Greg Charles wrote:Unless the download comes directly from the publisher's site, it's safe to assume that it's a pirated copy. Also this book is still for sale, which is another strong indicator it isn't also being given away free. Remember, downloading a pirated PDF is essentially the same as walking into a bookstore and stealing the book. Authors, particularly technical book authors, work extremely hard to write these books and deserve to be compensated for their work.
If I didn't understand why you shouldn't use a pirated copy I wouldn't have asked the question. I did not understand why they would make the PDF form available (although their are some books which offer free e-versions but sell hard copies, not sure I understand why). Thanks for the input. I suspected it was pirated but couldn't find any info when I googled the question.