Looking for free e-books, especially in the e-learning area? P2P technology is one way to catch up with a number of e-books at once, as well as search for videos. FileShareFreak has compiled a master list of Specialized private BitTorrent Websites—eLearning / eBooks. 
The sites use a technology developed by this guy, Bram Cohen.
A few caveats for novices:
- Beware of viruses spread via some file-sharing sites. Make sure your anti-virus programs are working, and even then understand they may not be infallible. If you really want to be safe, skip P2P and limit your freebie hunts to sites such as Textbook Revolution and Manybooks.net.
- Certain Internet providers may penalize you for heavy P2P downloading—a special risk with big videos and other multimedia files. Check your terms of service and call tech support if unsure where you stand. Have Comcast and Bittorent really made peace? Among some people, questions linger.
- Some P2P material might not be authentic—for example, Harry Potter books written by non-Rowlings. In fact, frustratingly, legal Potter e-books have yet to appear, just audios.
- Act within your country’s laws. If you see a U.S. bestseller on a freebie site and it isn’t a Creative Commons book, for example, there’s a good chances that it’s illegal. Project Gutenberg books are among the legal offerings on BitTorrent sites. Great items to spread around without running afoul of the law!
- You might also look for legal items from MIT and other universities that increasingly are putting “courseware” online for free, including perhaps videos of lectures. Yes, you can also download items directly in many cases. Here’s a link to MIT courseware on dysfunctional families.
Publishers may want to reach out to problematic sites and try to win their cooperation. They might consider letting them distribute large samples from books and share profits. In some cases, where e-books can promote sales of p-books, then entire works could end up legally online. If the P2P-related sites don’t get the message and promote illegal material, then the case is that much stronger for shut-downs. Of course, there’s a good chance that other pirate sites will spring up elsewhere, even if publishers succeed—which, for nonU.S. sites, can be unlikely.
Reminder to publishers: Pirated books don’t come with the encumbrances of DRM, which often encourages illegal copying because users cannot enjoy “protected” books on all their PDAs, tablets and cellphones. Besides your avoiding DRM, use of nonproprietary formats such as HTML can help make it easier for readers to stay legal. HTML can always be converted to proprietary formats, at least some of which, however, can also be offered.
Photo credit: CC licensed image from Irina Slutzy, who interviewed Bram Cohen for GeekTV. Alas, in at least one case, he shied away from discussing Bittorrent directly.
(Via Digg.com)
