Webnovel now selling Public Domain eBooks

They have obviously done something morally wrong. If you find a random leaf and try to sell it for 30 bucks, you're not just an idiot, you're a scammer. You're just hoping some idiot thinks the leaf is worth that much and trying to scam money from nothing.

That's exactly what is happening there, and it's why i hate my generation. You just let people completely disrespect you as a consumer, and you don't have the slightest hint of outrage about it. This is the business equivalent of taking a shit on their customer, and barely anyone even thinks it's wrong to do it. Whole generation are just a bunch of useless passive wastes with no appreciation for the worth of money or reputation.

 

Probably a typical corporate response like:
"In order to ensure the quality of the product we charge a nominal fee"
"The extra fees are to recoup miscellaneous costs"
"If we charge it, they will pay"
"We are always doing our best to provide excellent products for a fair price"

 

Lol u know how wretched they are, then just ditch them. They dont deserve the money.

 

Yes I totally agree with you that qidian are crooks, greedy, money hungry bastards. But I would rather read novel on official site than sites that copypaste other's translation onto their site and claimed it as theirs.

And no, I don't read stolen stuff on qidian like issth or sth else

 

If you read anything you're giving them profit. If you give them profit they will never stop what they're doing because it's working. Also I honestly doubt qidian gives support to the authors for the English stuff. They have the complete copyright after the chap is out. So there likely isn't anything that requires them to give a cut of it. The authors probably don't make a dime so it's probably just as moral to full on pirate it as it is to read it on qidian.

The only way you change companies like this is by speaking with your rights as a consumer to avoid them. If you aren't even willing to do that, then you are complicit in everything they do, as you are the lifeblood that lets them continue to do it.

 

*cough* Gutenberg *cough*

 

What makes you think that they simply didn't copy paste from Gutenberg.com.
I wouldn't be surprised.

 

If he was talking about the bible he’d be wrong for a long time it was a relatively expensive to get your hands on it or you had to be a priest or monk.

 

Sadly this world is pretty much grey all the way through. Just some is more apparent than others.

However, I fully disagreed that reading on Webnovel is as bad as reading on pirate sites. Webnovel does give a cut to the original Authors, as well as generate money for the translators. They are not as bad as the pirate sites.

To further entertain your reasoning, let assume that Webnovel is a greedy evil and did not give anyone anything. I'll still argue that it is better than most pirate sites because it only stole the CN novels that came from Qidian. If the translators had been inside our community for even a fraction fo a second, they would know how to evade Qidian novels. Aggregator sites, on the other hand, stole from everyone, not just Qidian novels, but also JP, KR, and all CN novels. There is no defence against the aggregator.

 

I think it is everyone's responsibility to conduct research before making a purchase. And it's common sense to know that a book written in the 18th century should not be sold at such a high price.
If we were talking about anything other than entertainment, I would agree with you.
But we are talking about reading fiction for fun.
The consumer should know better.
It's a choice and a hobby to read for fun, not an obligation.

 

Thing is most people don't have the time to do thorough research. We have jobs kids and all sorts of other things that eat up time. It's hard enough to have enough time to devote to a hobby to keep you from killing shit in a psychotic break. I do research on high dollar purchases. Not books. I'm sure many others are the same.

That's when you rely on the company caring about it's reputation enough to not cheat you. Unfortunately having a bad reputation means NOTHING these days, so there is no downside anymore. They just cheat whoever they can cheat and sleep soundly on a bed of dirty money.

All the while their consumers are just "eh it's your fault for not knowing they were being morally dead assholes, why would we criticize them for being such?". By all rights we should be flat out protesting what several giant corporations(from smartphones to novels to freemium games) are doing to us, and we can't even summon the spine to just not pay them for being dickheads. Blows my mind how fucking pathetic our generation is.

 

Well, that's the stupidest thing I've read on the internet today. The one who is in the wrong morally is QI, why do consumers have to get punished for it? Entertainment is a product as well, where does that irresponsible double standard come from?

"Hahaaaaaa punish the stupid LULZ!!! Punish people with no time LOL!! It's just 4FUN get scammed loooooooooooool!!!"

But I'm glad you take the side of the company. It seems they're really short on money, they'll be glad you support them. They really need to scam people, otherwise they'd go broke. It's not like all these rich pigs consumers have no money to spare. Why have sympathy for normal people if you can sympathize with a large company?

 

I have bad news for you : you have the big dumb dumb.
No one is forcing out the money out of your e-wallet. Responsible adults have to bear the consequences of their action.

