I was listening to a podcast yesterday, and the two hosts, who have both written books, made a brief aside complaining about people pirating their books.

And I think they were failing to understand that, if I pirate your book and I really like it... I'll probably go out and buy a physical copy for myself. Or vice vera. I bought your book, but I want it on my ereader. Pirate it.

It's no different from the sales "lost" when people freely check out a book from the library. In fact, it will increase exposure to your book.

Lots of people have become incredibly successful, because their art got known through piracy networks. Think Metallica playing stadiums off the back of tape trading.

We talk all the time about how "piracy is media preservation" which is true, but it's also a form of media discovery, and I think we should talk about that more.