Where To Download Free Ebooks Illegal & Risks Involved

This blog post is a curated list of sites that allow illegal download of free e-books. The reason for this post is to help you avoid such websites and also know the risks involved in downloading e-books illegally in order to avoid getting into trouble.

The internet is filled with so many things and an innocent you looking for a site to download a free e-book can just wander into the wrong place and get into trouble. When I say trouble, I mean some real-life legal issues simply for downloading a book. It may seem “simple” to you because surely you intended no harm but there is usually more to it than meets the eye.

Authors often protect or secure their works by copyright law, which is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression. This law prevents other people, aside from the author, to reproduce their work in any other form.

You must have seen something like “copyright law” in almost every book, whether paper or electronic book, that you want to read. Now, there are a handful of authors that permits others to reproduce their work in whatever formats they choose and make money off it, they don’t care.

However, most authors do not allow this, because, of course, it is their work and it would be unfair for others to profit from their work. Another reason why they don’t allow this is that there are some malicious people that will edit their book and add or remove things that the author didn’t originally put there and this may land the author in serious trouble. Thus, it is best protected by copyright law.

Now, where the problem comes in is that there are individuals who do not care about copyright law. They infringe this law and go ahead to reproduce the works of these authors into e-books, build a site, and put them there for innocent individuals to come and download for free.

This automatically makes the site an illegal platform to download e-books and when you visit such a site and download an e-book, you could get into some legal issues. Knowing where to download free ebooks illegal can save you from such issues. Since you know the website, you simply avoid them and go for the right ones instead.

And if you don’t know the right ones, I’ve got you covered.

In my recent articles on sites to read free books online and websites for free college textbooks, you will find a long list of legal websites where you can get any e-book of your choice on a wide variety of genres and disciplines without getting into any legal issues of some sort. And for comic book lovers, check these sites to read comic books online for free, and yes, they are legal.

Is Downloading Free E-books Illegal?

There are online book libraries like Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, Open Library, and Wattpad that are legal to download free e-books. These websites are popular among readers and authors put their work there or give consent for their works to be put on such platforms either for free or for a cost for people to read.

However, there are websites that host or give links to copyrighted e-books without the author or publisher’s permission which makes the books pirated. Downloading from such websites is illegal and you have to avoid them at all costs because it is the same as robbing a bookstore of its books.

What Makes An E-book Download Site Illegal?

What makes an e-book download site illegal is that they provide links to pirated e-books for readers or put up an e-book on their site without the consent of the author or publisher.

Why Is It Illegal To Download Pirated Copies Of Books?

It is illegal because you have breached the Copyright Law and downloading such pirated copies of books could land you in jail.

What Are The Risks Involved In Downloading E-books From Illegal Sites?

The risks involved are:

  1. You are breaking a law which is a punishable offense
  2. The e-book may contain harmful software that will install a virus or malware in your device.
where to download free ebooks illegal

Where To Download Free Ebooks Illegal – XX Websites

Look closely at the sites listed below and avoid visiting them to download an e-book because they are known for putting up pirated books which could land you in trouble.

  • Torlock
  • Rapidshare
  • Uploading
  • Ebookee
  • PDF Drive
  • Uploaded
  • 4shared
  • Mediafile
  • 1337x
  • Bookos
  • Esnips
  • Hotfile
  • Megaupload

Downloading a pirated copy of books is theft and illegal. The practice reduces the income of the author’s work which can even make some of them give up on writing or kill their spirit and creativity. This is why we at Study Abroad Nations do not support the act of readers downloading pirated copies of books. Instead, head to a bookshop and buy the book to support the work of the author or buy them online. And if you can’t do any of these, visit a legal site and get an e-book the right way.

Where To Download Free Ebooks Illegal – FAQs

Is the Z-library legal?

While it is safe to download on Z-library from user experience, the works available on the platform are not permitted by law which makes Z-library illegal.

Will I get in trouble for downloading from Z-library?

Z-library is an illegal website that could land you in trouble if you download it from the platform.

Where can I download pirated ebooks for free?

4shared.com and bookos.org are sites where you can download pirated ebooks for free. It’s best you avoid them.

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