Life after Flibusta

Why is the legendary pirate library of Runet depends on one person

On September 23, 2024, the creator of “Flibusta” blew up the community of an independent library resource with an unexpected post, entitled “end”. “This is Stiver. I am in a hospital with indecent globor sizes. Unfortunately, Flibusta apparently ended on this, like myself. Thank you all, it was fun. Servers were paid for a few more weeks. ”

The discussion of the post has been going on for several days and develops in two directions. The first direction is personal: from “Farewell, the most beloved librarian” to “Hold on, fight. Cancer is not a sentence. Get well".

The second is around the future “Flibusta”. 1 354 142 resource users are seriously concerned about the future unique Russian-speaking online library of fiction, in which more than 633,000 books are digitized.

I suggest readers to join the wishes of the speedy recovery of the Stever (because oncology is really not a sentence today, especially in Germany, where, according to rumors, an anonymous creator “Flibusta” lives and is treated) and concentrate today on the second topic of discussion-salvation of a unique network resource of educating people who speak and read in Russian.

This task is more than ever relevant for compatriots, since fiction as a cultivator of universal moral and ethical values ​​(namely universal , and not this all the nausea with civilizational escapism in the obscurantist of household traditions) is now much more effective than any translated and marketing textbooks actively removed from the intra-Russian educational process.

It is also necessary to focus on the topic of salvation “Flibusta” because the dominant opinion about this is formed, for obvious reasons, modern “technical intelligentsia”. And this technical intelligentsia, due to the specifics of its positivist education, point blank not noting that it is obvious to any humanitarism, offers decisions that are guaranteed to drown the library faster than any inaction.

So, what are the “physicists” offer? The options for salvation "Flibusta" are purely technical.

Firstly, it is supposed to not wait until the prepayment of the servers ends, and quickly copy the entire content of the library into some cloud, even better-distribute users on countless computers, and then distribute in the usual format of a torrent tracker.

Secondly, it is proposed to arrange a fold and raise money to continue paying servers. A couple of volunteers have already advanced at the Flibusta forum (one is not an anonymous user from Israel, the other from Australia), who are ready to take on the hardships and concerns of the financial director.

The first proposal (with the mirroring of the library) was accepted with a bang, because it lies on the surface, and its technical implementation is a trifling matter:

The full volume of “Flibusta” is 1.54 TB. For comparison: the volume of online bibliots Z-Library-more than 160 TB.

In the course of the case, I note that there is a uncountable number of mirror and constantly updated copies of “Flibusta” in the world-both on home computers of users and on centralized torrent trackers. Actually, the Flibusta itself was born in the image of a mirror copy of the once popular Librusek library (we will talk about this a little later).

Dozens (if not hundreds!) Diversion-submitted trap sites placed in Runet wrestlers from a batch of copywriters acquired their own copies of “Flibusta”. To whom it is curious, they can start familiarization with Flibusta.su, on which, in addition to subtly (and in some places and roughly) veiled censorship, any attempt to download something ends with a redirect to the Litres.ru store.

Do not just think that mimicry for the original online bibliotexes is the invention of Russian copyright wrestlers. Lovushki sites are the creative development of ideas conceived by the Wild West: for the first time, false portals were used by American activists to combat the legendary Pirate Bay torrent tracker. The idea liked the idea and was quickly put on a stream for battle with all popular online libraries. The number of sabotage and subdivolous trap sites placed for Z-Library is most impressive.

By the way, a year ago, I told the readers of the Novo-Europe about the war of the FBI and the US Ministry of Justice with the largest and most popular z-Library free online biblijack in the world (“ Copyta’s dead ends ”). Then we stopped at the arrest in Argentina of Russian citizens of Anton Napolsky and Valeria Ermakova on charges of “criminal copyright violations, fraud using electronic communications (Wire-Fraud) and laundering money to maintain the site.”

The alleged creators of Z-Library sat under house arrest in expectation of extradition in the United States for almost 1.5 years, after which they were safely “lost” in April 2024. Now Anton and Valeria are put on the federal wanted list, and the Argentinean bailiffs are still wondering: did the fugitives go beyond the country or they are still hiding somewhere in Argentina.

