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My defense of P2P sharing varies depending on the situation. Sometimes it's good reasoning; sometimes it's just rationalizing; other times there isn't a good excuse.
Firstly, I think copyright is just too long. If Disney didn't exist, copyrights would be a lot more reasonable and there would be a lot more books in the Public Domain. So while there are many P2P books I have that are "illegal", I don't consider it "immoral" or "stealing" from the author or publisher because I think their rights expired long ago, regardless of what the law says.
Secondly, there are cases where the book is out of print, rare, or hard to get in physical form. Again, I don't consider it "immoral" in such cases where I have the ebook instead. The actual harm in these cases is zero, because neither the publisher nor author is going to get any money if I pay $200 to a third party for a rare copy. In some instances it may be argued that the author doesn't WANT the money, and is actually engaging in his rights to limit distribution; however that's rarely the case.
Thirdly, in some cases there are books which simply aren't available in ebook form but are in other forms. Forms that I have already paid for. Thus, I am just "format-shifting" to ebook form, and I don't feel like I'm doing anything immoral. I think the rights to distribution have to have some limits.
Finally, if the book is available in other forms (or even paid ebook form) and I'm simply reading the ebook form and not paying, that's certainly immoral. Yet I've done it anyway, not just with books, but with music and movies and television too. Do I feel bad? Yes. I don't do it frequently. And I try to keep the harm I do to a minimum. Many times I do pay for the ebook later when I can. But that's just a rationalization.
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