the bother, and I would imagine that the law severely punishes offenders now.

This may be true for the sites you tried to access but there are many, many sources of pirated books on the internet and I bet the majority are not blocked by UK ISPs.

Until two years ago I was resident in the UK and liked to be aware of what the Dark Side was up to

[darryl]

Site blocking of alleged pirate sites has become routine in a number of countries, including the UK and Australia. Such blocks are generally trivial to circumvent and instructions to do so easy to find. These blocks take the form of injunctions to ISP's. A quick search reveals that the initial order was obtained by the Publishers Assocation and related to 7 named sites and 5 ISP's, BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk and EE. This may well have been expanded by now. I did not come across any change in the pre-existing situation regarding users and penalties. Users of course breach copyright when they download a pirate copy and are of course at risk of being sued. I'm not sure if there is a criminal offence involved in the UK.

I have not linked to the news reports concerned since they actually name the 7 pirate sites.

I do not of course advocate people downloading pirate copies.

[Thasaidon]

Dupilicate Posted in error

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by darryl

I'm not sure if there is a criminal offence involved in the UK.

Criminal offences relating to copyright in the UK mostly relate to counterfeiting, selling pirated works and/or distributing pirated works (even for free).

An individual who pirated a work purely for his own use and who did not give away or sell copies of the work would, as understand it it, would not be guilty of a CRIMINAL ACT. They would however be guilty of a Tort (civil wrong) and could be sued by the rights owner.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Thasaidon

Criminal offences relating to copyright in the UK mostly relate to counterfeiting, selling pirated works and/or distributing pirated works (even for free).

An individual who pirated a work purely for his own use and who did not give away or sell copies of the work would, as understand it it, would not be guilty of a CRIMINAL ACT. They would however be guilty of a Tort (civil wrong) and could be sued by the rights owner.

Thanks. That is also the situation in Australia and in most of the common law world as I understand it. Even in the US downloading for ones own use and not sharing would not seem to be an offence, though their ridiculous statutory damages regime is far worse than the likely punishment if it was.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by darryl

Thanks. That is also the situation in Australia and in most of the common law world as I understand it. Even in the US downloading for ones own use and not sharing would not seem to be an offence, though their ridiculous statutory damages regime is far worse than the likely punishment if it was.

The last time the RIAA tried a public anti-piracy campaign, they sued a number of people who were downloading music. There was so much backlash over the case of suing a grandmother over music her granddaughter had downloaded, they never tried it again.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

The last time the RIAA tried a public anti-piracy campaign, they sued a number of people who were downloading music. There was so much backlash over the case of suing a grandmother over music her granddaughter had downloaded, they never tried it again.

Yes. Also, the US Courts seem to be becoming more aware of the shortcomings of trying to identify who actually downloaded something via an ip address. Unfortunately the punitive statutory damages scheme seems to encourage this type of litigation. On the other hand, I am not aware of any other countries having adopted a punitive statutory damages regime. It is nowhere near as lucrative to sue for the price of the downloaded product plus legal costs.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I've just read back through some of this thread and noticed that the issue of pirating has been raised. I don't know if it's just in the UK, but access to pirate sites is blocked by internet providers. I think this is due to a law which came into force a few years ago, making the providers responsible for any pirating.
So it's virtually impossible to access pirate copies of ebooks, movies etc here. I'm sure that some expert techies find a way round it, but it's not worth the bother, and I would imagine that the law severely punishes offenders now.

Just thought I'd update you, though I notice that most peeps who have a location in their details and who have mentioned this issue aren't in the UK.

Actually, it's trivial. Just get a VPN.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by darryl

Yes. Also, the US Courts seem to be becoming more aware of the shortcomings of trying to identify who actually downloaded something via an ip address. Unfortunately the punitive statutory damages scheme seems to encourage this type of litigation. On the other hand, I am not aware of any other countries having adopted a punitive statutory damages regime. It is nowhere near as lucrative to sue for the price of the downloaded product plus legal costs.

There is a reason that the US bar is one of the biggest contributors in US politics.

[steven168]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Actually, it's trivial. Just get a VPN.

VPN is good... i use it to get Amazon ebooks.

[graycyn]

Many of the books I'd love to buy and have as ebook are illustrated books from my childhood, often by somewhat obscure authors. For the most part, they simply aren't available as ebook and probably won't appear any time soon.

I'm getting too old to wait it out, so I just roll my own.

But it surprises me that some books aren't currently available as ebook. Like 'My Friend Flicka' by Mary O'Hara. Remains in print, so obviously it sells. No official ebook yet though audiobook is available.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by graycyn

Many of the books I'd love to buy and have as ebook are illustrated books from my childhood, often by somewhat obscure authors. For the most part, they simply aren't available as ebook and probably won't appear any time soon.

I'm getting too old to wait it out, so I just roll my own.

But it surprises me that some books aren't currently available as ebook. Like 'My Friend Flicka' by Mary O'Hara. Remains in print, so obviously it sells. No official ebook yet though audiobook is available.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I can't say that there are a lot of illustrated books that I want from my childhood, but there are number of kids books that I would like to have. I do have a fair number of the Encyclopedia Brown books which are available in ebooks. I would like to get the old Alfred Hitchcock presents The Three Investigator series, which was a favorite of mine for a while. There are some of the later ones available, but none of the early books.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I've just read back through some of this thread and noticed that the issue of pirating has been raised. I don't know if it's just in the UK, but access to pirate sites is blocked by internet providers. I think this is due to a law which came into force a few years ago, making the providers responsible for any pirating.
So it's virtually impossible to access pirate copies of ebooks, movies etc here. I'm sure that some expert techies find a way round it, but it's not worth the bother, and I would imagine that the law severely punishes offenders now.

Just thought I'd update you, though I notice that most peeps who have a location in their details and who have mentioned this issue aren't in the UK.

I just tried an experiment using the Tor network and switching until I appeared to be coming from the UK. Out of a list of 25 sites that showed pirated ebooks, 19 of them were accessible and 1 was down. So 80% are available until someone complains about them and the ISPs block access.