The technical author David Flanagan has <a href="http://www.davidflanagan.com/2011/04/javascript-the-1.html" target="_blank">a frank and moving post</a> which should be read by anyone who thinks book theft has no effect on its victims, those who write the material being stolen.

Flanagan is the author of a technical guide to Javascript that reached the sixth edition, only to be so widely pirated that links to ripped-off copies beat those to legitimate ones on a Google search. Flanagan has made a living as a professional author for fifteen years. He's now looking for a job.

He's the first to admit that, like all other authors, it's impossible to put a figure on how much piracy has cost him (though it's obviously something). But having your work stolen is about more than money. It's like having some faceless thief come in and steal a part of the life you've devoted to producing that book in the first place.

He expresses this dispiriting sense very well.
<blockquote>... beyond the non-quantifiable financial impacts, I can report that, to me, the piracy of my books is profoundly discouraging. When my Ruby book came out in 2008 I was sad to discover that pirated copies were available within a week or so of the book's release. When my jQuery pocket reference came out earlier this year, I was shocked to discover that Google was giving the ebook download sites higher placement than reviews of the book. And now JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is out. I don't have a copy of it yet, but illegal copies are free for anyone who wants one. And Google will suggest those illegal downloads to anyone who tries to research the book. I've worked really hard on this book, and I've got to say that this just feels like a kick in the gut.</blockquote>
Flanagan's not the only one to feel this way and he's an experienced author. Imagine the reaction of a first-time writer who's slaved and struggled for years... only to find their first book getting ripped off the moment it appears. And the dregs who do this have the nerve to tell you, 'We’re advertising your work, dude. Your problem's not piracy... it's obscurity.'

No. The problem is that, in part at least to them, a decent, hard-working technical author may not be able to write the material he's clearly become expert at. Through plain theft and making a diligent writer think 'why bother?' both the author and his legitimate readers will suffer. It's a lesson for us all.