[HN Gopher] A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library...
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A search engine for searching books in the Z-Library index on the
IPFS network
Author : baptiste313
Score : 295 points
Date : 2022-12-29 19:05 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (zlib.zu1k.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (zlib.zu1k.com)
| mordae wrote:
| It would be even cooler if it found books of "Stanislaw Lem" with
| the correct name as well as its ASCII equivalent "Stanislaw Lem".
| mdaniel wrote:
| You may want to try building it locally without their
| AsciiFoldingFilter and see if it behaves as you wish:
| https://github.com/zlib-searcher/zlib-searcher/blob/0.6.0/cr...
|
| I don't know tantivy well enough to know if it'd be possible to
| put the folded in one field and the literal in another and then
| use the search syntax to choose between them
| jesusofnazarath wrote:
| looks great. Is there an api for something like this so i can
| make it an extension of my terminal?
| baptiste313 wrote:
| Of course there are examples on their
| [GitHub](https://github.com/zlib-searcher/zlib-
| searcher#original-sear...)
| hosh wrote:
| You can self-host it: https://github.com/zlib-searcher/zlib-
| searcher
| mdaniel wrote:
| Wow, I had no idea GitHub releases would tolerate such a huge
| release asset: https://github.com/zlib-searcher/zlib-
| searcher/releases (index_0.6.zip is 1.48GB and index_0.5.zip
| is 1.75GB) It seems their API docs do talk about 502s during
| upload, but don't otherwise specify a limit: https://docs.git
| hub.com/en/rest/releases/assets?apiVersion=2...
|
| The irony of not hosting them on IPFS does not escape me :-/
| tmpburning wrote:
| Can't wait for someone to come up for a solution to copyright
| that will benefit everyone.
| ROTMetro wrote:
| So, you mean, the current copyright solution? That has seen
| creation of works skyrocket? Or do you mean a system where
| people can steal what they want because 'reasons' and 'they
| want to pay less because xyz'? Do you propose a system that
| takes ownership from authors and redistributes their works
| maybe? Why shouldn't owners get to set the pricing? Just
| because people want to steal doesn't mean it's ok to. Just
| because people don't like the price doesn't mean they should
| get to set it. The current system not working would look
| something like no works being released (because the author felt
| it wasn't worth it). The fact that people put in so much effort
| to steal these works shows the current system is in fact
| working. People wanting to steal does not equal not working.
| Authors can set their prices to free, but funny, they choose
| not to (as is their right).
| tmpburning wrote:
| imagine if you built a building and then someone purchased
| it... and everyone that visited it also had to also pay
| you.... thats a bit like how copyright is today...
|
| But what is even worst is that they are trying to make you
| pay them forever (subscriptions).
| yucky wrote:
| > Or do you mean a system where people can steal what they
| want because 'reasons' and 'they want to pay less because
| xyz'?
|
| If you have a copy of something, and I make a copy of it, and
| you still have your copy of it, what was stolen? If I find a
| book in the library and take pictures of each page, is that
| also theft? What if I write all the words down? What if I use
| a hand scanner and OCR to copy and transcribe it, is that
| theft?
| spigottoday wrote:
| Not an author, are you. Not a lawyer either. When you have
| spent years honing your craft and spent many months
| creating a work so that you can buy what you need to live
| and can't afford to support your self and your family
| without that income and then YOU give that work away - then
| I may find some value in your self serving questions. By
| the way, the answer to your questions is yes.
| tadfisher wrote:
| The obvious response is that you stole the author's income,
| by obtaining a copy of their work without compensating them
| for it.
|
| So the obvious retort is that you may not have bothered to
| purchase the author's work, forgoing your opportunity to
| read it, thus the author did not lose their sale.
|
| The conversation will then turn to defending the existence
| of copyright as an incentivization to produce valuable
| works worth reading, and then to how the publishing
| industry eats those incentives anyway.
|
| In the end, no one will exit the conversation having gained
| any insight.
| yucky wrote:
| > So the obvious retort is that you may not have bothered
| to purchase the author's work, forgoing your opportunity
| to read it, thus the author did not lose their sale.
|
| I can't speak for all pirates, but I will pirate things I
| want to sample and then often buy it if it's what I was
| looking for. At least with books. I haven't bought music
| in 20 years.
