copyright internet online-piracy is-x-legal
Is it legal to download progamming eBooks from GitHub?
<p>I recently planned to buy one of the book from <a href="https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Microsoft Press Store</a> online.</p>

<p>But browsing through one of the technical blog, I found the blog author providing link to download the same eBook for free.</p>

<p>I can also see some GitHub repositories have programming eBooks for free.</p>

<p>Is it legal to download the eBooks or can I just view them online ?</p>

<p>If the blog author holds the copyright on the ebook, they can distribute the ebook anyway they choose, either via download from Github or elsewhere, or sell it in an online store. They hold the copyright, they alone can decide how to distribute it. If they also sell the ebook in the Microsoft press Store, they may have an agreement with the store to also allow their own free downloads; it's hard to say without knowing the agreement.</p>

<p>If there are ebooks on Githb available for viewing or download, the owner of the Github page should hold copyright of the ebook, both 1) for their own protection against copyright infringement, and 2) to not break GitHub's TOS against copright infringement: <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/#f-copyright-infringement-and-dmca-policy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/#f-copyright-infringement-and-dmca-policy</a></p>
