this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] Tharkys@lemmy.wtf 141 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The US government doesn't comply with it's own rulings. Why would anyone else?

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Because they're the ones with the monopoly on violence. Might makes right for those brutes.

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nobody has a monopoly on violence.

Might does not make right. But might does make policy.

The good people need wisdom and might, both. Then we will set policy and it won't suck.

The world has to work for all its denizens and not just for the "top" (only in some sense, not in every sense) 0.01%.

I don't want to build a gallows from which I myself will be hanged. I am not a masochist. I don't hate myself.

[–] for_some_delta@beehaw.org 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The term describes a material condition. State police forces exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

My point is that what you are saying is simply a convention that for most of us made sense for a long time.

I contend there do exist conditions under which that convention goes away. And at bottom we are all capable of violence.

[–] autriyo@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago

I also don't want to build gallows, it doesn't matter who hangs really. But if someone else is building gallows to hang me from, I won't be watching idly.

I'll at least have to try to resist, if I wouldn't I'd might as well hang myself now, or at least when the struggle gets to much to bear.

i did my part to help the us government by downloading a bunch of tintin books as research

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 108 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Didn't Facebook do basically this with books a little bit ago? Except fb did it for profit.

You see they are a multibillion dollar corporation, so them doing it is good actually, it encourages iNnOvAtIoN.

[–] mrnobody@reddthat.com 37 points 3 days ago

Absolutely.

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 118 points 4 days ago (2 children)

WorldCat.org is provided by OCLC, a nonprofit global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs so libraries can better fuel learning, research, and innovation.

In what way does anna's archive work contrary to their mission?

It doesn't. It does their mission better than they ever could. They provide no value beyond the database that is being shared for free by anna's. There must be some salaries or some soft power being wielded somewhere by someone who doesn't want that to go away.

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 95 points 4 days ago (3 children)

$159,974,600 in "Salaries, wages, and related fringe benefits" for 2025.

Why would a nonprofit company that supplies databases of library metadata need to pay $160 million dollars to staff? You can run a midsized business for that. https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/annual-report/2025/pdf/2025_OCLC_Audit_Report.pdf

2024 executive earnings: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/310734115

Key Employees and Officers Compensation

Prichard David (President & Ceo) $1,347,322

Rozek William (Cfo, Treasurer) $832,584

Murphy Bart (Chief Tech. & Info. Officer) $765,667

Leeches.

[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I thought that was the point of non profits, you gotta funnel money to the people running it or you get looked at like a failure by the other oligarchs.

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 45 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I can't comprehend why the highest executive at one of these places would get paid more than 250k. It's a nonprofit in fucking ohio, MCOL in cities at best, LCOL in huge swaths of the state.

They wield tremendous power. Nonprofits should not be tools for oligarchs to shelter assets and defraud the public, but they are all over the US and probably the world.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Because that's the going rate for CEOs. Any of them could go to some private corporation and make just as much, if not more. So, nonprofits have to pay competitively or only afford CEOs willing to take the pay cut.

Which is all really terrible because no CEO is worth that much. They only get paid that much because big corporations have absurd amounts of money, and the people in charge of setting salaries have no restriction on paying themselves that much.

[–] iloveDigit@piefed.social 27 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Any of them could go to some private corporation and make just as much, if not more. So, nonprofits have to pay competitively or only afford CEOs willing to take the pay cut.

How is that a problem?

Why not hire someone like me instead of someone that wants capitalist omnicide?

[–] hector@lemmy.today 3 points 3 days ago

The ivy league swells, oligarchs, see nonprofits simply as patronage and prestige, getting their intimates positions on boards or the like getting a half million to attend a few meetings and looking like a philanthropist.

Meanwhile their stated missions are neglected. If you want to donate to charity, do it directly. Going through a nonprofit is handing 90 percent to the intimates of the ruling class, for them to look good.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

They have 1,334 employees so a lot of it is fringe benefits... 30k for employer contribution of health/dental/vision/FSA&HSA program costs, $5k for sick leave payout costs, $5,250 training/tuition assistance budget. That's 40,250 per full time employee right there.

If you take the almost 9mil C suite makes and round down to 150 Million and divide by 1,319 employees (subtracting C suite) that's 113,700 per employee. Now if we withhold the benefits above, that's $73,450. But we're not done yet.

1% for workers comp, 6.2% for social security, 7% 401k match, 1.45% medicare, so a total of 15.65%. So we divide our 73,450 by 1.1565 and we are left with an average salary of $63,510.

They also have an additional retirement plan which almost sounds like a pension, but I couldn't find easy info on. If that's what it is, then that further reduces the avg salary by 10%. They also offer $2,500 adoption assistance and an EAP program that's not factored in.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 10 points 3 days ago

So, ceo has 20× the average in their company, wow

[–] iloveDigit@piefed.social 23 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

They serve 30,000+ libraries in 100+ countries according to Wikipedia, sounds like it might involve a lot of staff

They might be leeches but on the other hand you might be underestimating how much work goes into trying to keep library databases accurate

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 days ago

I don't know why your getting so many downvotes because there seems to be a level of truth to what you say. They supposedly have 1,334 employees, which would make an average wage of 120k... But you have to notice it says "fringe benefits" which would include health insurance and retirement, which is $20k+ just for the health insurance and tax stuff and then if they do an employee 5% match that's another 5k bringing the avg salary down to 95k.

[–] iloveDigit@piefed.social 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I assume it's a ransom argument.

WorldCat supports libraries -> "we" will hurt libraries if you Anna's Archive people don't stop -> this means you Anna's Archive people are in conflict with WorldCat's mission

[–] Devnullit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 80 points 3 days ago

Lol if the US admin doesn't have to comply with courts why should they

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 66 points 3 days ago (1 children)

ordering judge to suck my balls

[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

Username checks out

[–] oeuf@slrpnk.net 81 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 31 points 4 days ago

Curse you AWS!

[–] basket@pie.gravitywell.xyz 24 points 4 days ago (6 children)

I dont get why they did the spotify thing, i feel its put a lot of smoke on them

[–] iloveDigit@piefed.social 45 points 4 days ago

Maybe when you're a little older you'll understand why at this time we should all be attracting as much "smoke" from the authorities as we can

To put it simply, they don't have enough for all of us

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 3 days ago

They're a decentralized hydra - why do they have to care about smoke? XD

They're the pirate bay of literature and auditory art - and there are plenty of places that can become their harbor.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 days ago

Remember when they knocked off the Grooveshark creator? Also, Aaron Schwartz?

Those assholes ruin everything. One time I Iost my own manuscript and had to pirate my own publication. It's outrageous. They can fuck right off.

Everything is, or will be, available in torrents. Once it's spread, we are all Anna's archive

You can't kill a decentralized entity. What matters is just getting the information out there by any way possible, and thus it will stay out there

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 days ago

They should’ve gone with another name—like Santana’s Archive!

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 days ago

This goes way before the Spotify thing. This is just a court ruling that took a long time to come through.

At a certain point, if your entire raison d'être is to do illegal things, you might as well fully commit