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Hello,

I've been doing this for a long time, and while I'm sure if I was a published book author (I'm not), I wouldn't like this. But I haven't stopped doing it in the name of financially responsibility to my family and obligations; and if I was an author I would want to see criminal or civil punishment for someone doing this to my content if it got out there.

So what I do is, whenever I see a book of interest, which is often, I search for the book title in Google with the search criteria of 'filetype: pdf'.

More often then not, I find the book, especially if the book is (approximately) 2-3 years or more older. Then I download, on the first page comment the weblink where I downloaded the book, and I'm off and reading.

While sometimes I have bought a book or course in support of the creator, honestly, more often then not, I have not.
Am I committing a moral faux pas?

Thanks,
Phil
If you look hard enough on the web, you can find paid content for free. We just cant advocate it on the forums as then we are aiding and abetting what constitutes in some countries as illegal. Your not the only one though. Although i would avoid posting such on public forums that could possibly incriminate yourself later.

About whether its morally wrong or not is up to you. About whether its illegal or not....its not, unless your the initial source of the content. However you draw attention to yourself by reposting the link elsewhere. Those in authority might assume you are the source. Whether you are or not you dont want them researching you.
Do you think this post would raise a flag?
I'm not distributing anything. Each book I get, I'm pretty good about commenting in the book the source download page.
Phil
i dont think so. If you were talking about pirated games and movies that is a different story, but a book probably not. I just prefer to attempt to stay under the radar for all things.
As Metulburr said, the important question is whether it is legal or not to download what you download. A python forum may not be the best place to ask. You need to find the rules about intellectual property in your country.
Let me bring this back to topic. This isn't a legal question, it's a morality question.

If a book is easily downloadable on the internet using a simple Google search, 'BookTitleHere' filetype:pdf, is it morally wrong if the book is 'officially' only for sale?

I'm in the USA and I understand the monitoring and government oversight implications. If the FBI or NSA want to visit me, I've got nothing to hide. This is not using bit torrent, only the public internet.

Regarding posting in this Python forum, I may be new here, but I'm spending a lot of time here, heavily into learning Python right now, and this is the 'Bar' area of the forum. So I don't have any interest if someone 'offended' or uncomfortable with this post.

Thanks,
Phil
Morality is different based on who you are, where you come from, and what beliefs you have. It is not a yes or no answer as everyone has different opinions on whether it is moral or not. There is no one code of conduct.
I'm going to go ahead and say this is morally wrong, as far as I'm concerned. Taking something that is not freely offered is theft. From what you describe, it doesn't sound like the author/publisher is freely offering a pdf download of the book.

Now, where did I put that flame retardant suit?
I concur with ichabod801 - it's morally wrong.

But what I have seen in my life makes me believe that people quite often behave in a way which can be described as morally wrong. I admit that I have done things which fall into that category as well.

Regarding books I can say that I have been exemplary citizen :-). I have been happy customer of safaribooksonline.com for many years. Now it's better than ever, not only books but lectures, learning tracks etc and it's O'Reilly-s quality (I have grandfathered pricing also which helps a lot).
(Aug-31-2018, 01:40 PM)perfringo Wrote: [ -> ]But what I have seen in my life makes me believe that people quite often behave in a way which can be described as morally wrong.

For sure, it is impossible to live a morally perfect life. I sure haven't. But I try. And it is important that we use our moral rules to make ourselves better people, not to make ourselves believe we are better than other people.
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