I recently stumbled upon one of these sites. Assuming it was legit, I answered a perlmonk question by linking to a relevant Cookbook recipe. I included a "p.s." asking if the site was really authorized to use the bookshelf that way. After learning that it was indeed *NOT* sanctioned usage by O'Reilly, I promptly removed the links.

I'm a fence sitter on this one as well... Perhaps because it is so similiar to the IP battles that the music industry is currently going through. I certainly wouldn't give up my copy of the Cookbook even if the entire contents was available online for free. Perhaps it would even encourage more people to buy the book (cause it is a damn good book!!!)

It's hard to compare O'Reilly with the IP Warlords of the music industry, so perhaps that isn't really fair. I suppose its immaterial either way. O'Reilly doesn't want you to do it, and it was their dime (and authors' sweat) that made the book a reality. If they discourage that type of usage, who am I to disagree.

-Blake