Is it legal to download and host your own copy of a PDF (or any file) that you didn&#39;t originally author?
<p>New York state (US) here. I am putting together a presentation for my company and found a PDF online that I would like to provide a link to, so that anyone reviewing my presentation after the fact can click, download and read.</p>
<p>I am not the author of the PDF nor do I have any association with the author or the company for whom the work was published. Its subject material is simply relevant to my presentation.</p>
<p>Because I need a reliable link to this PDF, and because I don't have any control over its online hosting, I would like to download this PDF, store it on a company drive, and then provide links to it (as its stored on the drive) from my presentation.</p>
<p>That way, if someone views my presentation, say, 5 years from now, they'll still have access to it because the PDF is hosted from our own infrastructure.</p>
<p><strong>Is it legal to do this?</strong> That is, can I:</p>
<ol>
<li>download the PDF from the <strong>external</strong> website where its hosted</li>
<li>save it on our drive</li>
<li>reference it (as its hosted from our drive) in my presentation</li>
<li>all without the express consent of the PDF author or the organization for whom the PDF is hosted by</li>
</ol>

<h2>No, that would infringe copyright.</h2>
<p>Unless the copyright holder has released the PDF under a free license, or in some way granted permission to make copies of it, making such a copy and hosting it on your company server would infringe the holder's copyright. <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">17 USC</a> sec 106 says that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do
and to authorize any of the following:</p>
<p>(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to
the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental,
lease, or lending;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Making a copy in his way would clearly cio0late 17 USC 106 (1) and possibly 17 USC 106 (3), as posting to the web is a form of distribution.  Note that it is likely thst the copyright is held by the author's employer, not by the author, although either is possible.</p>
<p>If you do this, the holder could sue for damages. If there is no economic impact, the chance of a suit is not large, although a DMCA takedown notice is more likely. But the holder <strong>could</strong> sue if it chooses to.</p>
<p>Why do you not want to ask for permission? It might well be granted.</p>
<p>Alternatively, a copy might have been archived with the Internet Archive or another archive site, which would be a stable location that y0u could freely link to.</p>

united-states copyright new-york-state attribution