Some really good points. For the most part, I agree with Steve. I think the notion that freely available eBooks will expose readers to our works and those readers will then buy paper copies makes two assumptions: (1) that our other works aren't available for free, too, and (2) that paper copies are somehow superior to electronic copies and will, therefore, be desirable. While these assumptions may have been valid in the early days of the Baen experiment (when Baen posted old books and when reading devices were primitive), I no longer believe this to be the case--as we move to the future, books will mean eBooks (just as, a generation after Gutenberg, books meant printed books rather than hand lettered books).
I think Steve's analogy of the employee asked to do his day job and then make money selling umbrellas is dead-on. Most writers I know are introverts--after all, what we do is sit at our computers and write. Our interaction is with people in our minds rather than real life people. Which is a difference between writers and musicians (although the notion that musicians should only be able to charge for concerts is also shaky).
Yet, DRM is costly both for the administrator and especially for the customer. What's the solution? I don't know. I offer my books without DRM but also not for free (except when selling through Mobipocket/Kindle where DRM is required). I offer my books at highly affordable prices--certainly much cheaper than I can sell the print versions. I include strong language about not stealing books. I don't think anyone owes me a living for my writing and publishing, but I also recognize that I and my authors work hard and that, to the extent that we produce a product people enjoy, we're certainly no less entitled to a bit of revenue off of that enjoyment than any other entertainers (although movie seats always seem to go empty, nobody I've heard suggests that movies should be free (and maybe Disney could buy a popcorn farm to replace the revenue stream).
I don't know the answer, other than that waving your hands and suggesting that it isn't a problem because a few authors have made a nice living riding the edge while eBooks were an inferior product and could be given away as promo items is not the way we're going to move our industry to the future.
Rob Preece
Publisher,
www.BooksForABuck.com