It doesn’t feel right or good to do that so I don’t. I don’t know if it’s considered bad kamma, but I do know how I feel. 
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excellent response imo. But it does not always to feel wrong to me; if it does not deprive anyone of use, nor deprive anyone of income, nor violate any intended donation of dana, and is not acquired for greed or distraction/wasted energy, and may be beneficial to myself and to others, and does not promote heedlessness in the poster, … this can feel right. Then, accepting the author and others’ true gift seems harmless.
i may tend to over think. =D
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Here’s a link: Dhammanando’s posts in the “illegal downloading” thread on Dhamma Wheel
Dhammanando’s scholarship and clarity of thought in that thread are admirable. With regard to explaining the Buddhist perspective on this issue, it is as if he has “place[d] upright what was overturned…” 
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Along with the 5th precept/drinking this has to be one of the most recurring questions asked in Buddhist groups on the Internet.
The Buddha said what he said over 2000 years ago before there was such a thing as the Internet, or anything similar.
Instead of reading a lot of over-intellectualized picking of nits based on source material that was never meant for a modern situation, I would just partake of the immense wealth of free Buddhists books,videos,audios, and other materials freely & legally available online.
Especially now with Ajahan Sujato’s free sutta translations, soon to be in ePub and even in print.
If I put my mind to it I am sure I could come up with a list of dhamma materials I had to pay to read over the years. Those items would only be a handful and not irreplaceable.
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I kind of wish I had Bhikkhu Analayo’s non-free books, just as a reference sometimes.
A related question would be what do these big dhamma publishing companies (Windhorse, Wisdom, et al.) do with the money they receive? When we give dana to a monastery in the form of food, robes, medicines, or even money (as long as it’s not directly to monastics) we at least know in theory that it goes to supporting the monastics and monastic activities.
The world would be a better place if there were “big dhamma publishing companies”.
I think the fact these book companies are small, publishing to a small audience is the reason why the books tend to cost more.
Any e-books I buy I plan to liberate from DRM. Even though I don’t plan on distributing the liberated copy, for my own personal use I just find the restrictions annoying (on philosophical and practical levels).
What restrictions do you have a problem with and why?
Future Update:
Roughly 2 years have passed since I wrote this conviction here.
In these 2 years, I had downloaded many new books and read them. I defaulted on self promise of not to do so. May be as someone said, using knowledge gained from books can be used for greater good and self improvement. And regarding the bad kamma being produced ,if any, from this action, then to take the simile of salt in the river and the advice of not to take precepts as rigids and so strongly that it becomes an obsession in itself.
I just felt like sharing this.
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Why not compensate for the karma by paying it forward?
Make a donation to orgs that publish dhamma materials so they can keep on producing those materials?
There are such orgs that make their materials freely available. By donating to them you can make such materials available to impoverished people like yourself in the future.
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Since someone opened this thread back up, I will add what I know about Wisdom.
First of all, book publishing, outside of NY Times best sellers, is a money losing business. Wisdom Publications is a registered charity in the USA and as such all profits go back into the organization. My understanding is that many of their books require donors to sponsor before a print run can be made. This is why the Middle Length Discourses often goes out of print.
Wisdom, as far as I know, tends to pay its employees standard industry rates. This results in the books being of a top quality and meeting industry standards.
I only mention all this to answer where all the money goes. First off, there isn’t that much money coming in. Second, employees are properly paid, which is expensive. I do know one of their more successful authors and the royalties they receive are very low. The monastic authors I know either receive free copies of their books in lieu of royalties (which they then distribute for free) or the money is donated directly to their monastery.
Of course it’s great when things can be produced by volunteers, but as people with experience can tell you, the quality is often not as high and the timeline for production is much longer.
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