Sharing E-Books?

I purchased the MCSE Self Paced Training Kit 290 book awhile back, now its sitting on my desk collecting dust. I don't want to sell it as I keep it as a reference. A friend of mine recently asked if he could borrow the 290 book when he was down for a visit. I really didn't want to lend it out, as he lives 4hrs away. So I politely declined, however I got thinking. Doesn't each book come with the cd that has the E-Book? I'm at work and can't check. If that is the case would I be violating any laws by sending him the E book instead?

I don’t think this would/should be an issue but I would like to double check beforehand.

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Comments

LarryDaMan

Piracy and copyright laws might say different, but what kind of world do we live in if you can't lend a friend a book??? (e-book or otherwise)

Just be clear to him that you don't want him to distribute it to anyone else.

tiersten

LarryDaMan wrote: »

Piracy and copyright laws might say different, but what kind of world do we live in if you can't lend a friend a book??? (e-book or otherwise)

It is a little different when it is an eBook because many people can be reading the eBook at the same time. If you lend somebody a physical book then only one person is reading it at a time.

Whether you can distribute the eBook depends on the publisher and the terms for that specific eBook. It is likely that they don't want you to distribute it though.

Megadeth4168

Well, I guess it depends on the publisher... I just read through the license agreement from one of My Sybex books, and it basically states that you may only transfer the software and documentation on a permanent basis, as long as the transferee agrees to the license agreement.

I imagine, with the wording of the entire agreement, that it is plausible, to allow someone to have the ebook, as long as you don't have a copy somewhere, and have them "transfer" it back to you when they are done, providing that they don't keep a copy.

I would say, that you might be pushing your luck that way, but I don't see that situation really be addressed in the agreement that I was reading.