On pirated books... from a pirater

The Million has an absolutely fascinating look into the eBook piracy market... from an admitted (but somewhat anonymous) eBook pirater.

The person, who goes by the handle "The Real Caterpillar" gives a very eloquently worded defense of his trade. To get a feel for his volume, he's uploaded 50 books in the last month.

What I found interesting, was that 50% of his electronic book collection were digital versions of content he himself owned in physical book form. Scanning books in this fashion is no different than ripping a CD and only slightly different than ripping a DVD in terms of legality and morality, although the process is far from cumbersome. There's no question, however, that turning around and uploading the content to a Torrent site does violate the law.

He seems content to purchase books for upwards of $10 in digital form, but only without DRM. That's an attitude shared at least in part by all of us - we may buy DRM content, but we'd prefer not to have to, no doubt.

All in all, a highly recommended interview.