are e-books and chm files available for free download legal ?

[fz8975]

I just needed some e-books on networking, so i googled it. I found pdfs and many chm files available for free download and also some HUGE torrents...

I want to know that are these books legal ..? ?

 

[Alok]

It depends on site from where you downloading.

 

[Anish]

Some books are given by the authors freely (rarely i suppose). But some most of the books in pdf format are pirated(scanned) and uploaded

 

[Sumeet_naik]

Almost all ebooks on torrents are pirated.