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I think the impact of piracy on book sales is overblown. Eliminate it tomorrow and there would still be a publishing industry in decline. As time goes on, p-books get more expensive, on average people have less time and inclination and skills to read, and have a plethora of other activities to spend their time and money on. That trend can be slowed by enlightened application of technology and more consumer friendly pricing, but not reversed.
I have all but stopped purchasing p-books since acquiring a Kindle (I was noticing that only about 25% of my purchases were getting read, which seemed rather wasteful), and have yet to really ramp up on purchasing e-books. Part of the reason for purchase reluctance is I think they are overpriced, many books I'd like to purchase are not available in ebook form yet, and also for the foreseeable future, I have a backlog of free, out-of-copyright books that I always wanted to read (but never wanted to purchase) to work through (by which time maybe DRM will be dead or I'll want something other than a DRM laden Kindle).
It's a (weak) argument from personal incredulity, but I just can't see myself or other book lovers being satisfied or attracted to darknets offering only what is popular or needed for coursework. Textbook and technical publishers probably need to worry some about lost sales, but for the rest: drop the DRM and drop the price!
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