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If we look back far enough there have always been two strands of political thought: Conservative and Liberal. Please note that I am using liberal in its traditional meaning not as the pejorative it seems to have become among many Americans.
Both groups want the best for everyone, but they have different approaches and priorities.
Conservatives seek to prevent us from falling into Hell.
Liberals seek to allow us to rise up to Heaven.
Historically conservatives have avoided change because it might make things worse while liberals have embraced it because it might make things better.
The internet is one of those changes.
Some people, including most publishers, approach e-books from a very conservative standpoint. They seek controls because they are concerned with avoiding loss. Other people and publishers seek to open their products because they are more concerned with increasing profit.
Along comes the internet, and with it the darknet.
There is no debate of the fact that there are e-books downloaded from the darknet. There is also no debate that some of those books are not read (a simple comparison of the average person's reading speed and the number of books downloaded proves that).
What is not known, is how many are read, and how many of those books would have been bought otherwise. What is also not known is whether darknet downloading does in fact convert to a loss of sales, an increase in sales, or no change in sales.
We do know (as Eric Flint has provided the numbers) that a free legal download of a novel can spur paper sales, though we do not know the same for the darknet.
As others have said there is no way to quantify the effect of the darknet, and no way to prove it's the same for books as it is for music.
Eventually we will reach a balance. The only questions are what balance and when.
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