much to my amazement, I discovered the entire text of Neal Stephenson's epic online, with this disclaimer:

in spite of the legal grey areas, i want to have online [we'll just say for my own purposes], all the books i have read. Where the book is not copyright-expired, i own the book anyway.

I won't post a link here, as he's prolly got enough potential problems (it can easily be googled) -- this character doesn't have the shadow of a legal leg to stand on, does he?!