[HenryR]

Is Stevens vol. 2 in the public domain now? If not, that's pretty poor form, linking to a scanned pdf of the book.

[uxp]

No, actually it's not public domain. The 19th edition was printed and released in 2005. Pearson looks like it actively tries to protect it's copyrights to the series as well: http://www.foo.be/docs/TCPIP-Illustrated-1/

[derrickpetzold]

Its not because if you are a FreeBSD developer it is already assumed that you own every copy of Steven's books next to the shrine of him in your basement. So linking to a digital scan is not infringement its just convenience.

[doki_pen]

Wouldn't that be fair use? Do you have issue with the content being posted, or the fact that it's scanned?

[estel]

Quoting parts of the book to support some points made in the article would fall under fair use, but linking to a scan of the entire book would not.

[btilly]

Hosting a scan is not fair use, but linking to a copyright violation is not generally a copyright violation. Though a few courts have ruled that it can be if done for the specific purpose of knowingly disseminating illegal material. See http://www.chillingeffects.org/linking/faq.cgi#QID152 for more.

[estel]

That's true, but the original point was 'poor form', which this likely falls under also.

[ZoFreX]

It may not be illegal, but it's incredibly poor form.