Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
darryl, I don't disagree with anything you've said in your post above. Of course nobody is going to end up in court for downloading something from "archive.org". The reason for my warning about the contents of the site was simply to make people aware that it is not always a "safe" site to download from, and that if downloading pirated books is something that you wish to avoid doing (and many people on this forum disagree with piracy), you may wish to check the legitimacy of a book that you find on the site before you download it. If, as some people on this thread have indicated, they feel that this is "not their job", and they don't wish to do so, then that is of course their personal choice to make.
I make no apology, however, for giving the warning about the site: it's a site that I make extensive use of for both personal reading matter and academic research, and I have personally (and one more than one occasion) had quite obviously pirated books appear among the search results returned by the site. Some people may find that warning useful. Those who do not are free to ignore it.
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Sometimes the site has illegitimate content. Three or four years ago, I discovered
To Kill a Mockingbird available for download. (It was a working copy, I checked.) This was before an authorized digital copy was being sold by HarperCollins. No doubt it was eventually removed. As you've correctly pointed out, that's not a slam against archive.org. It's a reminder that anyone downloading material from it should exercise due diligence to make reasonably sure it's legitimate content. A downloader may get it wrong, but at least (s)he made an effort to confirm the material's legitimacy.
Case in point, even large retailers can make a mistake. On more than one occasion, B&N had illegitimate copies of TKAM for sale. Six years ago, Amazon became embroiled in the
1984 debacle. It happens. The only recourse is to remove it and make amends.
In my case, I deleted the book (TKAM) and purchased the authorized version when it became available.