I'm a bit disappointed to see that this poll is clearly missing a possible answer, an answer that I would choose at once ...
"Download the ebook from darknet" and that's all.
There, I admit it: I downloaded ebooks from darknet (mostly from IRC channels) since my day-1 with ebook devices, with my brand new Rocket.
And with my new Sony Reader I'm keeping on.
Background info: me and my wife own ~ 3000 pbooks, and both of us keep on considering them having much more value in themselves than ebooks - I dont want to stray on a different topic, but we are book feticists, and for us the substance of the book will never be replaced by any digital medium.
However.
Life being short as it is, it's always hard to find good books (and music, and movies...) worth the time you will invest on them.
For me, downloading books from IRC is exactly the same that downloading an mp3 from the net: it saves me the stress of avoiding a big amount of junk, and allows me to find a few precious gems - which I'm then more than happy to buy as CD.
I happen to like a lot science fiction, which - also if I find it a genre with the same dignity as other literary fields - is more filled with junk than the average. All the authors I liked in ebook format I immediately bought in hardcover, from Gibson to Sterling, from Simak to Arkady&Boris Strugatsky ...
Is this stealing? I completely agree.
As I agree to the fact that I happened in my life to (taken from an older post) a) exceed the speed limit while driving, b) Lend someone a tape/dvd or a tv program, c) making a mix CD form your favourite album tracks ... (let me add d) smoking a joint).
Whenever I find an author I like to read I'm more than happy to pay for its creative process, buying the p-book, although I'd prefer to pay him directly - nowadays the digital medium allows you to find new ways to directly relate the artist and his fanbase, e.g. the Radiohead:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7082627.stm .
I doubt the Walkman revolution would have happened without everybody being able to tape a copy of a friend's LP.
I doubt there is more than 1% of mp3 portable players storing just songs legally downloaded.
I doubt also you would have a VCR in every house if people used it just to watch their sons birthday recorded, and not to record a movie from TV.
Finally, I believe that ebook devices will never really break through until people will realize that books can be downloaded as easily as songs and TV shows.
And it will be to the people downloading them to decide if to pay the author what they deserve - as I do.
Alessandro