Hi Neil, > > > Some kind of false advertising, perhaps? > > > > If I buy a tome from my corner bookshop, thinking it to be printed > > by the publisher, and with a pittance going to the author, only to > > realise once home that it's been knocked up behind the counter > > without permission of the copyright holder, what recourse do I have > > in England? > > Interesting question. > > You might be able to argue that there is a Sale of Goods Act issue > here, in that the product is not of satisfactory quality but, if, to > all intents and purposes, the only difference between the official > copy and the unofficial copy was the lack of a licence to the > publisher / printer, I have a feeling that this might be a difficult > case to bring.
It's not inferior quality for the errata are reproduced faithfully. What irks me is that the author hasn't been given due acknowledgement with my duff copy. Perhaps that's a slice of my outlay, passed on by the publisher, or maybe he received financial reward in advance for writing it but my purchase should still count as a +1 in the best-sellers' list. If I buy hardware with Linux on board, I have the expectation that the authors have been credited following the rules they signed up to in allowing their work to be distributed. Cheers, Ralph.
