Month: August 2024

Microsoft will sich offenbar der Konkurrenz durch SteamOS stellen: Der Game Bar vom PC bekommt einen Compact Mode für Windows-Handhelds. (Mobil, Steam)

Keine Sci-Fi-Action, sondern menschliche Geschichten in einer unmenschlichen Zukunft: zehn Filme, die man gesehen haben muss. Von Peter Osteried (Science-Fiction, Film)

Das Google Pixel 8 Smartphone mit 50-MP-Kamera, KI-Funktionen und langer Akkulaufzeit ist bei Amazon jetzt zum Aktionspreis erhältlich. (Google Pixel, Smartphone)

Ein Start im März wie bei der ersten Switch? Eher nicht: Laut Entwicklern will Nintendo die Switch 2 erst später bringen. (Nintendo Switch, Nintendo)

Mit Kritik umzugehen ist eine Kunst, die nicht jeder beherrscht. Auch James Cameron hat sich in die Riege jener eingereiht, die es nicht können. (Filme & Serien, KI)

Vieles ist neu an .NET 8 und C# 12: In einer Artikelreihe werfen wir einen genauen Blick darauf, was das für die praktische Entwicklerarbeit bedeutet. Von Fabian Deitelhoff (.Net, Microsoft)

Wie kam das Tier auf die ISS? (ISS, Raumfahrt)

Library Genesis (LibGen) is one of the oldest shadow libraries on the Internet, offering free access to millions of books and academic papers people otherwise have to pay for.

The site’s origins reportedly trace back to the Soviet Union’s underground publishing culture ‘samizdat,’ which was used to bypass state censorship in the last century.

LibGen launched around 2008 as a digital version of the same concept. In addition to bypassing ‘local’ censorship, it’s widely used to circumvent the paywalls of major international publishing companies, serving as a popular ‘pirate’ site for (text)books and academic works.

Rightsholders have attempted to take the site offline several times over the years, but none led to concrete results. Today, Libgen.rs, Libgen.is and Libgen.st remain online, but downloading pirated books turns out to be quite a challenge.

Inactive LibGen Admin and Downloads?

Starting last weekend, regular LibGen downloads suddenly stopped working. The outage suggests that there’s a problem with the storage servers, but there’s no official explanation.

The lack of communication doesn’t come as a complete surprise. A few months ago, the site already appeared to have some internal struggles. The person in charge of the site’s coding has reportedly been ‘inactive’ for a while.

This personnel issue may explain the database errors and technical trouble that resulted in broken functionality a few months back. It may also explain why new torrents are not being added on a weekly or daily basis. Presently, the latest torrent archive on the site dates back to April.

Whether these earlier reports are related to the current download problems is unknown, but without any official update or mention from the people behind the curtain, it could mean that LibGen is no longer actively managed.

Legal Troubles

Technical issues can admittedly have various causes. Aside from a lack of manpower, it’s also possible that servers were targeted by complaints from rightsholders. This seems less likely, however, as most parts of the website remain online.

LibGen has previously been the subject of legal action, however. Through court orders, LibGen is now blocked in several countries, but taking the operation permanently offline has proven quite the challenge, not least since the identities of its operators are unknown.

Last year, LibGen was also targeted in U.S. court by several prominent textbook publishers including Cengage, Macmillan Learning, and Pearson Education. The companies requested millions in damages and an injunction to shut down various domain names.

LibGen hasn’t responded to this complaint in court, and a request for a default judgment is currently pending. If that’s granted, LibGen can lose control over some of its domain names.

There is no indication that the current download problems are related to this court case, however. The domain names in question still work.

LibGen has many millions of monthly users, some of whom have shared their frustrations on social media, including on Reddit. This includes many students, who were hoping to pirate textbooks ready for the start of the school year, which is no longer an option today via any of the official domains.

Time will tell whether this is the end of LibGen, or just a temporary hiccup.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Einige Windows-Systeme können seit den Juli-Updates ohne Eingabe eines Bitlocker-Keys nicht mehr starten. Microsofts "Lösung" dafür scheint gar keine zu sein. (Updates & Patches, Microsoft)

Hohe Performance durch viel Cache gibt es vielleicht bald sehr günstig. Besonders die Core-i3- und i5-CPUs von Intel bekommen dadurch neue Konkurrenz. (Prozessor, AMD)