way Apple is with computers and tablets. Their critically acclaimed "Half-Life 2? is widely considered the European arthouse answer to the Hollywood bluster of Halo and Call of Duty. PC World magazine readers voted it as "the best game of all time". I write books, and sell more ecopies than paper copies. When on of my $% books is sold on Amazon, I get about $1.25. When it is loaded via an illegal connection, I get nothing. At the moment, legitimate sales still make it worhwhile tolerating the thieves. Were that last statement to change, why would I bother? That is the root of the argument. Most books do not sell in the hundreds of thousands. many sell only in hundreds. Allow a culture of stealing to develop and -- guess what -- the supply of books will shrink drastically. Does that benefit anyone? Yes, the major publishing houses over-price their most popular authors. I suspect that will change (vis the music industry), but in the meantime, amuse yourself by reading mine. Legally purchased, of course. But the question is: WHY does a culture of stealing develop? It's not because we allow it. Almost everyone knows that stealing is wrong -- and we can't stop piracy anyway, or we would have by now. We have to make paying less painful than pirating. Alliteration Alley was brought to you by ...