README

= WARNING =

This script is apparently against the licensing contract between universities and Springer.
See e.g.: http://www.bib.hm.edu/aktuelles/news/newsdetail_9984.de.html

I do not actively maintain this script anymore. Please use an alternative or one of the
excellent forks of this script which add some more functionality. See e.g.
http://tovotu.de/dev/518-Neuer-SpringerLink-Downloader/

= Download Script for Ebooks hosted on Springerlink.com =

author:	
	Milian Wolff <mail@milianw.de> / <http://milianw.de>
licencse:
	GPL v3 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html)
language:
	Python (v2.4 compatible)

== Explanation ==

springer_download.py is a command-line utility to download educational ebooks
from http://springerlink.com. You have to have access to the contents hosted
on this site. The script is _not_ a way to obtion illegal copies of those ebooks.
Instead it is intended to be used e.g. from your University account which often
have free access to the contents of SpringerLink.

The script downloads all chapters of a book and merges them into one PDF file.

== Usage ==

./springer_download.py [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -h, --help              Display this usage message
  -l LINK, --link=LINK    define the link of the book to start downloading
  -c ISBN, --content=ISBN define the book to download by it's ISBN

LINK:
  The link to your the detail page of the ebook of your choice on SpringerLink.
  It lists book metadata and has a possibly paginated list of the chapters of the book.
  It has the form:
    http://springerlink.com/content/HASH/STUFF
  Where: HASH is a string consisting of lower-case, latin chars and numbers.
         STUFF is optional and looks like ?p=...&p_o=... or similar. Will be stripped.

== Thanks ==

A big thank you goes to Springer for hosting all these books _and_ giving
free access to students.

== Legal Note: == 

Springerlink is © Springer and part of Springer Science+Business Media.