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Sherman Alexie is very, very strong in his beliefs and opinions. That's pretty obvious if you've read any of his books. He tends to attack and challenge the status quo, whether it's "white" culture, or on the reservation "indian" culture.
I very much disagree with his "death of localizing" idea. Right now I cannot share a book with my friends because I am the only one with a Reader. If they also had Readers, we could share. Notice he doesn't mention the Nook's much touted sharing feature. So while Readers inhibit the "localizing" right now, when the technology is further adopted, it should encourage stronger reading relationships.
OTOH, on piracy, he is 100% right. There is book piracy. And authors do not make money off pirated books. Plain and simple. And certainly the increase of e-Reader use will cause an uptick in piracy. What's the solution? I don't know. The RIAA suing people sure seems to suck though!
The Big Brother idea is also legitimate. Look at what Amazon did with the Kindle version of 1984. What's to stop them from doing it again... or any other company that has cellular access to your e-Reader? Similarly any company that forces you to use their software when updating your e-Reader could "remote delete" at the time of sync. And why should we trust the government to ignore these technological capabilities to limit free speech?
Even with these issues in mind, I don't think tossing out e-Readers at large is a solution. Solve the above problems, don't just nix the technology. As an example, the Big Brother issue is a far greater danger with mobile phones right now, and that sure hasn't stopped people from buying them, using them, and enjoying them... and, most importantly, benefitting from them!
-Pie
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