Authors need to frame the conversation better: It's a contract. You don't get to read my book unless you pay me money.

It doesn't matter that the author still has a copy or whether you think you're "stealing". None of that matters. You can do whatever you like, so long as you give money to the author before you consume their thing. That's the deal, take it or leave it.

Frame the transaction that way, and at least you won't get so many people who think they haven't done anything wrong.