The surge in actual book sales was probably due to the preference most people would have had (especially 10 years ago) to read the physical book rather than a digital copy on a desktop CRT screen. The pirated versions were effective marketing tools leading interested readers to the *real* product.

When (if?) e-readers become more ubiquitous, would authors still be so nonchalant about directing readers to pirated versions that are no different from the actual product?

You most likely misunderstood. As a daily Metro rider I can tell you that they have announcements requesting the use of headphones with portable electronic devices so as to not disturb fellow riders.

You will get no argument from an objective student of history (or of human nature) that politicians and world leaders are not without blemish. It would be silly to say otherwise.

However, to list Roosevelt and Churchill with these monsters is not only factually incorrect, but also minimizes the great evil and suffering the 'true' tyrants unleashed. To make your equivalence even more farcical, why not add Pol Pot and Mao?

First, the facts. Both Churchill and Roosevelt were re-elected in free, fair, and democratic elections. Maybe you're using some definition of 'tyrant' that I'm unfamiliar with. Also, I don't think many Czechs or Poles would allow the west to remember Hitler fondly if he had just stopped in France.

Your list makes an equivalence that vastly diminishes the incredible evil some of these leaders visited on mankind.

I'm not sure if you hold this view out of a very skewed understanding of world history or because you subscribe to moral relativism. Either way, could you really look a victim of the Holocaust/Stalinist purge/Nanking/Pol Pot regime and tell them "Take heart! The English and Americans suffered just as much under their tyrants!"