As I was cruising around the newsgroups – never you mind why – I happened to notice a certain novel had been made available in .pdb format by someone using the unlikely nomenclature ripXrip. To be sure, it was merely one of several hundred ebooks that had been uploaded to the site, in between The Romance Reader Top 100 List [html].rar and Theodore Sturgeon – Shottle Bop [v.1.0][html].rar, but I felt rather pleased at my discovery all the same.
After all, people generally don’t go to the trouble to scan and pass around a book unless they think someone is going to want to read it. I am well aware that in the SFWA, I am in the extreme minority with this point of view, but then, let’s face it, in that organization, I’m in the extreme minority with regards to almost every aspect of my life.
Rip away. Read away. If you like it, tell someone about it. If you really like it, go pick up the dead tree version.