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Once there is a viable alternative to piracy a lot of people will take that option.
It's very much a chicken and egg situation.
Until this new wave of e-ink devices settles down and is shown to be a growth market, publishers will hold back on the content. But in order to sell the devices to the mass audience you need a solid catalogue and probably a common format for people to get behind.
Until that starts to happen the easiest way to populate a device with content is going to be through piracy. Just as is was with early MP3 players.
Personally I had no MP3s until I bought my first iPod because I had no use for them. Similarly I had no e-books until I knew about Sony's device coming out. I then rebuilt most of my P-book library in e-book form. I would like to think Sony will extend their Connect store to my country so I can continue to purchase books legally in a form that is designed for my device. Until that happens I'm very limited in where I can legally obtain content that will work on my chosen device so I am forced to look elsewhere.
The iliad IMO has an even worse time of it. With no native DRM and no associated store it appears to me that your choice of content can only ever be non-DRM stuff which limits you as much as the lack of a CONNECT store in the UK limits me.
I see the e-book industry as still trying to get it's feet despite it's age. The hardware has never really been in place before to truly support an e-book environment so therefore the publishing has always been limited. That may well start to change with the likes of Sony, amazon, iRex etc launching e-ink devices. Only time will tell.
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