It was not a link. E-mail me and I'll be happy to send you the files via e-mail.

If these files were obtained for free from a legitimate source, with the right to distribute further, then then the rest of this message can be ignored, it's not relevant to you.

Piracy destroyed the music business. The media world has been terrified about the problem creeping into other industry segments. Internet providers have recently begun a new effort to monitor traffic and identify instances of transmission of copyright-protected material.

I'm not preaching in any way, it's not my nature. I just pass along this link as information. There have been successful piracy lawsuits and prosecutions and no doubt there will be more.

Here is a link that might be useful: New Anti-piracy initiative

This city had a visit from the FBI to search a local flea market for pirated copies of movies and music. They found 50,000 copies. No one was punished, fined or went to jail. The copies were confiscated.

When the FBI was interviewed by our local paper, they were asked what is piracy. The FBI said ,"it is copying for profit". It is not illegal to copy and give away in spite of what the media tells you.

You can do with a digital copy what you can do with one physical copy, like a book or a record. You can sell it. You can give it away. For digital copies, you can make a backup for your own use.

You can give someone else the same digital copy you have (like a book), in which case they have it and you don't. Duplication is a right under copyright law than the purchaser of one copy doesn't have. If you (as an individual) make a copy (physical or electronic) of what you have and give it to someone else, that's a copyright law violation.

The FBI action you're describing sounds like part of their work concerning counterfeit goods - fake Gucci goods, Rolex watches, Izod clothes, as well as physical bootleg copies. The media/internet thing is something quite different, more akin to the shutdown of Pirate Bay and the tracking of bit torrent activity.

It's an agreement for copyright holders that ISPs try self enforcement to deter violators, as a way to avoid lawsuits. If the effort doesn't curtail impermissible use, more aggressive means will be used BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS, not by law enforcement.

It was only a couple that had been put on a free site and given away.
Sites like pixelofink and bookbub that do the free and specials newsletters (all totally legit!). Those were the ones that were given free. They put them on for a for a time then they are off again. All obtained free and legal.
Many authors do that to entice you to get hooked and buy their new books.
walnutcreek I had sent you an email about this through GW

Snidely, I must back up what Raven has just posted. Several of us were interested in this series of books, and at different times some of them were made available as free downloads. That is when we "purchased" them and shared with others. So I am ignoring the rest of your post.

It's unlikely that the "purchaser" of a free copy receives the right to make further copies, but fine. Those copies that were once free are probably now being sold again, so legally the copyright wasn't abandoned. It was only "free" for a limited period of time under the specified circumstances.

I realize I'm offering a legal analysis to a non-legal audience, so my bad, This is something I've worked with. I'll drop it.

EmmaR's comment in the second paragraph is incorrect for the reasons explained.