We return to the Flibuste. The second decision to save the online biblio-financial-very quickly came to a standstill, already on the first pages of discussion under the post of Stever. “Financial Directors”-tobathers from Israel and Argentina quickly recalled: in Australia, of course, in principle, you can spit on the laws of the Russian Federation. And this is understandable. Where is Australia and where is the Russian Federation? However, Australia has its own laws. Individuals May Face Financial Penalties of Up to $ 117,000 and 5 Years of Imprisonment. " About the same thing awaits the organizer of the “Flibusta” work in Israel. And indeed everywhere in the world, where the batch of copywriters is still ruled by the ball. And she rules, we must understand this, in almost all countries.

Accordingly, the only way to manage free online biblioles is to do this as before in absolute anonymity and in conditions of complete decentralization. This is understood by the Schever, the creators of Z-Library, Scihub, Libgen, Anna's Archive, and all torrent trackers understand this.

Be that as it may, both decisions on the salvation of “Flibusta” proposed by the “technical intelligentsia” are at a dead end. Mirror cloning is excessive, because copies of online libraries are already thousands. Financing of servers (of course, in conditions of complete anonymity and decentralization!) Will allow the Flibusta portal to keep afloat for some time, but almost guaranteed to lead to the fact that with the departure of the Stevera-God grant him health! - The project will end in its existence.

Why so? Because not a single technical solution is a single step closer to the salvation of a particular library named “Flibust”! And this is exactly what any humanitarium instantly understands, but does not want to see an IT specialist.

The fact is that “Flibusta” is only the appearance of the digital archive of books stored on the server, for which you need to make regular fees. The archive, the server, even sorry, the Steer itself is only particular. “Flibusta” is alive only because there is something else. But what? ..

I will ask for an answer from the one who has always been and remains for me the highest authority:

“That's why those who sort through what is in it does not find the essence of my kingdom. “You have sheep, goats, barley,” they list, “dwellings, mountains and what else but this?” In addition, they themselves have nothing, they feel unhappy, they are cold. And I realized: they are natives in the dead. “Look, here it is, life,” they say, “bones, muscles, insides, blood - and nothing more.” Eyes glowed with life, but there is no light in the dead dust. And my kingdom is not a sheep, not fields, not at home and not mountains, it is that which unites them, turning them into a single whole. It is what loves in me. Those who love him like me are happy, like me, and we live with them in the same house. ”

And one more thing: “There is a useless lamp in my kingdom, it illuminates only himself, but disinterestedly, he is the most sophisticated and fragile flower of my tree, a barren flower, because it is too clean.”

If the metaphors of the great “citadel” Saint-Exupery will seem too complicated, then the answer to the question “What is Flima?” You can find in the history of the project itself.

“Flibusta” was born in 2009, as I already said, in the format of the mirror copy of the Librusek's cult library, which was launched in Ecuador Ilya Larin.

“Librusek”-at that time the largest online biblio-language books-at first quite peacefully cohabitation with the mushrooms as mushrooms with Russian book online stores: Litres, FictionBook.Lib (founder of Liters), Aldebaran.ru, LitPortal, Bookz.ru,, fictionbook.ru and so on.

However, given that the number of books in Libruseck greatly exceeded online stores, peaceful coexistence could not continue for a long time.

It ended in the fact that Litres organized DDOS-Atak on Librusek (authorship flowed out of the totality of indirect evidence), and Librusek in revenge redirected the address of his DNS to the Litres portal. Mutual accusations followed, the most juicy of which was the Ecuadorian Pirate Larin meme. (I was then at the epicenter of a showdown after the “dovecerers” entitled “ Librusek ” in August 2009.)

After a skirmish, the path of Russian-speaking Internet cultural, finally diverged along the metaphor of the “stolen roll”. Those who believed that “there is no difference between a bun stolen in the store and a book loaded with torrent”, went towards commercial online stores. Those who rejected the parody of copyright called "Modern Copytra" continued to use the services of "pirate" libraries.

“Librusek”, apparently, under the pressure of life circumstances (it is impossible to implement a similar project, playing with states without a mask of Guy Fox), decided to commercialize the library, limited free access and introduced a fee for reading books.

It was against this commercialization that Stiver opposed: he created a mirror copy of Libruseca and at a fundamentally ideological level was introduced a ban on any form of commercialization in his new Flybust library.

Since “Flibusta” is based on the principle of Vicki, the library is developing in a free format - all participants work on their own to replenish its virtual shelves: they scan new books, conduct OCR (Optical Character Recognition), converts into standard formats (FB2, EPUB), systematize in the catalog.

The only rule is no extraction of commercial benefits! Everything is done disinterestedly, on a personal example, on enthusiasm and the separation of unified ideological values.

