list of best free Books??? please share!

[cmbs]

If a blog, which is not affiliated with a legitimate bookseller, is hosting and giving away hundreds of free ebooks they did not create (and therefore don't own a copyright to), how do you know the downloads are legal? Because they say so? Where did they get legal rights to distribute the books? And do you care if the download is legal or not?

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by cmbs

If a blog, which is not affiliated with a legitimate bookseller, is hosting and giving away hundreds of free ebooks they did not create (and therefore don't own a copyright to), how do you know the downloads are legal? Because they say so? Where did they get legal rights to distribute the books?

You raise a good and legitimate point, cmbs, so I had a look at the linked sites.

Obviously it can't be an exhaustive look, as that would take quite a lot of time, but here's what seems to be the case after a few minutes with each site. Taking them in order:

• The first link appears to be nothing more than a collection of links to technical manuals and textbook type stuff hosted by the various folks who own actually them. Obviously, those various owners have every right to give them away if they so choose, and there's certainly nothing amiss with collecting the links in one place.
  
  
• The second link seems to be an author's personal blog (Lizzy Van Lysebeth, by name) where she's giving away her own books. Again, nothing questionable about that, legally, morally nor ethically. At least not that we can tell without knowing what sort of contracts she may or may not have with unnamed and possibly non-existent third parties -- questions I don't really feel I have any right to demand that she answer.
  
  
• The third link is a blog as well, and its entries appear to be write ups of (and links to) books offered elsewhere. Those elsewheres would seem upon casual examination to be legitimate, including sites such as Harlequin, Amazon and a publisher (or possibly just a retailer) called "Pyr" which I hadn't heard of. Some of them aren't free, as Junior94 noted.
  
  
• The fourth and final link seems to be yet another author (Jennifer L. Armstrong, this time) again offering her own books as free downloads. She also seems to have a nice, surprisingly large collection of links to other authors' blogs who appear to be doing the same thing. Nothing out of line there, nearly as I can tell without making it my life's pursuit.

Frankly you can ask the same "how do you know it's legal" question of any retailer and the answer would be the same: you'll have to take a look and see -- there's not really any other way.

Originally Posted by cmbs

And do you care if the download is legal or not?

I'd respectfully suggest that next time links like these come up, you might have a look at what's linked before asking such a question in quite so blunt a manner. Some oversensitive folks might think you meant to accuse someone of something, which doesn'tseem to be at all warranted in this case.


As a general note to everyone: if anyone should come across a link posted here on MobileRead that goes to a ... questionable site, please use the report post function (the little icon at the bottom left of each post) to let the Moderators know so that we can deal with it in a timely manner.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by NatCh

[*]The third link is a blog as well, and its entries appear to be write ups of (and links to) books offered elsewhere. Those elsewheres would seem upon casual examination to be legitimate, including sites such as Harlequin, Amazon and a publisher (or possibly just a retailer) called "Pyr" which I hadn't heard of. Some of them aren't free, as Junior94 noted.

Frankly you can ask the same "how do you know it's legal" question of any retailer and the answer would be the same: you'll have to take a look and see -- there's not really any other way.

I'd respectfully suggest that next time links like these come up, you might have a look at what's linked before asking such a question in quite so blunt a manner. Some oversensitive folks might think you meant to accuse someone of something, which doesn'tseem to be at all warranted in this case.

Actually, this third link is to cmbs's own blog.
I must confess to feeling faintly puzzed as to why she is apparently querying the legitimacy of her own site, though cannot imagine what else might have prompted her hypothetical question.

[strangeseraph]

I second the rec of project Gutenburg. Nothing like the classics.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by strangeseraph

I second the rec of project Gutenburg. Nothing like the classics.

Perhaps I missed something, but did anyone realize these same books can be downloaded here also for free?

Also, they are formatted by our own members, and I'm pretty sure you'll find huge improvements in what you are reading.

[cmbs]

Originally Posted by NatCh

You raise a good and legitimate point, cmbs, so I had a look at the linked sites.

Obviously it can't be an exhaustive look, as that would take quite a lot of time, but here's what seems to be the case after a few minutes with each site. Taking them in order:

• The first link appears to be nothing more than a collection of links to technical manuals and textbook type stuff hosted by the various folks who own actually them. Obviously, those various owners have every right to give them away if they so choose, and there's certainly nothing amiss with collecting the links in one place.
  
