read book on line

One day, my friend brought a famous book, and cost her about $40 dollars. Three days later, I read the whole story without cost money!
People can find anything they want to read on the Internet, is that legal?
I used to read a long story on a BBS, but I did not read whole text, because the writer found people removed her/his story without permit, and then deleted all. In fact, the writer did not earn money from that story, the person, who “copy” the story, indicated the name of that writer and where the story from. So, why did the writer so angry with that? He/she did not loose anything, and on the other hand, just because that person, he/she became a very famous writer!
In my opinion, the copyright is not only a law, and is more associated with people’s mind! We need to respect the right of the writers, and their knowledge!