Where Is Bourne? Not in an Electronic Version.

So, my 15-year-old son was heading off to summer camp. “Dad, I need some books!” he said, waggling his iPod Touch.

He loves twisty plots. He loves action. He loves intellectual challenge. I knew just the thing: “The Bourne Identity.”

I pulled up Amazon.com to buy the Kindle edition. “And once you're done with it, we can watch the movie together,” I told him as I searched.

Hm. That's weird. There's no electronic edition of “The Bourne Identity” on Amazon. Nor any of its sequels.

Barnes & Noble? Apple iBooks? Kobo? Sony? Nope. Nobody sells it.

I felt like I was in a Monty Python skit. “Hello? Would anyone like some money? Anyone? I've got money here-no?”

I eventually learned that Robert Ludlum's estate can't agree on a royalty rate with its publisher.

Dudes: It's 2012. You're among the last big-name holdouts on the face of the earth. You're worried about the royalty rate? How about worry ing about the thousands of dollars a month you've been leaving on the table by not offering the books to the public who's willing to buy it?

Eventually, I did what I'm sure thousands of frustrated Ludlum fans wind up doing: I downloaded the book from a BitTorrent site.

I know this is wrong. I sure wish I could have paid for it. So I sent the publisher a check for $9.99 for the e-book.