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Ebooks should be at least half the price of the paper version. If DRM is used maybe 1/4th. Anything else is legalized robbery.
In the music and book industry, the author gets less than 10% of the sales. In this day and age, publishers are not needed and they know it. They will go the way of the dinosaurs. Already many authors and musicians publish their work online for a fair price. They earn more money with the same sales even at a much lower price.
My company is making computer games and in our business the situation is much better. We get 50% of the revenue, the publisher the other 50%. Still, when I see my game on pirate networks, I am HAPPY. I would not think of going after the up or downloaders. Lost revenue is not significant, but it is good marketing. I will actually put my next game out on Bittorrent myself.
RIAA style campaigns are not fair. Publishers have more lobby power than regular people, that is why we see insane copyright laws, especially in the US.
The answer to piracy is fair pricing both towards the customer and the author and not legal action. Stealing a book or software is not the same as stealing a car or killing people, because most of the time there is no loss for the other side.
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