"Corporations create nothing" seems to be the recurring theme here. If corporations created nothing, why would you go looking for the book on a corporate web server? Seems like they created an electronic marketplace so we can find things. Hence, you are paying for a service. Authors are much better off in a world with such corporations. As for the original question, would you steal a blue car because the only cars for sale are red? That is the moral issue. Obviously, very few people would buy the book and scan it. But morally (and legally), downloading pirated stuff is stealing. Consider, also, that you would then support an "infrastructure of piracy", which will directly harm all authors.
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"Corporations create nothing" seems to be the recurring theme here. If corporations created nothing, why would you go looking for the book on a corporate web server? Seems like they created an electronic marketplace so we can find things. Hence, you are paying for a service. Authors are much better off in a world with such corporations. As for the original question, would you steal a blue car because the only cars for sale are red? That is the moral issue. Obviously, very few people would buy the book and scan it. But morally (and legally), downloading pirated stuff is stealing. Consider, also, that you would then support an "infrastructure of piracy", which will directly harm all authors.