Very difficult questions, with even harder answers. IMHO it’s totally different trying to liberate the knowledge locked behind paywalls (books, research papers, studies…) and the real piracy of digital content (movies, software, audio…). Many different factors to consider and I think it all comes down to personal views and preferences.
How is a book a "locked paywall" and a movie is "real piracy"? I fail to see how the difference in medium between a book and a movie makes the situation so completely different.
Not all books are available in all countries, especially poor ones. My whole point is that we’re talking about freedom of knowledge. Someone who writes a book or publishes research is doing it for the spread of information/knowledge and for the greater good. I agree that these people have to make a living as well and that’s where it’s getting difficult. In my mind, piracy of knowledge is ok, but piracy for profit or for not wanting to pay is bad.
And not all books are about spreading information and/or knowledge. We're not only talking about academic books here, there are also fictions. What does the latest Stephen King have to do with freedom of knowledge? I understand what you are talking about and as an author myself I do agree as per some of my comments under this thread, but let's not pretend all the books made available for free are about "knowledge".
Who are you to say what's knowledge and what's not?
Why can't I, a speaker in language X, buy books in that language outside of the country where this language is spoken on the same platform where it's sold.
See e.g. availability of, say, Japanese or Russian books on Apple Books in Europe, US, Russia and Japan.
