Unsure Whether Or Not It's Bad Stuff

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Post the link here. Let your friendly yachtless authors give you an opinion.

[A.F.]

I ran across the site Fiction Books Bay that lists free downloads, mostly of bestsellers. It also has this disclaimer:

Disclaimer: None of the files shown here are actually hosted or transmitted by this server. The links are provided by this site's users or search engine. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any. To uploaders: You may not use this site to distribute any material when you do not have the legal rights to do so. It is your own responsibility to adhere to these terms. To downloaders: Contents shared by this site's users are only for evaluation and tryout, you'd better delete them in 24 hours after evaluation. If you like them, please purchase the copyright version.

To me this site screams piracy, but I'm wondering if the whole "evaluation and tryout" clause gives them a loophole.

[Rowena, Group Owner]

Oh, AF, that is most definitely a case of copyright infringement.

If COICA is passed, Safe Harbor laws will not protect sites that have little other business beyond directing freebie-hunters to illegal downloads.

I think, if someone published a directory of homes that no longer pay their burglar alarm company bills and are easy to break into, the directory provider would be in trouble.

This isn't much different.

I don't believe that evaluation and tryout is legitimate. The legal way to evaluate and try out is to go to a library or bookstore, not to create and distribute copies that aren't paid for.