Head First Design Patterns

[Kendall Ponder]

I did not know where to post this question but I thought this would be the best place. I did a search for the book Head First Design Patterns and found free PDF downloads. My concern is if these are pirated copies. If the authors/publishers have made it available in PDF form I will use it, but if not I won't. Thanks for any advice.

[Greg Charles]

Unless the download comes directly from the publisher's site, it's safe to assume that it's a pirated copy. Also this book is still for sale, which is another strong indicator it isn't also being given away free. Remember, downloading a pirated PDF is essentially the same as walking into a bookstore and stealing the book. Authors, particularly technical book authors, work extremely hard to write these books and deserve to be compensated for their work.

[Kendall Ponder]

Greg Charles wrote:Unless the download comes directly from the publisher's site, it's safe to assume that it's a pirated copy. Also this book is still for sale, which is another strong indicator it isn't also being given away free. Remember, downloading a pirated PDF is essentially the same as walking into a bookstore and stealing the book. Authors, particularly technical book authors, work extremely hard to write these books and deserve to be compensated for their work.

If I didn't understand why you shouldn't use a pirated copy I wouldn't have asked the question. I did not understand why they would make the PDF form available (although their are some books which offer free e-versions but sell hard copies, not sure I understand why). Thanks for the input. I suspected it was pirated but couldn't find any info when I googled the question.

[Greg Charles]

Yes, you did. Sorry, Kendall. My admonition against downloading pirated tech books wasn't aimed at you specifically. I just didn't want to talk about pirating without mentioning reasons not to do it.

[Kendall Ponder]

Greg Charles wrote:Yes, you did. Sorry, Kendall. My admonition against downloading pirated tech books wasn't aimed at you specifically. I just didn't want to talk about pirating without mentioning reasons not to do it.

No problem. I have always thought copying software/movies/etc without the writers permission was the same as shoplifting. I appreciate the feedback. I have deleted the PDF copy of the book.

[Marc Laffan]

Yeah, this seems to be a particularly big problem with software development books.

There's some site with a domain involving the text "ebook" that's clearly violating a LOT of copyright laws, but that hasn't been taken down yet.

And it's not the only website doing this either. There are loads of them out there.

[Marc Laffan]

Yeah, this seems to be a particularly big problem with software development books.

There's some site with a domain involving the text "ebook" that's clearly violating a LOT of copyright laws, but that hasn't been taken down yet.

And it's not the only website doing this either. There are loads of them out there.