Thread: Using articles and books from the internet for assignments

Let's say that I want to use articles and/or books as references in a paper.

Can I do it if I accessed the materials in a illegal way? For example, if I find an article in the internet can I quote it and use it as reference in my assignment? What about books? Assuming I downloaded a book from a random link from the internet, am I allowed to use it as reference? I mean, even in an academic setting, no one will care to find out if I own them right? But once again, don't I have to cite the website? If I cite the website of a book then people will easily see that was downloaded in a illegal way...

When I was in my Science of Education degree I didn't have any of these problems but it was mostly because I'd never look for articles on the internet