[Sonist]

I'll jump in with a couple of observations:

Copyright serves a purpose mostly to deter non-permitted commercial exploitation of a work. At the individual purchaser level, factors such as price and availability are paramount. And of course, all is trumped by the desirability of the product to the purchaser.

If somebody desires the product, they are generally willing to pay a price for it. For most products, there is some price point, where profits are maximized.

Apple seems to have found a sweet spot with iTunes, and its sales are better than many would have imagined a few years ago.

Similarly, sales at the Apple App store are booming.

As we all know, a large portion of the songs on iTunes can be obtained for free from "darknet." And the iPhone can be jailbroken in about a minute, without any programming skills.

Yet, when the price is right, the intended audience seems to respond, and buy. Provided, that the product is desirable to them.

Books are no different.

It just seems to me, that the publishing industry has not learned from the music industry's experience, and keeps pushing restricted content, at high prices, and in a myriad proprietary formats.

Which will only fuel piracy. Thus, because of its shortsightedness, the industry may very well get "napstered."