How can you read free books?

alexd181 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-25-2008, 05:10 AM

I visited Google Books http://books.google.com but I don't get how you can read full books for free. Isn't it against copyright??

online.education · #2 (**permalink**) 02-20-2008, 04:48 AM

Copyright is determined by the author. If he/she publishes his book so that it can be distributed freely, then it's free. Also there are a number of books in the public domain.

Red Paul · #3 (**permalink**) 03-21-2008, 05:21 PM

Copyright is time-limited, so all old 'classic' books are out of copyright and can be freely copied. Also, o.e. is quite right that an author can waive copyright - this is often done for marketing purposes... as in e-books.

sushil · #4 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 12:20 PM

Google book the main option for read free books online.

Crafterz · #5 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 03:52 PM

Some books you cannot read online. I just searched Catch-22, and google has no freely available versions of it. Only a play based on it for free. So not all books are freely available to read through google.

fpforum · #6 (**permalink**) 05-21-2008, 05:24 AM

Google books is probably the best source for free books online. I've actually never really used google books. But hey, if it's google, it's most likely good

Knox · #7 (**permalink**) 06-23-2008, 04:59 AM

Sometimes I search on torrent websites for eBooks.

DionDev · #8 (**permalink**) 06-23-2008, 09:43 PM

not if the author releases it for free or makes a deal with google

and believe me, google has a highly paid law team to make sure they can NEVER get into legal trouble for ANYTHING