| brunoqc wrote:
| Is that web site accessible with ipfs?
| ROTMetro wrote:
| I hope every project you work on has it's source code stolen
| resulting in failure. And this is coming from a pretty crappy
| person, but this website sure does love stealing from authors (so
| that it can enjoy the fruits of their labor).
| cratermoon wrote:
| A question about z-lib, libgen, and regular libraries
|
| Suppose I check an e-book out of my local library. Because
| Reasons, the library doesn't "own" unlimited "copies" of the
| book, so each "copy" can only be checked out to one patron at a
| time and if there are enough holds then a patron can't renew a
| checked out book. In short, ebooks in libraries are just like
| regular paper books, except to you don't have leave your house.
|
| I had this ebook on hold for three months because it's very
| popular, but finally have it on my device, but I only have 3
| weeks before I can no longer read it because of holds. I get
| about 2/3rds the way through before lock closes on the bits on my
| device. It's a very popular book, it will be 3 months before I
| can read it again.
|
| I go online, use some service, find the exact same book, down to
| all but the locking bits, and download it, finish reading it a
| few days later, and then forget about it. I might delete it later
| if I need room.
|
| Is that a crime? Have either the author or publisher lost money?
| On the one hand, I can say yes because if the libraries purchased
| more "copies", the waiting list wouldn't be so long, I might have
| been able to renew it and finish it. On the other hand, I wasn't
| going to buy the book myself, and the library has to balance
| budget and demand, so they probably wouldn't purchase additional
| "copies".
|
| What ethical questions do authors and readers see here?
| juuular wrote:
| You might find this interesting:
|
| Reverse engineering yet another ebook format (Nemanja
| Mijailovic) https://mijailovic.net/2022/12/25/hkpropel/
| wccrawford wrote:
| My layman's understanding of copyright law says you didn't
| commit a crime, but whoever sent you the book _did_ commit a
| crime. My understanding is that it 's not illegal to download a
| book, it's illegal to distribute a book. (Or other copyrighted
| work.)
| staunch wrote:
| I'm looking forward to some new AI system making it possible to
| generate high quality audiobooks from epub files.
|
| This "AI book reader" doesn't exist yet, right?
| mdaniel wrote:
| The Google Books mobile app will read any(?) book in your
| library, and at least they used to support uploading your own
| books, although I haven't tried it in a while:
| https://play.google.com/books/uploads?type=ebooks and in the
| individual book, tap on it, tap the bamboo menu, choose "Read
| aloud"
| rockemsockem wrote:
| Working on this now, cherry-picked audio from such AI systems
| abound, but submitting arbitrary text for audio synthesis
| requires a much higher quality bar to be listenable. Planning
| to have something out early 2023.
| o_____________o wrote:
| What's the best off the shelf solution you've found? I've
| been trying a few different apps to read my queued articles
| to me, but all of the voices are awful.
| FounderBurr wrote:
| [flagged]
| jarboot wrote:
| Loving the simplicity of a typescript frontend + rust backend
| Nican wrote:
| I like reading about IPFS, but I do not really have the time to
| learn about it and get involved.
|
| Last I remember, Z-Library was having an issue scaling the DHS to
| handle the number of files [1]. Did those issues get resolved?
| How is it going now? Also, is there anything being done to ensure
| every file has seeders?
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33716560
| survirtual wrote:
| I've dived deep into IPFS and built several prototypes on top
| of it. It ended up not being performant enough for me, and that
| was after heavily modifying the codebase so that it was true
| p2p browser & server (their webrtc transport had a lot of
| issues and they didn't seem too interested in it, but my needs
| required it as a backbone).
|
| The security was also a concern, and the scaling had issues.
| Pinning millions of small items got so slow it would not
| function. Then I ended up having concerns over hashed based
| addressing being easy to censor with the architecture IPFS was
| using (more hub & spoke than anything, given signaling and
| relay servers were centralized).
|
| I could go on but I ran into so many issues I ended up
| implementing my own solution that did everything I wanted.
| Wanted to squeeze even more performance, I've been converting
| that solution to Rust.
|
| This was a couple years ago so maybe things have changed since
| I used it. Last I checked, they seemed busy on Filecoin.
