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I don't think the 'darknet' is as much of an issue as people think. I have done some searching just for my own information since I hear it mentioned so often, and all I have found are PDFs which are a pain to convert/read on my devices, and very poorly formatted text files riddled with errors.
The big danger is not so much the darknet 'hoarders' as it is the legitimate customer who may have bought and now will not, and there was this problem in the paper-only days too---I never have bought a hardback novel in my life and would either wait for the paperback or borrow it from the library. My library often has best-sellers available as a quick loan where there is no reserving and if you go in and it's there, you can grab it but you only get it for a couple days. Six months or a year is simply too long to leave a reader like me waiting. If I *really* want to read it and you won't sell it to me when I want to read it, I'll get it from the library or borrow from a friend. On one occasion, I was overseas and it was raining so I spent most of the afternoon at a Barnes & Noble and read the book on the spot---I am a born speed-reader and can go through something quick like a mystery in less than a day.
In the past, with the need to print and ship and inventory and such, the 'hardback first and you wait for the paperback' idea made sense. But in the e-days, where it *can* be made available and some suit somewhere is just choosing not to so they can mess with people? No thank you. Sell it to me right away, or don't sell it at all. I have plenty else to read and by the time you get around to 'windowing' the book my way, I'll have read it elsewhere or else I won't be interested anymore.
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