  
• The second link seems to be an author's personal blog (Lizzy Van Lysebeth, by name) where she's giving away her own books. Again, nothing questionable about that, legally, morally nor ethically. At least not that we can tell without knowing what sort of contracts she may or may not have with unnamed and possibly non-existent third parties -- questions I don't really feel I have any right to demand that she answer.
  
  
• The third link is a blog as well, and its entries appear to be write ups of (and links to) books offered elsewhere. Those elsewheres would seem upon casual examination to be legitimate, including sites such as Harlequin, Amazon and a publisher (or possibly just a retailer) called "Pyr" which I hadn't heard of. Some of them aren't free, as Junior94 noted.
  
  
• The fourth and final link seems to be yet another author (Jennifer L. Armstrong, this time) again offering her own books as free downloads. She also seems to have a nice, surprisingly large collection of links to other authors' blogs who appear to be doing the same thing. Nothing out of line there, nearly as I can tell without making it my life's pursuit.

Frankly you can ask the same "how do you know it's legal" question of any retailer and the answer would be the same: you'll have to take a look and see -- there's not really any other way.


I'd respectfully suggest that next time links like these come up, you might have a look at what's linked before asking such a question in quite so blunt a manner. Some oversensitive folks might think you meant to accuse someone of something, which doesn'tseem to be at all warranted in this case.


As a general note to everyone: if anyone should come across a link posted here on MobileRead that goes to a ... questionable site, please use the report post function (the little icon at the bottom left of each post) to let the Moderators know so that we can deal with it in a timely manner.

Quite the thorough assessments you've done. I should have thought of that.

Oh right, I did, and of course, you have missed a few things that are pretty obvious in my opinion. But hey, I guess in part it depends what you're looking to find. Right?

Patricia - I confess to being puzzled as to how you can claim to hand format 10 books every day. Even the easiest books take me a day to hand format, then several days reading to check for errors. Seems we just don't understand each other very well. I suspect our definition of "hand formatting" differs.

I'm not real puzzled about why you attack just about every post I make.

[cmbs]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Perhaps I missed something, but did anyone realize these same books can be downloaded here also for free?

Also, they are formatted by our own members, and I'm pretty sure you'll find huge improvements in what you are reading.

Project Gutenberg is free, and in fact is the source for most of the downloads available here. But Project Gutenberg also has about 20.000 (+) more ebooks available than MR does.

Don't forget Manybooks.net which has over 23,000 ebooks, mostly from Project Gutenberg, but not all, in many file types including azw, mobi, and prc. All free of course.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by cmbs

Project Gutenberg is free, and in fact is the source for most of the downloads available here. But Project Gutenberg also has about 20.000 (+) more ebooks available than MR does.

Don't forget Manybooks.net which has over 23,000 ebooks, mostly from Project Gutenberg, but not all, in many file types including azw, mobi, and prc. All free of course.

I would suggest trying to find the book from this site, or feedbooks.com first...again, its not the price.....(both are free), its all in the formatting.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by cmbs

Quite the thorough assessments you've done. I should have thought of that.

Oh right, I did, and of course, you have missed a few things that are pretty obvious in my opinion. But hey, I guess in part it depends what you're looking to find. Right?

I was looking to see if the linked sites seemed to be focusing on disseminating infringing materials, thus I focused on the materials that the sites contained or linked to.

Would you care, this time, to share what you've found so objectionable on those sites? Or do you prefer to continue your periodic implications that we're all either actively conspiring to deliberately promote illegal material, or simply too stupid to notice what's evidently so very apparent to you?

If one or more of these sites do, indeed, contain infringing materials, I'll happily remove the link myself (if one of the other Mods doesn't beat me to it), but I confess that I'm simply not inclined to do it based on unsupported implications that seem to be contrary to the evidence of my own eyes.

[cmbs]

Originally Posted by NatCh

I was looking to see if the linked sites seemed to be focusing on disseminating infringing materials, thus I focused on the materials that the sites contained or linked to.

Would you care, this time, to share what you've found so objectionable on those sites? Or do you prefer to continue your periodic implications that we're all either actively conspiring to deliberately promote illegal material, or simply too stupid to notice what's evidently so very apparent to you?

