Penguin Random House has indicated that it will take legal action against those found disseminating a pirated PDF of Gangster State. According to the publisher, this distribution of the pirated copies on social media infringes its copyright as well as that of the author and it is unlawful in terms of the Copyright Act of 1976.
"We will take legal action against individuals who are circulating pirated copies, which may include criminal complaints once we have collected all the necessary information," the publisher said in a statement.
If it isn't clear what this entails, the publisher has offered an explanation: The only way to obtain an e-book legally is to buy it from an e-book retailer or to borrow it from an authorised e-book library; any copying or distribution of a pirated e-book or any forwarding of a link to the pirated ebook is unlawful.
