because authors depend on the sales of the novels and books and big companies like microsoft and others are multi-billion dollar companies and couldnt care less about a few copies of Windows and besides most of the download sites take down those uploads pretty quickly so you have to be quick to download them otherwise the links are dead..get over it....the Text Section is gone....move on....

I am betting they caved in due to threats of being sued if they did not take these steps, sad to see it change though.

there is no doubt in my mind that played a major part in the decision also....

its sad really...

Very sad!

Very, very sad indeed! The text section will be missed, can't understand why this happened but will try my best to move on from it

The most ridiculous thing about this is that I used the new release section to find books to buy! I would read the descriptions and read posts to find new books - this was a central area that listed a lot of books, didn't have to visit all different sites to find new books - will actually buy less now.

After reading what prt1 said, I think there would have been some very compelling reasons for this. I don't think it has been done to protect fiction authors. There are small and very small software companies too whose products are posted here. Then we must protect them too and ban such releases. But this will not be done.

Though I cannot do anything about it, but at the end of the I feel cheated.

What I want to know is if there will be any changes with the close teams or if they will stay as they are now?

I'm sure the one and only reason that the section was closed was because of legal threats and not out of consideration for the authors. But legal threats are reason enough to close... Don't get me wrong- I'm surly disappointed that this has happened to a great site like asta, it was the best place to get ebooks and I don't think there will ever be another place like it but there is nothing we can do and no point in complaining. You all need to understand that we only got the benefits of the text section but the mods had to suffer all the heat from the author's attorneys. Even the storage sites are suffering (why do you think so many releases had to be re-linked again and again? just because mega upload wanted to delete them?).
Anyway, the only thing I don't understand about the process is why we are forbidden to talk about other sites... I know it's competition and all but at least we could have gotten some comfort out of a new site. Right now I'm completely lost as to how to find a new place...

I don't understand the legal threats, I mean AstaTalk is hosted in the Netherlands unless those peeps you're talking about have lawyers over there as well. Moreover those ebook files are not hosted directly on AstaTalk, but rather on file-hosts such as ZippyShare and MediaFire. So what's the difference between getting legal threats from authors and getting them from big companies? If anything, shouldn't the bigger the company, the more threatening they would be? I would expect the Applications section to be shut down first...

It's sad to lose the ebook section. There are very few websites I know that have substantial ebook downloads that isn't nonfiction and allows erotica. I don't use AstaTalk to download, I got IRC for that, but I do use AstaTalk to discover new series. *sigh* Now I have to google good review sites. Hard to pirate something if you don't know what to pirate in the first place. >.>"

...Anyone know good m/m book-review sites? Asking for review sites isn't against the rules, right?

But legal threats are reason enough to close

you bet they are!

You all need to understand that we only got the benefits of the text section but the mods had to suffer all the heat from the author's attorneys.

..and god knows who/wot else!

get over it....the Text Section is gone....move on....

honestly?hellz yeah..im outa here!it was great - hell! it was THE BEST!! - wyl it lasted, but lyk prt1 said, "the text section's gone" and there aint a damn thing they/you/i can do bout it. ges it's bak to reading reviews in the hope of not buying some crappy, passing-porn-of-as-romance, novel thats 100,000 words or less (sigh!)or i can do wot i shld have done a lonnnng tym ago..actually READ all the books in my TBR folder!!

anyone have any rcomendations fo another site fo romantic fiction? PLz PM me if u do TIA!!

yah, me too

It sucks that all the Non-Fiction releases were deleted as well (but Misc was left?). Most of mine were non-fiction. :-/ I saw that the notice warns against fiction books, are non-fictions still okay? And if so, why was that section deleted and Misc left? I'm a bit confused.

ETA:
Oh and as for the copyright thing, I've heard of more people being fined and prosecuted over illegally downloading music and movies than ebooks. In fact, even though I'm sure it has happened, I have yet to hear of anyone being fined/prosecuted over ebooks. I have heard plenty of cases of people hosting movies being prosecuted or college students downloading MP3s and being fined millions. Like it was mentioned in the original post, I don't understand why ebooks are being dealt with this way when there are things still on Astatalk that are far worse and more damaging. All the sites I've seen that were shut down lately were because of TV/Movies, not because of ebooks. :-/

I'm really bummed at the loss of the fiction section too. Anyone know of a good site to get books from now? Please email me or message me... thanks.

yeah me too

seems to still be up and running but I'm not sure if they are accepting new members. You can still use their search box. Nothing was as good as astatalk. They were the best...IMO. I'll miss you.

Yeah if anyone knows of a good site pm me too.

Why are ebooks ban but you can still get audio books?

For those who wants their ebook fix, PM me for help. ^_-V

to the mods: thank you for all the work you do, I know it was a decision well thought... thank you to make the forum of e-books last till now... it's sad that it is gone, but the asta was not only the e-books...

please pm me if you know any other good sites I could try

Same here, please send a pm if you know some other site I could try.

Thank you Asta and mods, it was good while it lasted.

Posted this message on another thread:
It's unfortunate that copyright laws have been completely influenced by those with money. I've looked in on that idiotic Facebook group 'Close down Astalavista' (morons didn't even get the name of the site correct) and they're celebrating. Kind of annoys me.

Honestly, I use this site as a preview for books (I've already bought from Jane Seville after reading her Jack and D book here) because a lot of these people who think they deserve so much put no effort into their writing. Slap some crap on to a page, label it gay romance fiction and expect to get $10-15 a pop for it. I started out spending the money, but it gets to be a bit much to spend $15 on a book that's barely over a 100 pages, riddled with grammatical/spelling errors, and pure crap. I would go to my library, but they don't carry gay romantic/erotic fiction. So I read the books here and if they're worth my time, then I buy them (same as people do with libraries all the time). Personally, I feel like people who can't even be bothered to put out the effort to proof-read their work aren't worth my time (and unfortunately, in this genre, there are too many 'writers' like that). They can think they've won, but honestly they haven't won anything. If there sales are in the toilet, they're still going to be in the toilet, Astatalk or not. Astatalk might be gone, but somewhere else will come up. And even if it doesn't, how many people on here are really going to buy these books. I know I'm not. I don't have the money to waste and if I can't try it, I'm not buying it.

Update to this one: Thanks to the mods as well, it was nice. It's sad that the discussions threads are gone (I had one open that I was referring to repeatedly for one of my classes, but now it's not there. Wish I'd saved it). If anyone knows of a good alternative, pm me as well.

Sadly when sites like this succumb to pressure like this, its usually the end for them entirely. I didnt come here for much else, and dont see the format being all that great. It was a great site and resource to try out books - but thats all it was

I do get why it happened...I mean I would have bought some of the books if I couldn't find it here, and since most books have epubs now it's just as convenient except you have to pay. But understanding does not equal happy...though I do have to say out of all the downloadable content out there I did feel the worst when I download books mainly because they are so cheap and that authors really depend on these sales to survive. Totally agree with livewiremaxx that I may not come here much now since that's what I visited this forum for. Other downloads for softwares and games I have private forums that I visit. Maybe Astatalk can privatize and re-install the Fiction section? I mean you'll lose a lot of members but at least the people will keep coming back.

It is still possible to find some books though, especially if they are popular (and I mean really popular - not to the scale of Harry Potter but most likely NYT Bestseller). I usually just google search the author plus book name plus pdf or download. It takes a bit more digging but if you want free stuff then you gotta work a bit for it right?

There is this one site I know. It's not as good as asta used to be but it will do...
Here's the link:

i agree with vijender