I know of people that are proud that they bought a 1000$ brand t-shirt and I could care less for their stupid decision, because it's their own money.

 

You don't pay that money for the cotton, but for the brand printed on it, it's a status symbol. Not a relevant example, because: the books this thread is about can be found elsewhere way, way cheaper, not different in any way, shape or form. That is why QI selling those books resembles a scam.

FYI, the only immoral action in the whole story is the selling, not the buying. The consumer didn't do anything wrong.

Sure, it's not illegal so if you overpay, well, bad luck. That's reality ... according to you. Except that's not always true. PayPal sides with the buyer consistently, and some countries know this alien concept called consumer protection. Why? Because it wasn't the consumer's fault, and saying the scammed consumer has to pay for it is antisocial and stupid. You can't expect everyone to know everything about what they buy. Oh my god, how could that be, these responsible adults don't have to bear the consequences of "their actions"!

Another analogy: your grandma walks into a store, the employee sells her a laptop for twice the actual price. Do you think people are going to say your grandma paid the stupid tax? No, people are going to shit on the shop and the employee, and for good reason. Who would blame your grandma? I can proudly say I don't know a single person who would be that big of a dick.

 

Then that's your problem. The company is wrong for selling at a cheating price, but you are also wrong for not fact-checking before making your decision. You knew the risk and willingly took it, and when it backfired you can't just play the victim card and rid yourself off your ignorance.

Not doing research in low dollar purchases is just your laziness, and you paid for it.

 

Like I said many don't have the time for it. It's not a choice, it's just a requirement. There are people who can basically only get an hour a day to chill. Do you think they want to spend any of that researching price points?

Companies, especially for low price items, used to be formed on trust. If the public considered your company a crook it would die out. However those days are gone. Obviously it's more profitable to cheat people, but since the most anyone does about it is "oh well that's fucked up but not my problem*continues buying other shit from them*" they survive. So they still have a customer base, AND they make a good amount off of cheating those with no time or gullible trusting people.

People need to care about this shit more, it's fucking disgusting. To be frank reading these comments that treat it like it's just a normal thing makes me want to puke. "They shouldn't be punished just cuz people were stupid enough to fall for their scam hurhurhur" do you even get how sad it is that you think like that? If someone is trusting or impulsive it's not a damn crime, we really blaming someone for trusting an organization now?? So pathetic I can barely stomach it.

 

It's a safety measurement. You can choose not to do it, but don't come back crying when the result went wrong. Take it as a lesson to be more careful, not an excuse to complain.

The world is not the same anymore. So, people needed to change, or they won't be able to survive. The customers needed to adapt and give more attention to their usage of products, to avoid falling for the scam. It is impossible to stop the scammers. If one fell, the others will replace it.

I guess you fail at understanding my post. I never said that the company is good, or not in the wrong. I only argued that the costumers are also partly responsible for their mistakes.

Also, stop throwing insults like you are above "supporting these disgusting companies". Because guess what, no company is a white knight that did no wrong. If you dig deep enough, you'll find everything.

 

I think you might be getting the wrong idea here. I never even browsed a qidian page for the last year, much less bought a book.

This is as a bystander, and the "world" didn't change. The people did. It's just as easy now to punish corporations for cheating everyone, you all just choose not to do it.

As for companies having hidden problems, duh. However the market USED to force them to keep up at least the appearance of decency. Which meant at least close to proper pricing, no scamming, and such. Nowadays a company can flat out poison it's consumers and we'll just shrug it off.

Was it perfect before? No, no system will ever be perfect. However it was definitely a much better time to be a consumer. You shouldn't HAVE to do thorough research into every single damn purchase you make. Do you have any idea how much of your life would be eaten up doing that? Quality control is the responsibility of the company, and it's societies responsibility to punish them for not having it. If there is no punishment why would they ever bother to try?

As it stands now our whole system is going to just wind

And I do limit/remove my purchases into companies based on stuff that comes to my attention, like anyone should. It's why the moment qidian international started into these changes I've advocated and followed up with never once giving them so much as a page view. I had to drop a few stories I liked, but hey there's always more to read that DOESNT fund the people scamming my community.

As for insults, I'll keep making them. Cuz anyone who continues to support shit like this is complicit. Since you're part of the scam why in the hell would I treat you with any semblance of respect? If you take part knowingly, you're guilty as well. Selling out your fellow consumers for the price of an easy entertainment fix with hundreds of alternatives available(so almost nothing).