|
Interesting argument. thought I'd weigh in my side.
I guess you could call me an ebook "pirate"; I relentlessly download ebooks and read them on a PDA. I am very excited about the e-INK technology because, while I enjoy reading books on PDA's, I find the screen hurts the eyes after a while and the battery life is not good.
I have no regrets at all that I download ebooks. Yes, I occasionally buy books, but not so much anymore since, with my connections, I can pretty much get any single book within a few days of it's release in the book stores (of course there are some exceptions, but that usually the case).
Because I read books for free, I have become a fan of many author's that I would have never read. I have bought books from those authors because of this.
To me, I equivocate ebook piracy the same as a library. I would just read the book eventually from a library; downloading the book just allows me to bypass the process.
I am delighted with the sudden resurgence in ebook popularity. We ebook fanatics have been waiting for this moment for a long time. The kindle should finally push ebooks into the mainstream, which, I believe, will cause publishers to release books in both digital (ebook) format and traditional paper. This will drastically increase the selection (ebook lovers have always complained about the lack of variety). Pirating ebooks has allowed me, for the most part, to read many many books that have never been published digitally, but for the people who only read legal ebooks, this is a godsend.
|