Since the World Wide Web made the Internet a button-click away from anyone, piracy (stealing) of others works has been a very easy occupation. Music downloads has been at the forefront of theft. Now, the proliferation of e-books has made books an easy target. If you don’t get what the big deal is, think of it this way: You spend weeks or months at your place of employment on a project. At completion, your company uses your work but doesn’t pay you. You’d be a bit upset and have some trouble paying the bills. Contrary to popular belief, most writers aren’t rolling in dough.
Robert Bidinotto wrote on this recently, ending with:
I hope readers tempted to download from a pirate site will pause to realize what will happen if your favorite writers finally give up, because piracy no longer makes it possible for them to write for a living. Ebooks aren’t expensive; in fact, they provide more value for their price tags than any other form of entertainment and information. Please remember that, and honor the authors who work so hard to provide you those values by purchasing their works only from authorized sites.
And on 
Darrick Dean 