In case anyone hasn't seen the hilarious scare screen on one of the seized ZLibrary domains. lol

"zomg russian cyber criminals are using free books to fund their lavish lifestyles!!!!!!1!1!!!!1! you should go support ~~corporate rent seeking publishers~~ 'creators' by paying thousands for basic knowledge!!!11"

this shit sounds like it was written by a middle schooler making a history presentation. it's hilarious

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Meanwhile, ai companies that are doing exactly the same are allowed to rack up billions in revenue.
"It's American for profit corporation, not a Russian cybercriminal!"
- If the DoJ replaced google.com with a similar scare screen, a message about the AI feature appearing before search results, and photos of CEO yachts, that might actually give me hope for the future.
  Maybe include a screenshot of the AI Overview so there's no ambiguity about what feature was problematic. Something like this:
  Tangent - I remember reading a blog post when oink got seized saying that if the guy behind it was trying to make a profit rather than to create a library he would be respected like another Steve Jobs rather than being imprisoned. I still 100% believe that.
  RIP oink's pink palace, I was a member for only two or three years but it opened up the world to me. Got invited from a guy at my undergrad I never met in person or knew his name, there was a local filesharing network on campus with a few hundred students on it and we had similar music tastes so would im occasionally. Hope you are doing well wherever you are now, meowfaceman.
  
  More proof that AI is in the pocket of Big Geology.

Seems like a fairly reasonable way to live. Is that supposed to look lavish?
Let's see the lifestyles of the CEOs for Springer, Wiley, and Elsevier for comparison.
- Let’s see the lifestyles of the CEOs for Springer, Wiley, and Elsevier for comparison.
  FBI be like:
- There's a rainbow. Its so gay! Therefore ... wrong!!!111
- Those fucks forcing money into their pockets from science are the absolute dregs of society. I actually respect angel investors more since maybe they made a good decision with their money (that feels gross to just type, even!). The fact that a select few companies are able to make science pay to win is absolutely sickening.
  This is coming from someone that never even graduated college, let alone spending time in academia.
- Let's see Paul Allen's lifestyle.
  
  It even has a watermark.

Not a boat! Not a family vacation! Gasp! An… RV!?!?? SOMEONE THINK OF THE RIGHTSHOLDERS!

Oh no, somebody who might be Russian took a family vacation to go fishing with their loved ones!? What an orgy of indulgence! The audacity!

As if money actually goes to the content creators 😂
- More hilarious jokes have never been told in history

That boat and RV look middle class at best.
- It's almost as if some desk jockey used photos from their family vacation lol.

Oh, no! People are enjoying their lives!
- Uh, no. Can't you read? These are not people. They are Russian cybercriminals

They... Own a tiny home? Wow. What luxary.

It's at least reassuring to know that the DoJ values the privacy of these horrible criminals enough to warrant blurring their faces. Hard to believe those assholes were spending the money on beautiful rainbows. A rainbow isn't a tangible possession someone can just keep to themselves! The idea that some guy can just own this abstract thing is deeply offensive to me and I will not be giving any more of my hard-earned money to library genesis.
- Bet it's a stock image the FBI didn't pay for
- Makes me think of this video of the geneticist Albert Jacquard that tries to show how ideas will always be in the commons. How it's impossible for people to own a concept of an idea, using the example of "it's impossible to tell who saw the rainbow the first to own its concept".
  It's in french but it's a total masterclass, I should translate it someday : https://effingo.be/2011/05/22/albert-jacquard-demonte-le-concept-de-propriete-intellectuelle/

Isn’t the FBI supposed to be non-political?
Yet here they are trying to own Z-Libs
- Isn’t the FBI supposed to be non-political?
  😂

No the poor copyright owners I'm so upset

THOSE MOTHER FUCKERS BOUGHT A RAINBOW!?
I'm impressed.
- I know right? They don't come cheap from the Rainbow Factory, those ponies drive a hard bargain.
  
  Memories once buried have been unearthed...
  But really, books already are not the way to make a fortune unless you are in the field of basically being able to dictate what books are used in every educational institution in an entire nation. How would they imagine a pirate, who shares these books, has server upkeep to pay and at best gets very sporadic donations, could afford a lavish lifestyle from this endeavour?
- It's for rainbow washing :)

That seems nice. Glad they're getting something in return for saving me so much money.

- 😎 not to worry, corpo has directed your tax money towards righting this wrong. all will be well soon!
  
  After the CEO gets back from their super yacht vacation, of course
  (paid for by underpaying employees and wage theft)

Note that with rare exceptions, creators are not supported by your purchases. Rather the studios, labels and publishers wh cheat creators are.
If you want to support the creators, pay them directly, or go to one of their performances / signings / functions. But still pirate their work.
- That's what I always do. There are smaller creators that I support via donations or patreon but I never pay directly for the content itself.

I’m disappointed I didn’t see a piracy parody of this before seeing this. Come on internet.

The FBI is trying to trick me into feeling guilty, too bad I was the firstborn of a single mother and this shit does not work on me anymore

"You can't download a boat"?
- Not with that attitude you can't!
  
  Call the 3D printers, we need a bigger benchy!

I found out about this the other day and the first impression I got was that someone hacked their server and put this just for laughs.
- Yeah it's legit, it's been up a hot minute (since May iirc). I clicked the wrong zlibrary bookmark out of reflex and then remembered how hilarious the scare screen was.

I don't pay for piracy, but if I did I'd be glad I could help.

They should show some pictures of the real leeches.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3052267/the-house-that-calculus-built
https://apnews.com/a-look-at-how-settlements-have-grown-in-the-west-bank-over-the-years-0000019079d8d0f6a3da79dcbd0a0000

That caravan looks nice

- I.... don't condone such behavior but I also don't hate this idea lol

That's horrible! I can't believe how these criminals are wasting the money that should rightfully be getting used for cheese pizza and hot dog parties!

Another Russian oligarch's mega yacht seized!

Reminder that sites like israel.tv are still "illegal" to visit and all US ISPs are forced to block it, even though this directly contradicts Net Neutrality.