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Comment by fullstop | Hacker News Reader

I have mixed feelings on z-library. I don't condone book piracy but will admit that I've used it in the past in these situations:

1. I have the book in print but want the convenience of reading while traveling without a bunch of books in tow. This one is, IMO, a morally grey area.

2. I have put books on my daughter's Kindle which she checked out from the local library through overdrive. Far too many e-books from the library require Adobe Acrobat with some DRM garbage which realistically allows you to read it on a PC or an iPad.

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I mostly feel the same way. I definitely do not condone book piracy, but I don't have any qualms about getting a digital version of a book that I have purchased. My favorite technical book publisher NoStarch Press (unaffiliated) provides eBook versions for free with purchase of a physical copy and I wish that was more common.

I do not feel the same way about audiobooks, even if I own the book, there is additional cost and value added to producing audiobooks and I can't justify pirating those even if I already own the physical book.

Yes agree with this sentiment here. This is only reason I buy books almost elusively from manning. Would be interesting to see how they estimate they loss of value from non-drm ebooks vs gain in customers like me who are buying books for no drm.

Thank you for that second statement. Too many people that I know personally justify pirating audiobooks because they already own a physical copy. A well-done audiobook (for example, Hyperion) is a production all on its own. It's an experience above and beyond the actual printed text.

I don't know if that adds to the conversation or not, but I did want to thank you for that distinction!

Similar to your use case #2, I use Z-Library (and others) to get DRM-free versions of books I bought on Apple Books. Reason being: I can't trust that Apple won't go ebook-bankrupt like Microsoft did a few years back.

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