What sets my teeth on edge about the whole affair is the lack of notice given to the contributers.
I can completly understand how a new author (even one who is getting a lot of favourable press) wouldn't be able to stop their publisher having a fainting fit at the idea of the novel they had bought being available on the big, scary Interwebs
But she said that she had been trying to persuade the publishers to relent for ages. So why on earth did she just whip the thing down at a moment's notice?! How about "it'll be coming down on Monday" or something. And yes, I know that she had had some vague, nebulous statement along the lines of "it won't be up for ever", but give me a break, that's not advance notice.
I hadn't heard of Catherynne Valente until she won the Andre Norton award, but I certainly took notice of her then because of the all the publicity about the interesting way she had found to fund her book. And then the next piece of news I hear about her is that she has snatched her book away from the readers that stuck with her when things were rocky. Terrible, terrible PR move. I don't think I have some sort of entitlement to read her book, but the people who gave her money deserved advanced notice of the removal, at the very least.