The person who sends the publisher files to people who view, and do not need the ability to edit them, simply needs to circulate PDF versions, not native PUB files.
If you receive one, have someone with publisher make a PDF of it for you. It's not rocket science! Again, the person sending out the PUB files needs to send out PDF's instead.
No budget for Acrobat Standard or Professional ? CutePDF does it for free - home or commercial, FREE.
Fred Wagner