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Does anyone know the legality of putting the DRM free pdf files into a public Dropbox folder? Not sure what copyrights or licenses still apply if I decide to bu

Does anyone know the legality of putting the DRM free pdf files into a public Dropbox folder? Not sure what copyrights or licenses still apply if I decide to buy these and share this with other people.

Jtsummers 10y ago
http://support.oreilly.com/oreilly/topics/if_i_buy_pdf_version_of_a_book_can_i_share_it_to_my_friends http://support.oreilly.com/oreilly/topics/if_i_buy_pdf_versi... This is O'Reilly's take on it. You can lend it, but you can't have access to it while it's lent out. Really, really hard to enforce. But I believe PDFs are watermarked (don't know how they'll do it with this bundle), so if you lend it out and the copy gets into the wild, so to speak, they can trace it back to your account.
- r3bl 10y ago
  > But I believe PDFs are watermarked (don't know how they'll do it with this bundle), so if you lend it out and the copy gets into the wild, so to speak, they can trace it back to your account. The thing that distinguishes Humble Bundle from the rest of the "book sellers" for me (I know you can't really call them "book sellers") is that they offer no DRM what so ever, and, by purchasing a pack for a ridiculously low price, you're contributing to a usually pretty good NGO/foundation in the process. I usually share the hell out of a current bundle that looks interesting to me to everyone that I think might be interested in it while the offer lasts. Me personally, I could never provide a copy of the bundle in public (however, I would share a book or two with someone I personally trust in case they missed the offer) because Humble Bundle is doing something that I don't see anyone else doing: providing awesome things for cheap and supporting some awesome organization in the process.
  - cheiVia0 10y ago
    Is watermarking considered DRM? It doesn't restrict anything, and you can copy as much as you like.
  - jsjohnst 10y ago
    Every ebook I bought (which is over a thousand now) from O'reilly, Pragmatic Programmers, Manning, and Apress in the past ten years or so has been DRM free.
    - rollover 10y ago
      O'Reilly, NoStarch, Packt and Leanpub books are fine since they're completely clean. But books from Pragmatic Programmers, Manning, Apress, Addison Wesley, Pearson and Sams are watermarked which I consider just as bad as DRM. I never buy digital books from publishers who watermark.
      - detaro 10y ago
        Why is watermarking "just as bad"? It doesn't interfere with me using the files, so I personally don't care.
        jsjohnst 10y ago
        Ditto! This might be an unfair stance for me to take, but my thought is anyone opposed to them adding your name inside the book isn't using the book for a legitimate authorized use case most likely. It most certainly isn't a DRM to me in any normal sense and I'm perfectly ok with it.
        rollover 10y ago
        Watermarking puts the liability (maybe not legally) on the customer to protect the files from any third party access because there's always the risk that someone who gains access to them puts the files on the net with your name/email or user id on it. This is something no customer can realistically ensure and to me this is a huge restriction to the usage of the books. Second it's ugly as hell to have the watermark on every page. Third it sends the message to me as a customer that I'm not trusted. WTF dear publisher. I want to buy your ebook although I could find 90% of all ebooks for free on the net. Why do you think would I do that if I didn't want to support your business? You watermarking publishers need to realize that by watermarking you create a defective product. The people who pirate your books get a better product, one without a disgracing watermark. Whenever something like that happens, where the pirated product is better than the legally purchased one, it is a clear indication that the anti-piracy mechanism should be dropped. Big respect to Tim O'Reilly and Bill Pollock who are two of the few people who have fully understood that.
GavinMcG 10y ago
I am not a lawyer, and I don't intend this to be legal advice. That said, having done a somewhat more than cursory amount of study when it comes to intellectual property issues, I'm 100% confident that this would be unlawful in the United States, and 95% confident that it would be unlawful in whatever country you're residing in right now, if it's not the US. And frankly, I think a more than cursory study is overkill.
ambulancechaser 10y ago
And just so we are clear, DRM is independent of copyright and license. the lack of DRM does not mean the author/publisher relinquishes claims over distribution channels, but here they are saying "we trust you not to share it". Your argument reads like "if its easy it must be legal".