|
| The idea of IPFS is great and I want to see it succeed, but I
| think that they got so caught up in their jargon and
| modularity, the project lost track of some fundamentals.
| oldgregg wrote:
| Honestly I think Consensys/IPFS/Libp2p is just some
| corporatized way to derail real P2P and decentralization.
| Their libraries are total garbage. Lots of complicated code
| that simply doesn't work. No documentation. I mean look how
| much IPFS and Libp2p is pumped but IT DOESN'T WORK. IPNS is a
| joke. All way overengineered crap that does everything but
| actually nothing. Look at the $$$ and pedigree behind
| Consensys it's 100% establishment.
| survirtual wrote:
| Anything is possible, but having some limited github
| interactions with the core team, that seems unlikely. My
| impression is that they are a passionate group that hit the
| jackpot a bit prematurely.
|
| Their intentions seemed good to me they just have an
| ungodly amount of financing while perhaps lacking a core
| vision & understanding of what is at stake.
|
| Put another way, seems more like an academic building
| something rather than a seasoned industry pro.
|
| In any case, I don't want to disparage their project. I
| learned a lot from their code & concepts. We are all on our
| own roads towards brilliance, contributing to each other in
| all kinds of ways.
| oldgregg wrote:
| I certainly wouldn't disparage the talent- no doubt vast
| majority have good intentions but unfortunately they are
| being paid handsomely to have their work be rendered
| ineffective. Gobble up all the best P2P devs and get them
| focused on work that is largely ineffective. Lots of code
| and specs but nothing really usable. Code is not very
| original, they just take other libraries and tweak them.
| mplex is their version of yamux, autonat is their version
| of stun/ice... but then none of their libraries really
| work together seemlessly. Embrace extend extinguish? If
| you look at their massive code output then google "what
| apps use libp2p" you won't find anything because nobody
| uses it. Berty is really only app worth a mention.
| password4321 wrote:
| > _my own solution that did everything I wanted_
|
| Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to
| your newsletter!
|
| (I really would appreciate any pointers to additional info on
| something that actually works...)
| survirtual wrote:
| If you find something, let me know. It would save me a lot
| of trouble.
|
| Until then, what I'm building unfortunately doesn't seem to
| have a peer. So I will keep at it. If it gets to a point
| where I believe it can be useful to others, I will share it
| freely.
| codetrotter wrote:
| > If it gets to a point where I believe it can be useful
| to others, I will share it freely.
|
| It sounds very useful already.
|
| I'd love to see the code even if it's not in a quite
| working state yet.
| steponlego wrote:
| Works great, that's old news which is no longer current.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| ZFS (Zettabyte File System) is very much separate from
| Z-Library (and its alternative frontends like libgen).
| Nican wrote:
| Thanks. My brain crossed wires between Z-Library and IPFS. I
| updated my post.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| Completely understandable!
| deanc wrote:
| Is the catalog on IPFS different to the catalog available via one
| of the libgen front-ends? I just performed a search on both for
| one title and it found it right away on a libgen front-end, but
| not here.
| [deleted]
| nestorD wrote:
| I just did a quick test, it could do with slightly fuzzier
| searching ('Epub' as an extension got me no result while 'epub'
| did, a drop down menu with options might be better/simpler for
| some fields) but, otherwise, it seems functional and useful.
| Cort3z wrote:
| It seems case sensitive on some (or all?) of the input fields.
| At least for the author field in some of my searches.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| FWIW https://libgen.rs already has good search for basically the
| same books. I like the denser layout that makes better use of
| whitespace than this HN submission does.
| mohamez wrote:
| I think the best thing about libgen is their detailed filter to
| search books with covers which makes it really easy to scan
| books you are looking for assuming you know the cover pages.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| layer8 wrote:
| Has LibGen already caught up to Z-Library? I thought that was
| still very much a work in progress.
| makeworld wrote:
| You can use https://annas-archive.org/
| moffkalast wrote:
| Fantastic, I knew something would come up eventually after the
| old site was taken down.
| benevol wrote:
| Well, nice work. But poor authors...
| [deleted]
| SpelingBeeChamp wrote:
| Anyone know of a similar search engine that allows the user to
| filter search results by year?
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