Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I wasn't referring to that aspect of it (which I entirely agree with, BTW). I was referring to taosaur's comment that p2p downloads show that someone likes your product, so you should stop trying to protect it and concentrate on making it cheaper. That argument could equally be applied to cars as to music tracks, and I'm afraid that I think it's rather silly  . |
It was the approach Pitt the Younger took to deal with smuggling when he was Prime Minister.
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/pitt/taxpitt.htm
"It was estimated that smuggling exceeded 20% of imports and accounted for half all tea in Britain, creating an obvious loss of revenue. High duties made smuggling profitable, so Pitt decided to reduce duties to make the temptation no longer adequate to the risk. Tea duties, averaging 119%, were reduced to 25%. Duties also were reduced on wines, spirits and tobacco. By 1789, quantity of tea passing through Customs had doubled and in one year (1784-5) the Exchequer got an extra £200,000. By 1792, government revenue had increased by £3 m as a result of legal increased consumption."