Australian Government Releases Report Into IT Price Fixing 125
elphie007 writes "Fourteen months after the Australian Parliament announced an inquiry into the disparity between IT pricing for Australian consumers, the Committee's final report has been published. The report highlights the importance of IT in Australia, and that Australian consumers are frequently shafted in an uncomfortable manner when it comes to purchasing IT goods and services. With recommendations ranging from the removal of parallel importation restrictions to the possible banning of geo-blocking services, could this mean the end of US bound Adobe shopping trips and the beginning of pricing equality for Australian IT consumers? More reports/analysis is available here and here."
Solution to price gouging by American SW companies (Score:3, Insightful)
As an Australian citizen, I easily get around the price gouging attempts by American companies like Microsoft, Adobe and Apple.
I do it by running Kubuntu on my laptop and desktop, and Android on my tablet and phone. My every single household IT need is thereby elegantly met for zero cost to me. LibreOffice 4.1 running under Kubuntu is great! Digikam is the bees knees for my digital photos! Krita is the best-of-breed for creating raster graphics art (Inkscape for vector graphics, Blender for 3D graphics). Clementine plays all my music just fine and syncs with my non-Apple media player, tablet and phone, and VLC shows my videos (of any format) with aplomb.
I can buy *ALL* my hardware (phone, tablet, laptop and desktop, the latter two without any OS pre-installed) for less than the blowout cost of one package of commercial software from Microsoft or Adobe.
Re: Logistics (Score:2, Insightful)
It isn't that ridiculous. Capitalism is all about maximizing profit.
No, it is ridiculous and capitalism isn't all about maximizing profits. Capitalism relies heavily on competition, if there is no competition the system breaks down.
In this case competition is hindered by copyright laws, an entity that thinks that they can distribute the software cheaper to Australia (Transport the bits for a cost that is marginal compared to the retail price in other regions.) is not allowed to do so.
This is a prime example of when capitalism isn't allowed to work properly.
Who modded this up? (Score:4, Insightful)
Adding restrictions on imports deliberately removes Australia from global pricing from software and sets it up as a segmented market
What restrictions?
Who modded this tripe up.
Australia has no restrictions on importing software. This is why I can buy games in the UK and have them shipped over. This is why dropshippers exist, this is why I bought my camera from Hong Kong and had it shipped to Oz. The laws on restricting imports are only for very specific things like Alcohol, Tobacco and Food (Dutiable goods, prohibited goods and dangerous goods in legalese). Software is not dutiable, prohibited or dangerous, therefore not restricted.
The problem is that the software distributors have segmented Australia. I cant get a copy of Windows from anyone else but Microsoft (Erm, a legit copy). MS chose to charge me 50% more, I didn't force MS to charge me more and we dont have a choice thanks to IP/Copyright laws that were foisted on us by a series of lop sided "free" trade agreements between Australia and the US.