I don't understand how "pirate" websites are cashing in on eBook piracy if the websites are facilitating free downloads. Advertising?
In all likelihood, these websites collect, sort and post links to other sites that host the files (like rapidshare) or else torrents (in which case, there is no one host.)
It's a case of Somali pirates raiding a European cargo vessel that's carrying valuable artworks, taking photos of that artwork, putting those photos somewhere, telling a third party the location of those photos, that third party publishing the location of the photos for free for all to see, and the Daily Mail calling the third party a "pirate" that's cashing in on the theft of the artworks (which were never actually stolen.)
As for stealing lint:
Lint is a thing. Things can be stolen. Ideas cannot be stolen. Copyright, moreover, is not a form of property (and property itself is merely a relationship, never a thing itself.) "Intellectual property" is a misnomer. Walking into a book store, taking a book and walking out of the store without paying is theft. Walking into a book store, photocopying a book and walking out of the store without paying is not theft. It's a violation of copyright. But so is walking into a book store, photocopying a book, paying for that book and then walking out of the store.
So when it comes to "pirating" eBooks, there doesn't have to be a pro-stealing argument, because no one is stealing anything. Unless, of course, someone steals a physical book from somewhere, then digitizes it, etc. In that case, the original taking is theft, but not the subsequent digitalization, uploads, whatever.
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