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I have made the point many times now and expect I will make it many more. The reality of the market at the moment is that obtaining virtually any ebook without cost is a trivial task for anyone who wants to go to a little bit of trouble. The continued existence of a thriving market for books is a testament both to people's honesty and their apathy. Apathy in that purchasing books (and for that matter movies and music) has been made so easy and convenient and affordable by legal means most people could simply not be bothered. Honesty in that most people clearly seem to want to see the author rewarded. There are enough apathetic and honest people around to allow for a thriving market.
But this is not a market that should be taken for granted or exploited. It may not be quite as convenient to obtain a pirate copy of a book, but not prohibitively so. If the market is not treated with respect more people can and will resort to pirate copies. What seems clear is that if the product is reasonably priced, easy and convenient to purchase and a good user experience and customer service is delivered, there are more than enough paying customers to sustain the market. The very nature of the product makes some piracy inevitable. Large scale piracy, whilst it would not end the writing of books, would likely result in a very different and inferior "market" for books. But, in the current market, some level of piracy is arguably good, as it may be one of the few controls on the large publishing oligopoly's attempts to push prices higher by eliminating retail competition. Customers asked to pay $16.95 for that newly released novel have many choices, and no doubt some do opt to download it for nothing, where perhaps they would have been prepared to pay, say, $9.99 or some more reasonable price for it. Publishers must take this, the true reality of the market, into account when setting their prices. I doubt there are very many people who absolutely refuse to pay anything for a book, though there are some. But I think there are more substantial numbers who will pay for more reasonably priced books but obtain pirate copies of the higher priced ones. Add to this those who would buy now at a reasonable price but wait to borrow the higher priced books from the library, or even wait for prices to come down before buying.
I truly don't believe that piracy is currently a terrible problem for the industry. It is an industry where the nature of the product makes some piracy inevitable. Reasonable prices, convenience and respect do far more to keep the market healthy than all the bleating about piracy ruining the industry and the exaggerated claims about the losses and damage it allegedly causes.
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