Free books on Scribd - Good or bad?

I was debating whether to buy a few books on Blackjack out of curiosity (Most of the resources I needed where on wizardofodds and Romes's A-to-Z articles)
I realized that most are available on Scribd, which seems to be like Netflix but for ebooks.
It's possible to get a 30-day free trial, download the books (legally), cancel subscription 5 mins later and that's that.
I got:
Blackjack secrets, blackjack attack, blackbelt in blackjack, million dollar blackjack, the theory of blackjack ...Etc
Even though this is a legal website with some profit-sharing formula with the copyright owners (e.g. Netflix, Spotify) I still feel weird and wondering if I'm stiffing the authors (not ok) or just using the free trial and stiffing the platform, which still pays the authors (I'm ok with that)
thoughts?

The theory of blackjack is mostly very advanced math and is a difficult read. I'd hold off on that one for a while.

The obvious practical concern is that the ebooks come with a DRM lock, and you lose access to the content after cancelling the subscription.

The non-obvious practical concern is that a physical book sometimes has secondary value. It's more likely that someone will see your books on blackjack and texas hold-em in your suitcase than that they'll see them listed in your kindle. Some people value that.

As for the morality, yes you should pay creators for creations. These are old books, and the publisher has probably paid the author long ago. I expect that even in the best circumstance, you pay the platform $100 a year, the publisher gets a few dollars, the author may get a few cents.

Quote: Dieter

The obvious practical concern is that the ebooks come with a DRM lock, and you lose access to the content after cancelling the subscription.

The non-obvious practical concern is that a physical book sometimes has secondary value. It's more likely that someone will see your books on blackjack and texas hold-em in your suitcase than that they'll see them listed in your kindle. Some people value that.

As for the morality, yes you should pay creators for creations. These are old books, and the publisher has probably paid the author long ago. I expect that even in the best circumstance, you pay the platform $100 a year, the publisher gets a few dollars, the author may get a few cents.

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Makes sense. But for the first point, they aren't locked, I was able to just download PDFs to my laptop and can keep them after cancelling the subscription.
Little surprising that this website gives you a download button, doesn't seem like a smart business decision!

Quote: tyler498

Little surprising that this website gives you a download button, doesn't seem like a smart business decision!

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You kinda need to download ebooks to use them effectively.
Do report back if the PDFs stop being useful in a few months.

Maybe their business model strictly focuses on the continued utility of downloading more library content and warm fuzzy wholesomeness.

Quote: Dieter

I expect that even in the best circumstance, you pay the platform $100 a year, the publisher gets a few dollars, the author may get a few cents.

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That sounds a lot like the old Napster argument. But the reality is, those cents do add up.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Quote: Dieter

I expect that even in the best circumstance, you pay the platform $100 a year, the publisher gets a few dollars, the author may get a few cents.

link to original post

That sounds a lot like the old Napster argument. But the reality is, those cents do add up.

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Yes. I agree. Pay for what you use. Support creators.

Then again, I also have a stack of books in my suitcase.

I think I shared the different books I had read that helped me in the articles... but I would certainly chime in and suggest getting most any/all reputable books on the subject (or any subject you're interested in).

Point being, after the first book or two, combined with practice, spreadsheets, etc, I was good "enough" for blackjack... BUT, what I found is I bought more and more books because I enjoyed the topic. What I found while reading even more books since then is in every book I pick up one or two pieces of the puzzle. Perhaps it was just worded a little differently than another book, or perhaps it had a better example, or perhaps it was the 2nd half of a puzzle I got the first half from another book. But each and every book I got more out of and became more knowledgeable on the topic, in my opinion. There are a few threads about best readings when it comes to blackjack, and I'd suggest reading any and all of them for anyone who wants to be serious and/or make serious money at blackjack.

I've read at least thirty books on BJ and got something from almost every one of them. Some I learned a lot from, others I might have learned a snippet or two.

Yeah I agree, I'm not sure if I'm going to read all of them, I just downloaded them all first (before cancelling my free trial) and will decide later.
The first one I started is Professional Blackjack. It's definitely a quicker read than I thought because a lot of the info I knew already so I skim through. The tables are always good to have handy. But found a lot of new things as well here and there. Gonna keep reading whenever I have some free time.