Actually, about this unity of souls in a general impulse as the foundation of any living project was discussed in the given quote from Exupery. It is this foundation that is the essence of “Flibusta”! It is he who does not notice our brothers-techniques when they try to save the library by creating copies and the organization of the folds.

The key element of the design of any project, designed in the style of the construction of the temple, is the presence of Demiurge. Given the realities of our world, this presence must certainly be anonymous. However, such a condition is only a small fraction of the requirements for the personality of the architect. This person should have not just firm beliefs, but exceptional vital determination and boiling energy.

The Steer ruled the Flibusta ship for 16 years! Just think about this figure. On a bare enthusiasm. Not receiving a penny.

Did you imagine this? I believe that now it is clear that the project has no future without its architect. If the Scheveus leaves, “Flibusta” will leave. Despite the thousands of saved copies of the book archive and the collected money to pay for the server.

Another thing is that I personally have no doubt that of these same copies, sooner or later, not one, but dozens of new portals will be born ... Because the disinterested online biblio-this is about the idea, not about money. And ideas, as we know, are immortal.

PS
I am writing this postscript at the discretion of the editorial office: to decide whether to leave it in the basement of the speakers or remove it until better times. In any case, to the topic of the “modern copy” and the ideology of the batch of copywriters, I will return again and again.

Because it is already clear that there is no mutual understanding here, and the only constructive exit from the impasse is to wait for the maturation of purely technological conditions (here it is a revenge of the “technical intelligentsia”!): A high-quality jump in the development of Web3 technologies that will allow authors of creative content (writers, artists, musicians, directors, etc.) to formalize their product in the form of unique Digital NFT, independently and directly sell it to the final consumer, bypassing all parasitic structures and guilds of bureaucrats from a copy of copyright.

These direct sales should not occur through corporate monopolists censored to the death of Stores (Apple, Google, Sony, etc.), which shamelessly operate someone else's creative, push up to 50% of the cost of the product in their mediation pocket, and through the myriads of independent, inclusive, competing with each other, decentralized markets.

I do not dare to condemn those to whom the described model of relations may seem unexpected. The myth of “malicious pirates advocated for theft of intellectual property” has been driven to the mainstream world for more than one decade. I always wrote a lot about the fact that this is an invention.

Here, for example, passage from the “Pigeon” “Buffonad of anachronism ” (2010), dedicated to the same Litres, which, incidentally, has traveled my two -volume “What is your name” for years, having never paid me a penny:

“In itself,“ copyright for electronic products ”(audio, video, text, graphics, in any form) is the extremely vile and hypocritical aberration, since this“ right ”does not protect any rights in the overwhelming mass. “Copyright”, at least the fact that he fights with consumers with the help of police repression is the form and manifestation of corporate totalitarianism-a new socio-economic formation, into which we all rolled together without noticing it.

“Copyright” protects the interests of not actors, musicians and programmers, but film studios, studios of sound recordings and software concerns, who pay with their slaves-actors, musical slaves and slaves-programmers to the sorry crumbs, laying multi-million-dollar ladies in their own bottomless pockets, disproportionate efforts. In order to evaluate this disproportionality, it is enough to compare the real expenses of some “Ford”, “Toyota”, “Samsung” or “Sony” with Adobe, Microsoft or Emi Records. ”

I hope that one of the readers who are in the dope of copying frost will change their opinion and realize that “digital piracy” is not about the Bolsheviks with their “take everything away and divide everything”, but about elementary justice.

A wonderful code tomy Litres column , written 14 years ago, can be a revelation from the lips of Boris Akunin, made in July 2024:

“In Litres, after a multi -month break, a bunch of my books suddenly appeared on sale.

I do not presume to analyze this amazing event. I got off too much from the Russian realities. The local “bastard of the sea underwater move and the dolze of the vine” is slurred to me.

Why the timid “Liters” before everyone else last December removed my books, it was clear to me. But why now he suddenly became so desperate - heze, in the sense of a htonic mystery.

On the one hand, selling “intellectual products” without permission without paying the copyright holder is a curious innovation in the field of copyright, requiring understanding.

On the other hand, I am glad that my Russian readers had at least such an opportunity to receive my books in the largest online store and that, judging by the red tablets in the screenshot, people actively use this opportunity. ”

As you can see, nothing in the “ideological cleanliness” of the Copyright radiators does not change over the years. And it will never change, because it was and is not about copyright, but about expropriation. So all hopes for Web3 technology.