"In an appropriately competitive market we'd expect prices to be more related to the supplier's costs (and the costs of alternatives like getting a book from a different publisher or getting the hardcover) than they would be to the customers ability-to-pay."
This might be true absent IP laws but people who want to read Harry Potter can only get that from one legal source and if the profit maximizing price for Harry Potter was $100 that's what it would cost.
A cotton shirt with a designer logo stiched in at a supply cost of 20 cents can still sell for 50 or 100 times what a near identical shirt without it can. Price does not follow supply cost for these items.
This might be true absent IP laws but people who want to read Harry Potter can only get that from one legal source and if the profit maximizing price for Harry Potter was $100 that's what it would cost.
A cotton shirt with a designer logo stiched in at a supply cost of 20 cents can still sell for 50 or 100 times what a near identical shirt without it can. Price does not follow supply cost for these items.