It is illegal to share e-books for free. The legal consequence of purchasing a book is only to obtain the ownership of the book. If there is no agreement with the copyright owner and no explicit authorization, or the copyright owner unilaterally licenses or transfers the rights, it does not mean that the copyright attached to the book carrier is also generalized or Specific transfers. First of all, assuming that there is no provision for fair use in Article 22 of the Copyright Law, the act of making a few electronic copies of a book and distributing it through information networks may violate the author's information network dissemination rights and reproduction rights. The right of information network dissemination, according to the provisions of Article 10, Paragraph 1, Item (12) of the Copyright Law, refers to: providing works to the public in wired or wireless ways, so that the public can obtain the works at the time and place of their personal choosing. right. The right to reproduce, according to Article 10, Paragraph 1, Item (5), refers to the right to make one or more copies of a work by printing, copying, rubbing, recording, videotaping, ripping, or photocopying. Due to the particularity of the carrier of electronic books, without copyright protection measures, copying book contents has become more convenient in the Internet age. And once the cost of reproduction drops, the economic interests of copyright owners, including distribution, will be vulnerable to varying degrees of damage. Therefore, as a remedy to the copyright owner, the law clearly stipulates that if the copyright owner has not permitted others to copy or transfer the right of reproduction and does not have reasonable use, no one may copy his or her work. In the same way, readers or owners of electronic books, under the above circumstances, are not allowed to upload the author's works to servers, network hard drives or other network spaces through the Internet. Otherwise, the copyright owner has the right to force the infringement to cease and to seek compensation for losses.
Legal basis:
"Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 2 The works of Chinese citizens, legal persons or unincorporated organizations, regardless of Whether published or not, copyright shall be enjoyed in accordance with this Law. The copyrights enjoyed by foreigners and stateless persons in their works based on the agreement signed between the country of origin or habitual residence of the author and China or international treaties to which both countries are parties shall be protected by this Law. If the works of foreigners or stateless persons are first published in China, they shall enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law. If the works of authors and stateless persons from countries that have not signed an agreement with China or have joined international treaties are published for the first time in a member country of an international treaty to which China is a party, or if they are published simultaneously in a member state and a non-member state, they shall be subject to this provision. legal protection.
Article 10 Copyright includes the following personal rights and property rights:
(1) Right of publication, that is, the right to decide whether the work will be made public;
(2) Right of signature , that is, the right to indicate the identity of the author and sign the work;
(3) The right to modify, that is, the right to modify or authorize others to modify the work;
(4) The right to protect the integrity of the work , that is, the right to protect the work from distortion and tampering;
(5) The right to reproduce, that is, to make a copy of the work by printing, copying, rubbing, recording, video recording, ripping, re-photography, digitization, etc. or the right to multiple copies;
(6) Distribution right, that is, the right to provide the original or copies of the work to the public by selling or donating it;
(7) Rental right, That is, the right to license others to temporarily use the originals or copies of audio-visual works and computer software for a fee, except for computer software that is not the main subject of the lease;
(8) Exhibition rights, that is, the public display of fine arts and photographic works The right to the original or copy of the work;
(9) Performance right, that is, the right to perform the work publicly and to publicly broadcast the work by various means;
(10) Screening Right, that is, the right to publicly reproduce art, photography, audio-visual works, etc. through technical equipment such as projectors and slide projectors;
(11) Broadcasting rights, that is, the right to publicly disseminate or rebroadcast works through wired or wireless means, and to The right to disseminate broadcast works to the public through loudspeakers or other similar tools that transmit symbols, sounds, and images, but does not include the rights specified in item 12 of this paragraph;
(12) Information network dissemination Right, that is, the right to provide the work to the public by wired or wireless means so that the public can obtain the work at the time and place of their choice;
(13) Filming right, that is, to use the method of filming audio-visual works to The right to fix the work on the carrier;
(14) Adaptation right, that is, the right to change the work and create an original new work;
(15) Translation right , that is, the right to convert works from one language into another;
(16) right of compilation, that is, the right to assemble works or fragments of works into new works through selection or arrangement;
(17) Other rights that should be enjoyed by the copyright owner. The copyright owner may permit others to exercise the rights specified in items 5 to 17 of the preceding paragraph and receive remuneration in accordance with the agreement or the relevant provisions of this Law. The copyright owner may transfer all or part of the rights specified in items 5 to 17 of paragraph 1 of this article and receive remuneration in accordance with the agreement or the relevant provisions of this law.
Article 22: The protection period of the author’s right of signature, right of modification, and right to protect the integrity of the work is not limited.