I love these threads about e-book cost vs p-book, about why drm is necessary, why e-books are expensive.
Get real; there is a reason commercial ebooks are the butt of jokes right now, and justifications are irrelevant. People DO NOT pay high prices for e-content as a group, people detest drm as a group, so as long as those 2 factors remain dominant, commercial e-books will still be the butt of jokes; if somehow a book reader (maybe Kindle, maybe Sony, maybe eink ETI) captures the imagination of the public and sells in millions, commercial e-books will still go nowhere at high prices and drm.
The bottom line is the current e-book publishing model does not work, is not going to work and we will have the same status quo until something better comes along. The music studios tried the same justifications and so what; the mp3 wave is still crushing them as Mr. Ringo put it so well...