Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 22nd Mar 2013 09:56 UTC
If you don't live in the US, this is a pretty common source of irritation: US companies charging crazy markups on products sold in Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the rest of the world. The Australian government has had enough of this practice, and started an inquiry into the matter. Yesterday (or today? Timezones confuse me) Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe had to answer questions in a public hearing.
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RE[2]: Comment by static666
by lemur2 on Sat 23rd Mar 2013 08:11
in reply to "RE: Comment by static666"
Member since:2007-02-17
As to your second point about the government, a fair amount of departments are currently using or are looking at using open source software.
Backup for this statement (for the UK at least) can be read at the following links:
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/GOV-UK-manual-suggests-a-pre...
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240179643/Government-mandates-p...
RE[2]: Comment by static666
by static666 on Sun 24th Mar 2013 12:35
in reply to "RE: Comment by static666"
Member since:2006-06-09
As an Australian citizen I take offence to your implication that we're a developing economy.
Sorry, no offence intended. I was merely addressing the rest of the world point.
As to your second point about the government, a fair amount of departments are currently using or are looking at using open source software. This problem effects our private citizens who, despite the complete parity of the dollars, can't get the exact same piece of software for anywhere near the same price as a US citizen.
That is indeed great news and in my opinion the best way to influence the current situation. Still I find it quite amusing that developed countries are leading the way in free software adoption, while mostly poor third world ones being among the leading growing markets for top-priced commercial software.
And while you would expect some higher costs for both tax and support reasons that simply doesn't add up to a 75% increase in the price of the software.
I concur, 75% is completely insane. But what about microeconomics? Supply and demand? Economic equilibrium for price and quantity? If a product is popular and people can afford and do buy it, what's wrong with the pricing then?
Although the government can easily fix this by limiting margin of imported goods, software in particular. But then given the recent exposure of scale of tax evasion practiced by aforementioned companies, I'm pretty sure they'll find a way to rip people off.
Member since:
2011-03-08
As an Australian citizen I take offence to your implication that we're a developing economy. While I'm not schooled in economics I can say that Australia is most definitely a DEVELOPED economy which if I remember correctly managed to emerge better from the GFC that either the USA or Europe.
As to your second point about the government, a fair amount of departments are currently using or are looking at using open source software. This problem effects our private citizens who, despite the complete parity of the dollars, can't get the exact same piece of software for anywhere near the same price as a US citizen. And while you would expect some higher costs for both tax and support reasons that simply doesn't add up to a 75% increase in the price of the software.