I didn't say I condone piracy (although I mostly do, thinking society could be re-organized to have an incentive other than money - freedom of knowledge, age of technology with enough for everyone and no need for as much menial labour and all this neo-socialist crap - why artificially make something sparse, that can be copied effortlessly? But that is another discussion and would require substantial change). No, I own a copy myself. What I said is, I was surprised there isn't a torrent. You can download so many science books, hell, even crappy World of Warcraft fiction. Prior to my AoE3 purchase, I wasn't sure, if I wanted to spend the money. It's a substantial amount for a book, me being on a PhD income. Plus my university will buy it for the library soon. Would have helped to look through the book online to see if it's worth it (to me) and it is.
In our present age of technology, you wouldn't have to take a day off work, provided you have access to the proper machine (as I said). I suspect Horowitz and Hill aren't exactly starving ether. If they were, I'd be happy to donate some money to them. I also suspect, they didn't go into academia for bitches and money.