Because when you email something you aren't transporting anything of yours, you're manufacturing and distributing. What's produced at the other end is not what you purchased; it's a copy. If you destroy your copy, then all you did was destroy your copy. Now, ethically you may have satisfied the spirit of copyright, but I think making a copy then destroying the original out of a sense of honor is an unrealistic scenario.
As you stated, the legalities could be different in your area, regarding software.
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That is a very narrow view that heavily favors publishers' rights.
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The process of file download and utilization isn't really my "view." It's what actually occurs. If you think the reality of that process favors publisher's rights, then maybe that's something you should consider, but it wasn't my intent. I realize we can debate the service vs. goods thing to eternity, so I'll agree to disagree.
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but yes, less valuable (and less expensive to produce) than a physical book. Consequently I am not prepared to pay the same price for it.
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And you don't have to. Not even if you want to read the book. It's an additional product they offer for use with your luxury electronic entertainment device. You're trying to assign value as if it were a commodity, and it is not (I don't think books themselves are a luxury, though, and I like your avatar
). Its price deprives nobody of anything, which makes the notion of some disadvantaged demographic resorting to desperate means to acquire it rather bizarre, especially considering the additional cost of hardware involved to obtain and use it.
Jasper Fforde's
Lost in a Good Book can be purchased off the very same site that sells the $15 ebook, for $4 used (in paper form no less, which you find more valuable.). I bet it reads just fine. Those starving ereader owners can rejoice, and sell their electronics for bags of millet.