[sirbruce]

Wasn't sure the best place to post this to get actual responses, so I thought I'd try here first.

Basically, a lot of times authors put their ebooks online for free. But sometimes, an author changes their mind later on and removes the book. Or they may start charging more for it. But it was out there on the Internet for free "once", and that means it's free forever... doesn't it?

That's my conundrum. I certainly believe an author has a right to distribute something for free for a while, and then later charge for it. But it seems to me that if you take the step of releasing it to the Internet, you give up any rights to charging for distribution in the future, and people are perfectly justified to "pirate" one of the "free" copies.

Some authors clearly agree with this, or understand that it's a practical impossibility to stop a work from being out there once it's been offered for free online. But other authors don't. I find myself conflicted over which position is the correct one. I respect the rights of authors generally but I'm uncomfortable with the idea of 'free' content online suddenly no longer being free.