The other day I downloaded a single torrent that had nearly 1500 science fiction novels in it. The intersection between this torrent and the titles in my bookca

The other day I downloaded a single torrent that had nearly 1500 science fiction novels in it. The intersection between this torrent and the titles in my bookcases was about 75% (40+ year old collection.) I did spot checks for torrents of random non sf titles, not to download, just to check availability, and the hit rate, with minimal searching, was about 50%. A little googling also found Mega-whosis downloads for lots of titles, including a large collection about half the size of the torrent I downloaded previously. A spot check for technical books, some within the year, turned up about a 40% success rate. The older the book, the more likely I was to find a copy, down to about 5 years or so ago. Older tech books are available, but only titles that are big names in their fields. I did find one rather nice torrent listing older science books. I would say that the online book piracy movement is rolling along pretty well. And this is in support of people willing to put up with the awfulness of reading on a laptop or desktop screen. IMHO, the iPad is _really_ nice for novels, short stories, comics, and manga. Less good for highly formatted technical and illustrated books; but still better than using a laptop.