Jtsummers 10y ago

http://support.oreilly.com/oreilly/topics/if_i_buy_pdf_version_of_a_book_can_i_share_it_to_my_friends http://support.oreilly.com/oreilly/topics/if_i_buy_pdf_versi... This is O'Reilly's take on it. You can lend it, but you can't have access to it while it's lent out. Really, really hard to enforce. But I believe PDFs are watermarked (don't know how they'll do it with this bundle), so if you lend it out and the copy gets into the wild, so to speak, they can trace it back to your account.

r3bl 10y ago
> But I believe PDFs are watermarked (don't know how they'll do it with this bundle), so if you lend it out and the copy gets into the wild, so to speak, they can trace it back to your account. The thing that distinguishes Humble Bundle from the rest of the "book sellers" for me (I know you can't really call them "book sellers") is that they offer no DRM what so ever, and, by purchasing a pack for a ridiculously low price, you're contributing to a usually pretty good NGO/foundation in the process. I usually share the hell out of a current bundle that looks interesting to me to everyone that I think might be interested in it while the offer lasts. Me personally, I could never provide a copy of the bundle in public (however, I would share a book or two with someone I personally trust in case they missed the offer) because Humble Bundle is doing something that I don't see anyone else doing: providing awesome things for cheap and supporting some awesome organization in the process.
- cheiVia0 10y ago
  Is watermarking considered DRM? It doesn't restrict anything, and you can copy as much as you like.
- jsjohnst 10y ago
  Every ebook I bought (which is over a thousand now) from O'reilly, Pragmatic Programmers, Manning, and Apress in the past ten years or so has been DRM free.
  - rollover 10y ago
    O'Reilly, NoStarch, Packt and Leanpub books are fine since they're completely clean. But books from Pragmatic Programmers, Manning, Apress, Addison Wesley, Pearson and Sams are watermarked which I consider just as bad as DRM. I never buy digital books from publishers who watermark.
    - detaro 10y ago
      Why is watermarking "just as bad"? It doesn't interfere with me using the files, so I personally don't care.
      - jsjohnst 10y ago
        Ditto! This might be an unfair stance for me to take, but my thought is anyone opposed to them adding your name inside the book isn't using the book for a legitimate authorized use case most likely. It most certainly isn't a DRM to me in any normal sense and I'm perfectly ok with it.
      - rollover 10y ago
        Watermarking puts the liability (maybe not legally) on the customer to protect the files from any third party access because there's always the risk that someone who gains access to them puts the files on the net with your name/email or user id on it. This is something no customer can realistically ensure and to me this is a huge restriction to the usage of the books. Second it's ugly as hell to have the watermark on every page. Third it sends the message to me as a customer that I'm not trusted. WTF dear publisher. I want to buy your ebook although I could find 90% of all ebooks for free on the net. Why do you think would I do that if I didn't want to support your business? You watermarking publishers need to realize that by watermarking you create a defective product. The people who pirate your books get a better product, one without a disgracing watermark. Whenever something like that happens, where the pirated product is better than the legally purchased one, it is a clear indication that the anti-piracy mechanism should be dropped. Big respect to Tim O'Reilly and Bill Pollock who are two of the few people who have fully understood that.

GavinMcG 10y ago

I am not a lawyer, and I don't intend this to be legal advice. That said, having done a somewhat more than cursory amount of study when it comes to intellectual property issues, I'm 100% confident that this would be unlawful in the United States, and 95% confident that it would be unlawful in whatever country you're residing in right now, if it's not the US. And frankly, I think a more than cursory study is overkill.

ambulancechaser 10y ago

And just so we are clear, DRM is independent of copyright and license. the lack of DRM does not mean the author/publisher relinquishes claims over distribution channels, but here they are saying "we trust you not to share it". Your argument reads like "if its easy it must be legal".