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Freecomputerbooks.com

freecomputerbooks.com

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Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#11

Post by Cyberdog »

capableweb wrote: post #10
meigwilym wrote: post #6

> In other words, this site DOES NOT contain any actual content of the books or lecture notes listed in this site. > Therefore, this website is as legal as search results of any search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. It's worth pointing out that this site may link to copyrighted material.

Worth mentioning that usually you don't end up in legal troubles for consuming copyrighted material but for reproducing/sharing copyrighted material, and often not until you do so at scale.

"Usually don't" and "often not" are comforting words but regardless there are always risks involved when committing illegal acts.

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#12

Post by b0afc375b5 »

b800h wrote: post #8

If this is just a link to a bunch of PDFs, then presumably PDF malware is an issue here. I would have thought computer books would be a fine vector to choose if you were trying to compromise websites and business systems.

Whenever I download untrusted pdfs I always upload them to virustotal. Does that help at all and if so, is it sufficient enough?

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#13

Post by lostgame »

Cyberdog wrote: post #11
capableweb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth mentioning that usually you don't end up in legal troubles for consuming copyrighted material but for reproducing/sharing copyrighted material, and often not until you do so at scale.

"Usually don't" and "often not" are comforting words but regardless there are always risks involved when committing illegal acts.

People “usually don’t” get arrested for possession of a small amount of cocaine; but I sure wouldn’t want to be one of those obscure cases. I agree ‘usually’ is almost never good enough when personal risk is involved.

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#14

Post by rocketbop »

Cyberdog wrote: post #11
capableweb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth mentioning that usually you don't end up in legal troubles for consuming copyrighted material but for reproducing/sharing copyrighted material, and often not until you do so at scale.

"Usually don't" and "often not" are comforting words but regardless there are always risks involved when committing illegal acts.

Is there actually? In Germany I have heard of people getting served with fines for downloading torrents, as sharing a torrent identifies you through your IP. I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble for streaming or downloading a file, and I'm not sure how it could realistically be detected.

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#15

Post by lr1970 »

I checked the OP link. Clicking on any category pops up an ad that needs to be explicitly "closed". It happens again and again as you navigate through the site. Annoying like hell.

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#16

Post by [deleted] »

lr1970 wrote: post #15

I checked the OP link. Clicking on any category pops up an ad that needs to be explicitly "closed". It happens again and again as you navigate through the site. Annoying like hell.

[deleted]

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#17

Post by bmacho »

b0afc375b5 wrote: post #12
b800h wrote: post #8

If this is just a link to a bunch of PDFs, then presumably PDF malware is an issue here. I would have thought computer books would be a fine vector to choose if you were trying to compromise websites and business systems.

Whenever I download untrusted pdfs I always upload them to virustotal. Does that help at all and if so, is it sufficient enough?

Is pdf dangerous? I guess on linux canonical distributes latest, free-of-known-vulnerables evince, what about windows? One must upload every file?

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#18

Post by candiodari »

rocketbop wrote: post #14
Cyberdog wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Usually don't" and "often not" are comforting words but regardless there are always risks involved when committing illegal acts.

Is there actually? In Germany I have heard of people getting served with fines for downloading torrents, as sharing a torrent identifies you through your IP. I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble for streaming or downloading a file, and I'm not sure how it could realistically be detected.

I'm not sure I should point this out, but there are organisations (Microsoft, Apple, maybe Google) that have obvious access to this information. It could be subpoenaed from them.

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#19

Post by toyg »

rocketbop wrote: post #14
Cyberdog wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Usually don't" and "often not" are comforting words but regardless there are always risks involved when committing illegal acts.

Is there actually? In Germany I have heard of people getting served with fines for downloading torrents, as sharing a torrent identifies you through your IP. I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble for streaming or downloading a file, and I'm not sure how it could realistically be detected.

It's not about detection, it's about legality.

Bittorrent is legally clear-cut, because the sharing part is a clear copyright infringement (you are distributing the work without authorization).

Streaming (typically) isn't that clear, because consuming the work is technically not forbidden by copyright law in most countries. It's a bit like reading a book in a bookshop without buying it.

Detection is fairly easy in both cases, they just cannot go after consumers.

Re: Freecomputerbooks.com

#20

Post by whoknew1122 »

b0afc375b5 wrote: post #12
b800h wrote: post #8

If this is just a link to a bunch of PDFs, then presumably PDF malware is an issue here. I would have thought computer books would be a fine vector to choose if you were trying to compromise websites and business systems.

Whenever I download untrusted pdfs I always upload them to virustotal. Does that help at all and if so, is it sufficient enough?

It'll be sufficient for known malware. But if malware hasn't been identified yet, VirusTotal won't pick it up.

Is it possible that you can download malware and VirusTotal not pick it up? there's a small chance. But, in my estimation, no one is really going to burn a novel strain of malware on free ebooks. It's not targeted and that site isn't a good watering hole to deploy novel malware.

Novel strains of malware are usually reserved for specific targets. Unless you're a high profile target of an authoritarian government or known to have a high networth, I don't really think you're going to get hit with the novel stuff.

TL/DR: VirusTotal will probably be enough for the average user. But no one can guarantee safety when you're downloading random files on the internet.

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