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I wouldn't say that the iPod, or the e-book, somehow "legitimize" piracy. Both items simply take full advantage of a new digital medium, and provide ways for people to maximize their use of it. If anything, the iPod has helped curb piracy, and bring some measure of control back to the music industry, while prompting it to begin to change with the times.
As people have discovered the advantages of digital music (not the least of which is buying only the music you want, and storing vast numbers of songs in tiny spaces), they will also discover the similar advantages of e-books. It will just take longer, books aren't as "sexy" a product as music, so the desire and acceptance will take longer.
But as I've said elsewhere, if popular magazines get into the e-book market soon, and a color e-book reader exists to take advantage of them (even if it's just a light laptop or tablet PC), they will help provide that "sexiness" that will kick off e-book desire and acceptance. If there's even an e-book "craze," it will be led by mags like People, Maxim and Playboy.
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