Why do you keep bringing up their desire to make a profit? It is irrelevant here. Why are you suggesting that I have an obligation to guarantee them a profit?
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Originally Posted by LaughingVulcan
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Now why should you go out and buy it again? Because the state of the publishing industry depends upon publication rights being sold again and again. It's part of the system. The author's income isn't derived solely from typing into the night. It's also derived from the author being smart enough to sell those rights incrementally. First publishing right. Serialization. Magazine version. Hardback. Paperback. Special edition. eBook. Translation. Audiobook. TV rights. Movie rights. Each of these has a value that (hopefully) enrich the author separately.
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The other aspect, though, is that the file format system itself involves different revenue streams. Who wins if you make an eCopy of something into lit? You do, of course. But also Microsoft - you have used their format. You have the ability to show off to friends how nice your version of Mr. Goodwriter's book looks. You (presumably) have the ability to take a screenshot of it and post it to your blog.
Now, if Mr. Goodwriter wants to make his living by limiting himself to Sony, that's his choice as the author. (In fact, Mr. Goodwriter might object simply to your converting it to a format whose DRM is broken, thus allowing for the possibility of filesharing.)
Do I think that the publisher and author should enjoy the right to determine when, how, and if a book is released to electronic format? I'm undecided. I don't like it, but I can see how it matters to them economically.
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I disagree on the point of format choice. I think the publisher and author have just as much right to pick the electronic format as the paper format. They can choose between Sony, Mobipocket, and MSReader just like they can choose between hardback, trade and mass market paperback.
But once they choose a format and publish the content, they have released it into the wild. They have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do to a pbook. What I can do to the pbook is limited by copyright law, not the publisher. I think it's logical to extend existing law about your rights over a pbook to an ebook.