If one or more of these sites do, indeed, contain infringing materials, I'll happily remove the link myself (if one of the other Mods doesn't beat me to it), but I confess that I'm simply not inclined to do it based on unsupported implications that seem to be contrary to the evidence of my own eyes.

Not only do you not need me to tell you what you got wrong in your website assessments, because you are completely capable of seeing it for yourself, but I can't tell you because you are absolutely unwilling to receive anything I say without warping it into what you want it to be.

[deety]

Even if you think that the one poster doesn't like you and won't listen, maybe you could tell the rest of us? I looked at the sites as well, and didn't notice any obviously infringing books.

Of course I didn't spend a lot of time evaluating them because I saw very few ebooks that interested me (or that I hadn't already heard about), and a couple of those sites had really cluttered or otherwise unfortunate web design.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by cmbs

Not only do you not need me to tell you what you got wrong in your website assessments, because you are completely capable of seeing it for yourself, but I can't tell you because you are absolutely unwilling to receive anything I say without warping it into what you want it to be.

I'm not going to go scouring the sites trying to figure out what it is you're talking about, when I'm not seeing anything there myself that's a problem.

I asked you a simple, reasonable question: what did you see?

If you're unwilling to answer so simple a question, how can I possibly do anything about it?

You're accusing me of twisting what you say, but all I've done is ask you what you saw.

How can I possibly be twisting what you said when the only things you've said are accusations that I'm deliberately ignoring things on those sites, and twisting your words?

If there is something there, please, just point it out to me, so we can all get on with other things.

Even if I were out to twist your words, which I'm not, pointing out what you're seeing right out here in an open forum would put it in view of everyone -- that way I can't ignore or twist it (which I don't even want to do) because the entire MobileRead community would be able to see me do it!

Please, point out for me what I'm missing that's infringing, and I'll happily, gleefully, even, remove the link in question.

Surely you can see that I can't just pull them all on your say-so, without some specifics, one of them is your own blog after all!

[NatCh]

I've looked at them more closely -- the first two have "About" pages (here, and here) that explain that they're only interested in legal books, and the fourth one is the author's own blog, the third one is, of course, yours and I don't see anything there either.

Are you looking at the text-to-speech application that the second site has an ad for? That's the only thing I can see that you might be talking about.

[cmbs]

Deety - Thank you for being open minded. My original post was simply a set of questions meant for anyone open minded who felt like answering. If anyone did. Assess the sites for yourself, make your own decisions. Answer my comments if you want to, they speak for themselves.

Nat - I didn't tell you to remove any links. I didn't suggest that any links should be removed. I wasn't talking to you (ie: any mobile read mods). My questions were questions, hopefully to be responded to by open minded visitors who are more capable of actually understanding my comments for what they are. Or not, as they saw fit. I'm not surprised it got attacked, that's usually how you all respond to anything I say. I'm more surprised I bothered to respond to you. There's really no point, after all.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by cmbs

Deety - Thank you for being open minded. My original post was simply a set of questions meant for anyone open minded who felt like answering. If anyone did. Assess the sites for yourself, make your own decisions. Answer my comments if you want to, they speak for themselves.

Nat - I didn't tell you to remove any links. I didn't suggest that any links should be removed. I wasn't talking to you (ie: any mobile read mods). My questions were questions, hopefully to be responded to by open minded visitors who are more capable of actually understanding my comments for what they are. Or not, as they saw fit. I'm not surprised it got attacked, that's usually how you all respond to anything I say. I'm more surprised I bothered to respond to you. There's really no point, after all.

Attacked? What part was the attack? When I said that you had a good point?

When I took the trouble to look at each of the links you were asking questions about and explain why I thought they were okay?

When I asked people to report links they thought might be questionable so that they could be dealt with appropriately?

Or was it when I suggested that the tone of your questions might be misconstrued by the oversensitive?


Forgive me, but you really seemed to be implying pretty strongly in your responses that there was something objectionable on one or more of the linked sites. If I misunderstood that, I apologize, but it really did sound like that was what you were saying.

You also really seemed to be accusing me, personally, of deliberately ignoring whatever it was you seemed to be hinting at.

All I've done is to ask you what it was you found objectionable so that I could deal with it -- after all that's the sort of thing moderators are supposed to do, that's part of why we read the forums.