It wouldn't be the first time this author, David Carnoy, has written a load of rubbish about e-books and e-readers.
"I popped open an alert to learn that my book was being pirated--both as a separate file and part of two larger Torrents called 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks (iPod, iPad, Nook, Sony Reader) and 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks for Kindle (MOBI)." he writes. He goes on to value each time this is downloaded as a $10,000 loss.
At best, downloads like these may result in a small handful of books being read "for free" by any given user. At best, this is "free marketing" vs. lost revenue for the authors and publishers. And it's not pirating in the sense that someone else is making money from this content other than the content owners. A public lending library distributes books to any given individual "for free" although there is a reimbursement for the original product (and possibly trailing aggregate copyright fees).
Then he bashed e-book pricing at $12.99 and $14.99. Has he not been to a local bookstore lately? Most books are more than that; most hard covers and trade paperbacks are way more than that. Sure, the "best sellers" are heavily discounted; but everything else in the store isn't. If people are willing to pay $14.99 for an e-book, then publishers ought to charge that. (I personally think mass market paperback pricing -- ie well under $10 -- is more appropriate for most back catalogue items, but that's just me.) It's true that really high prices can encourage true piracy -- stealing, in fact, by individual choice, title by title -- but that's not what a "piracy omnibus edition" is all about.
The "the sky is falling" clique who worry about piracy and inevitably dredge up mp3 experience completely miss the point that companies like Amazon, Kobo, Sony Store, Waterstones, B&N and others are here right at the beginning, unlike iTunes which arrived two decades after CDs were launched and at least a decade after trivial ripping tools existed. There is simply no comparison in the markets.
No doubt there is some "slippage" in the ebook market, where a good with actual value is being consumed that would have otherwise generated revenue. But when Carnoy states:
"the point here is that there may very well be a dark side to the success of e-books, which some are speculating will make up 50 percent of the market in as little as 5 years."
... he has entered fairytale land. Systems like Amazon's Kindle ecosystem and others have put in place to make being a legit purchaser and readers of ebooks easy and economical will ensure that "50% of the market" will NOT disappear.