On the Economics of e-Books?

way0utwest asks: "I was searching on Amazon today for Lawrence Lessig's 'The Future of Ideas'. While browsing, I noticed that there was also an e-book version of the same title. What was amazing was that the hardcover copy of the book is $21 and the e-book, which is downloaded, is $24! Now I may be just a simple computer programmer, but it seems to me that there is less overall 'cost' involved with the e-book and it should be cheaper. There's very little 'inventory' to store (how much disk space and electricity cost can there be?). There's no risk of having to 'return' the book to the publisher. There's no labor needed to 'ship' me the book. How can it cost more? Is Adobe charging that much for the licensing of the e-book? Now I'm not sold on the idea of e-books, or electronic books in general (though I am looking forward to electronic paper), however it seems that either the industry is not interested in pushing e-books, or Amazon is not really paying attention (though the list price of the hardcover is $30) OR the publishers are trying to overcharge for the e-book to make up for potential piracy. Am I way off base? Is there anther explanation? Anyone?" It's frustrating to find digital media that is priced higher than the corresponding title in dead-tree form. way0utwest makes a good point in that one reason for the increased pricing is due to piracy, but one has to wonder how often e-Books get pirated? Are such prices justified or are eBooks doomed to failure because they have effectively priced themselves out of the market?