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I don't really agree that P2P sharing is illegal but eh, to be fair, alot of the stuff I download I don't use- and if it's good I will buy it- especially textbooks. Like in this case, the OP wants to see if it's any good, if it is good, they'd buy it. I've downloaded alot of CRAP that I was so glad I didn't pay for and didn't even use, so I don't consider it stealing. Like the Pimsluer 'Advanced' audio course- what a joke, they charge like $200 for it, I listened to the final lesson of it, discovered that it was super basic stuff and immediatly deleted it. Should I pay $200 for that? We just want a preview to see what we're getting.

And BTW, the other products I mentioned that were good I did actually buy :mtongue:

If you have the publisher's permission, then feel free to go right ahead, otherwise please respect the creator's right not to give his work away for free.

Whether something is illegal or not is a matter of fact, not opinion. I don't really care whether you think something is legal. Your opinion doesn't matter one iota as to whether an act is actually proscribed by law.

And yeah, technically P2P sharing isn't illegal in and of itself. For example, I can share movies made in the 1910s and that is legal. I can share on P2P something I wrote, or a Shakespeare play in the public domain.

However, sharing a copy of Genki or Yookoso or Minna no Nihongo is definitely copyright infringement, which is illegal. It can even be a criminal act if you share it enough.

And don't confuse morality with legality. I happen to agree with you: I believe it is moreally permitted to give someone a pirated copy of a textbook so they can evaluate it and decide whether they want to make a purchase. However, that does not affect its legality. You get sued based on laws, not morals. Thus, MMM (rightly) is concerned with policing law, not morality.

Well, he might be concerned with policing some morality, but only because it's an unspoken site policy. For example, I hesitate every time I think about using a profanity here despite its complete legality.

I have no interest in policing an individual's morality. I am simply interested (as are other mods) in keeping this site clean and safe for all users. What people do away from JF is none of my business.

Ah, sorry to get you guys riled up. Don't get me wrong, I was glad that MMM told me (I even said so). I was just saying that the whole P2P debate in general makes me mad, but I wasn't directing it at anyone in particular on this board. Just stating my opinion. I have no intention of breaking the rules here and I see the logic in them and agree. You don't don't want any trouble and I understand the reason for that rule. As I am a user of the site, it's my duty to obey these rules or I don't deserve to be here. Everything is peachy-keen, I'll do as I'm told. ;) Sorry if it seemed like I was back-sassing you guys.

No, it didn't really sound like it. It just sounded like a teenager talking about about the laws is cramping his style ;) hahaha

And I think MMM's comment was more prompted by what I said than what you did, since I brought the morality/legality divide into issue. He's a good dude. I think you are, too.

thanks for the many comments.

@StonerPenguin: stop arguing whether its legel to download it or not, this is not what I've asked. And yes, I know how to use google and rapidshare but I won't certainly download the book. First, because learning japanese is more than a hobby to me, it's like a investment in the feature. Second, using books is much more confortable than using low quality images.

@SceptileMaster, KyleGoetz: well, I would be very happy If I knew 500 kanji, yes indeed... but I'm not that far :crykitty: anyway, what book is you are talking about? I mean Yookoso, I didn't find anything close than "Yookoso! Study Japanese language, Kanji; learn about Japanese travel, culture, life, music (JPOP) and more" (from where I got the link to this forum in the first place ;))

Well, I can remeber rather quickly new kanji. But I also realized that remebering them is not always what it matters because if I don't use them frequently then I forget them (well I recognize them when reading). This is a problem, even if I buy a book with kanji to learn from, it would be a waste of time. There must be a better solution to this problem.

of course I want to learn as much kanji as possible, but I would try to learn them when I can use them more frequently, that means when I can write text without consulting my text book for nearly every sentence. That's why I wanted to know in the first place, whether Minna no Nihongo 2 is as good as the first one. This question remains unanswered ;)

edit: typos fixed

Thanks Kyle, you're awesome. Sorry about the confusion ;)

This is the Yookoso I was talking about: Amazon.com: yookoso
The textbook my uni uses.

In my opinion, the best two kanji books are these:
Amazon.com: Kanji ABC: A Systematic Approach to Japanese Characters (0676251819571): Andreas Foerster, Naoko Tamura: Books
Amazon.com: kanji in context

The first is a pretty unique system, and I thought it was good. The other I used in Japan.

About how much kanji does each "Kanji in context" book teach? And it's funny that people are selling it used for over $100, when you can buy it new for $50... Why is it so exspensive?