Question

There are various sites for sharing ebooks like 4shared, esnips. Almost all computer science books are available for free download and these are very popular sites. The publishers must also be knowing this. So do these things pose danger to users who upload these files? means how there is no action being taken to curb these things. I am not saying that I dont use these books. But I am just curious to know how this goes along smoothly.

Answer 1

Downloading a copy of a book that you don't own is illegal.
With that said, the reason why you see these books on those sites is because there is just so many places to upload, no single person or entity can keep track. Most people kind of just ignore the fact because they really can't do anything about it. They can submit take down requests but that takes time and time is money for a business.

However, if you truly do not want to buy computer science books, visit your library and check out some books and make photocopies, or notes, of a few pages that you find interesting. Making photocopies, and of course notes, out of a book that you checked out from the library falls under "Fair Use" if you don't photocopy the whole book.

Answer 2

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV.

This is illegal. These sites survive because when one gets closed down, someone (possibly the same people) opens up a new one. While theoretically, a user can be sued for uploading these books, it's far more effective for the publishers to go after the sites themselves.

Answer 3

I'm also not a lawyer, but here's what I know:

Downloading by itself is not illegal, as long as the persons who uploaded these files had the right to distribute them in your country.

If the uploader didn't have the right of distribution, then downloading such files may be dangerous, depending on your country's legislation. For example, in the US the very possession of such files is illegal, but in some european countries downloading is semi-legal but sharing the files over Internet is illegal (a bit of catch-22 here, since with most P2P programs it's impossible to download without sharing for the duration).

Answer 4

Also not a lawyer.

To answer this specific question: "So do these things pose danger to users who upload these files?"

Yes. The RIAA has sued people for uploading music. While it didn't do wonders for their PR campaign, my opinion is that book publishers have less to lose.

It's usually a better strategy for the publishers to play whack-a-mole with the provider sites, but I'm sure they'd be happy to make an example of someone.

If you want to upload a book, get permission from the publisher or author, whichever holds the copyright.