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1- I doubt Brust's publisher is interested in severing his contract. His last book made a bestseller list. He's still actively producing. He's making them money.
2 - He's not giving away ebooks. He's not encouraging his fans to give away ebooks. He apparently would like for there to be legal ebooks available but has no idea how to go about it, and his agent (for reasons I won't go into) hasn't weighed in on this issue. But I think it highly unlikely that anyone will be able to support a claim that ebooks have negatively impacted his sales.
My point in bringing this up was simply to demonstrate that the issue of ebook filesharing is not black and white, though it can be tempting to polarize arguments.
I believe that ebooks have real value. Their value is equal to the content of the book, plus the convenience factors associated with portability, searchability, etc., possibly minus the inconvenience of proprietary formats and/or DRM. I believe that authors should be compensated for the value of the content, and publishers should be compensated for the value of editing, marketing, and production. I honestly think most book fans feel that way. And if many people feel that the incremental value of an ebook compared to a pbook of the same content is not very large, and may even be negative if the ebook is locked down too tightly, that's not the same at all as saying the ebook has no value.
Steve, for your books in particular, which are not available in paper, there is no competing value, and no lessening of value due to poor formats or DRM. I wouldn't even consider downloading an illegal copy of one of your books. And I think the vast majority of readers feel the same way. I think you can afford to ignore the wackos who are talking about the inevitable doom of the ebook publishing industry. They aren't talking about you. Your books are reasonably priced and formatted for the convenience of your customers. And I don't think you need to defend the practices of publishers who can't bring themselves to trust their customers. They will eventually figure out how to get along in the electronic market, or they'll fold and other publishers who can figure it out (like Baen) will take over. And eventually no one will need to talk about the legality or morality of format shifting, because all the books still covered by copyright will have been available as flexible format ebooks from the time we wanted to purchase them in the first place.
(Ok, and there will be a chicken in every pot, and the stars will shine and the birds will sing... accuse me of irrational optimism if you will, but long term, I think this is how things will go. I just expect a few bumps on the road getting there.)
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