It's not fair use, it's just blatant copyright infringement. I'm with Doug
> on this one. Maybe copyright is immoral, certainly wage labor is, but if I
> work for free I want it to be when I agree to do so, and this side of the
> Revo I do need a job. Why are writers any different? Don't people see a
> problem here?
Morally? Sure, I'll go along with that.
Practically, I think the cat's out of the bag. As I've said here before, the Internet is full of BitTorrents for any file - audio, video, text, etc. - in sufficient demand. And the only defense against it is unpopularity.
Barring industrial collapse, this won't change.
So it's fine to think, as you do, about how publishing *should* work, but at some point you'll run into the cold, hard facts of how it *does.* This includes, and will continue to include, massive piracy.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."