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book-download-center.com

euclid

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I keep getting this email from "ebooks":

[Quote:]

Stop paying for books

Never spend another cent on books, magazines, newspapers, textbooks or comics ever again.

Get Unlimited Access to eBooks Here [including a link to sendtomedia.com]

Book Download Center gives you unlimited access to:

-Magazines
-Novels
-Audiobooks
-College text books
-Comic books

Read eBooks on any digital device such as your mobile phone, laptop, iPad, computer or smart phone.

[link repeated here]

Save money and enjoy the largest selection of eBooks anywhere on the internet.

[unquote]

What is this all about?

McAfee spam filter did not identify it as spam, but I'm not inclined to risk accessing the web site.

I have not included the actual link as it can hardly be legal.
 
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CaoPaux

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I'm not finding any domain by that name. What's the actual link?
 

Amadan

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Yup, looks like a pirate site. They're charging $49.95 for access to what you can get for free on BitTorrent or Usenet.
 

euclid

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Since when is anything free if it costs $49.95?

And what are BitTorrent and Usenet?
(Not that I want to download anything pirated)
 

CaoPaux

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m'kay, "sendtwomedia" is the spam service sending you the email. The ebook site is book-download-center.com.
 

euclid

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I think I got this email because I was subscribed to "sm-extras" whatever that is.
I'm unsubscribed now.
 

defyalllogic

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Since when is anything free if it costs $49.95?

And what are BitTorrent and Usenet?
(Not that I want to download anything pirated)

Those are pirating sites. Where you can download pirated copies of electronic things. kind of. the host the torrent "seed" or "link" but not the whole file. so if the site is down the file is still floating around
 

benbradley

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Yup, looks like a pirate site. They're charging $49.95 for access to what you can get for free on BitTorrent or Usenet.

Since when is anything free if it costs $49.95?

And what are BitTorrent and Usenet?
(Not that I want to download anything pirated)
People will pay $49.95 to get stolen books because they have no clue what bittorent and Usenet are, much less how to use them to get pirated content for free. And they likely have no clue these are stolen/pirated books either.

Bittorent is kinda-sorta a file transfer protocol, but it might be simpler (if basically and technically incorrect) to think of it as a Napster-like program.

Usenet is a large collection of text-based discussion forums that was started in the early years of the Internet (technically before the Internet - Usenet was mostly carried on Arpanet), years before the World Wide Web (yes, there's a difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web). There are programs that convert binary files (porn, viruses, pirated software, viruses, pirated books, viruses, pirated music - oh, and sometimes these things have viruses attached to them) to text so they can be posted and read in "binaries" Usenet newsgroups (forums on Usenet are called newsgroups).

But <Airplane! voice> that's not important right now...

Clicking "access now" on this book piracy site brings me to a signup page that wants my email address before it goes on, so I don't see how they're charging, but it's likely a credit card and/or PayPal.

What generally happens with a site like this is the publishers become aware of it and put pressure on the credit card companies, which eventually shut down their merchant accounts (as MasterCard did to Wikileaks), cutting off their main source of revenue.

That's what has happened to many Russian mp3 sites over the years. They try to look legitimate, but they just pocket every cent from every "purchase" and no royalties are paid to anyone. Here's a recent story on one:
http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54114

I recall this (credit card services cuting off the accounts) happened about 5-7 years ago to mp3download.com, a once-popular Russian site that sold tons of popular music including the Beatles (and this was years before Apple Records authorized the Beatles music for online sales/digital downloads). Many people thought (or wanted to believe) the site was legit, but the amount they were charging per song wouldn't even pay for the royalties the performers and songwriters would legitimately get.

ETA:

I hesitate to post this site of "mp3 (pirate) download site reviews" but it shows what's out there. The writing is of course loaded with the idea that there's nothing wrong with copyright violation:
The Russian government has closed down AllofMP3 and those who are trying to access its sister site, MP3Sparks, or another replacement may be disappointed that the site also seems to have disappeared. But never fear, those Russians have plenty of alternatives. We take a look at some of them.

There were roughly 6 million customers who, up until recently, were enjoying great value and service at AllofMP3 but following pressure from the United States over Russia’s World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, they are looking for replacements. MP3Sparks.com seemed to be the best replacement but as of this morning, the site appears to have disappeared – it’s unknown if this is a temporary situation.
...
http://torrentfreak.com/top-cheap-russian-allofmp3-alternatives/
 
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