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@HarryT I see this as an interesting discussion and I don't think we gain much by running around with an leveraged indexfinger. Things are complicated and I like to view several sides of a story. And yes lets not fall into a general "the next generaion is so bad" mentality, which is often secretly paired with a jealousy for them still being young, for having it easier in some aspects and not even to be sorry about it.
@jakewastaken Well the college student who wants to read a lot, but cannot aford to pay all that books is a interesting view at first. However I must say, in the past structures of society they did cater for people like you, it is the library where you could go, lend a ton of books an give 'em back 2 weeks later to exchange them for new. In my town and in my youth we hadn't to pay anything for this service, and not being U.K. the authors did not see a cent for my reading. But my parents and all of my society surrunding me was very happy for me to be reading at all.
Lets think about the "library of the future", how would it look like? Id imagine it must somehow embrace the electronic world, and as society we should not easily give up our right to just lend out books and read them. So in that future library you should be able to "lend out" a file, read it on your eReader, and give it back. But there is of course the problem I could just copy it, and yes DRMs just don't cut it. They just don't work.
Its an interesting problem we as society have to face. I'd go with Karl Marx who described how the invention of the steam machine altered all social structures, or they had to alter to cater rightly for the steam machine which required very different organisations than to harvesting a field with scythes.
Yes of course I want authors to be paid well for their work. Personally I'd like the power of the publishers reduced though. It will be interesting how we can work things out. But rambling with the index finger IMHO just doesn't cut it.
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