What is Digg?Sponsored by Threadless
The Threadless Holiday Sale view!
threadless.com - Share awesomeness with your family this holiday. Grab t-shirts for all Threadless.com!
37 Comments
- agimat, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7get google's attention to the problem by encouraging people to abuse a flawed system.
nevermind the authors who actually own the content in those books.
so how many o'teilly books have you read for *free* using this flaw? don't you owe them some
money now?
what an ass.
no digg. - buckaroo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For $30 a month, I have access to 30-odd books on O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf. There are over 3500 titles there from more than a dozen publishers. Buying the books in the store would be wasting paper, and money. Gaming the Google search would be tedious and, uh, doesn't jibe with how I like to do things. The Safari subscription is an excellent middle ground. Check it out:
http://safari.oreilly.com/ - a1programmer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Also, you can only view about 3 pages until you log in. Then, you can only view about 20, until you get a restriciton on every page. I do believe they've fixed it.
- super_structure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1O'Reilly is probably the last publisher I'd ever want to abuse this way. However, I am curious if this will show up in the next version of Google Hacks.
- johnpombrio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 I have never been able to do nothing more than skim a book online even if they are free. And as for losing sales, just the opposite. Check this website out: http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm I have bought several of Baens scifi books because I liked what I read online. Amazon's look inside the book has also gotten me to buy several books. The Google Book search is an idea who's time has come. The LIBRARY does not have this stigma attached and it is not word searchable or has a lot of out of print books or all of the classics. Thank you Google Book Search!
- a1programmer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I doubt anybody has read any books using the flaw.
- super_structure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I personally will not purchase a book without first reading a few chapters, or excerpts first to know that I am getting the information that I'm looking for. This will let me do this before I head to the book store."
For what it's worth, O'Reilly has sample chapters in .pdf on their website of pretty much every book. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0not that useful in my trial run, hack ran for 2 pages, 2nd page with any info was restricted. Not to mention what a pain in the butt this is, it's easier to read them in the store than use this method. Or buy the safari subscription.
no digg - CorpT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0d00d! I can't believe that guy figured out how to work google. That's so l33t. He should be hired to write an O'Reily book about using google.
Or, I could just buy the book and read the information at my lesiure instead of search by search. - bullium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"digg. because anything that causes this much arguing has got to be good!"
LOL .... No DIGG, I subscripe to safari :) - flower, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Once you find the page you want (it works on a huge variety of books, not just Hacks- curiously you need to sign in for some to get it to work- this perhaps meaning its a feature, not flow), you can go forward and back page by page. Start at the first page and its only one search. This is got to be a flaw. If its not its a very nice feature.
- NoahK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nice story. It's getting a lot of controversy on the blog. +Digg.
- Canuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Good authors deserve their share of monies for their efforts.." So do you take the same stance on downloading MP3 music?
Also, O'Reilly has gone through the work to put their books online, did they expect that no one would read them for free?
I personally will not purchase a book without first reading a few chapters, or excerpts first to know that I am getting the information that I'm looking for. This will let me do this before I head to the book store. - appdx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0digg. because anything that causes this much arguing has got to be good!
- rEvolution27, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If I want to get some info from a book but don't want to buy it i just google book search it until i read all i need.
Who needs libraries... - jordan.basham, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I miss the days of 'Dark Deals'. Back then people didn't complain about stealing, they just knew it was stealing. Not that any 'Dark Deals' ever where stealing.
- tomskag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is a dupe anyway
- thund3rstruck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yea.. this is really, really lame.
news://alt.binaries.e-book.technical - quasipalm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0In order for this to work, you'd have to do hundreds of searches to read a single book. Kinda lame.
- WizzleFish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm not sure this is really new news - I found Google Book Search and was using it a while ago. I really prefer looking at the book itself - computer screens just aren't the same, so I'd rather use a library or a book store.
- pythonhead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
canuck said "Also, O'Reilly has gone through the work to put their books online, did they expect that no one would read them for free?"
No, but it looks like they are actively looking for and prosecuting those people:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/j/31 - drycounty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's already giving me the "you have exceeded the viewable pages" limit, even though I haven't even checked this out before. Terrible, no digg!
- themulf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, so far this works for me, just read the page, and do a really hard math equation.
If you are on page, 65 and cannot go any further, just ADD 1 to that page. Search that new number
eg: "66". Rinse and repeat. - themulf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Meh, restricted pages. I was looking at the Flash MX 2004 bible, 50$ but I have gift cards. I rather own that book then have a big ass pirated PDF. The book seems around 6'' thick.
- rosspal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Looks like Google has caught on and has now blocked the viewing of the pages.
- ToeCheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Can't read more than a page or two on a PC. I had a subscription to Safari but I just don't use it that much.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It'S not that bad for people who didnt know about it..
- sondosia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They only let you read like a few pages. Can't really get much info that way.
Therefore, it's much easier and better to just buy the book real cheap on ebay or amazon, no? - spyres, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Makes me wish I could report something as both "lame" and "old news".
- hiro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Read about this on here ages ago
- MrMysterious, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Lame...if you want to read a book for free check it out from the library or go to the bookstore.
- spiderland, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5Reported as lame.
- samwyse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0This is totally lame. If you really want to cheat O'Reilly, there are Russian sites that have their entire catalog on-line. No digg.
- StephnDolenc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0dupe
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if you're looking to buy a house in the suburban DC area, checkout
http://stephendolenc.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/12/my_house_is_on_.html - LinuxGuy1, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0I am a Linux geek and I love O'Reilly's books. They are straight forward and easy to read. I would hate to see people abusing them. Good authors deserve their share of monies for their efforts...
Has anyone reported this to O'Reilly? I think I will...
LinuxGuy - DBA for http://www.PriceComparison.com - schumi, on 10/12/2007, -6/+01) I didn't write the article 2) I already own several of these books and have given them plenty of my money.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0i have no problem with this article, people need to stop being lame.
i didnt dig it, doesnt mean i have to complain about it - just the other 'lame' users.
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is