Australian Parliament recommends consumers be educated on circumventing geoblocking

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Of course, they should pass on extra costs imposed on them by local regulations. If people don't like to pay more, elect a government that gets rid of those regulations.

eh?

We do support the government taking this initiative that's why we all complained so loudly that they set up an inquiry.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

eh?

We do support the government taking this initiative that's why we all complained so loudly that they set up an inquiry.

Someone mentioned the content rating system.

[jehane]

Crikey article from last week is now out of subscriber mode and can be read by anyone.

Adobe software, 42% more expensive here. Microsoft 66%. Autodesk 51%. Hardware (Apple, surprisingly, excepted) 46% dearer. Music, 52%. Games, 84%.

the same rubbish excuses from the companies — tax, rents, high wages, regulation — that we’re used to hearing are also there, all rejected by the committee as insufficient to explain the extraordinary differences in prices for the same product here and offshore

The worst part:

Indeed the committee report is littered with the sight of bodies ostensibly intended to represent the interests of Australian business slavishly following the diktats of their offshore masters.

[Lynx-lynx]

Hmmmm ..... so it seems the choice is still to individually (business and person) circumvent geo-restrictions until the rules/laws are changed eh!

[teh603]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Of course, they should pass on extra costs imposed on them by local regulations. If people don't like to pay more, elect a government that gets rid of those regulations.

You can't really tell if the costs are imposed by regulation, though. Businesses aren't going to itemize something like that. It'd undermine their constant whining about the evils of having a government.

[wannabee]

Give me one example where Australia's State or Federal Governments have regulated against big business's demands in preference to the public's when it comes to retail.
They have their little show trials for the public, produce the business's responses and invite the media to reprint their spin doctor's cheat sheets.
It will come to nothing until Harvey Norman gets his knickers in a knot and the next minister for obscurring unbridled profiteering by multinationals is forced to make a public show trial again.

If the ACCC did what it's supposed to do none of this would be necessary.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by wannabee

It will come to nothing until Harvey Norman gets his knickers in a knot and the next minister for obscurring unbridled profiteering by multinationals is forced to make a public show trial again.

If the ACCC did what it's supposed to do none of this would be necessary.

I don't think this has much to do with multinationals. I think it has everything to do with Australian retailers not wanting cheap competition from multinationals. I'm pretty sure Amazon, at least, would be happy to sell e-books to Australians at US prices.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I don't think this has much to do with multinationals. I think it has everything to do with Australian retailers not wanting cheap competition from multinationals. I'm pretty sure Amazon, at least, would be happy to sell e-books to Australians at US prices.

In the physical book market I would agree but mainly because local retailers were not allowed to compete on an equal footing with offshore competition (such as Amazon). They were hamstrung by parallel import laws meaning that they could only sell inflated price items from local publishers while consumers were quite able to purchase from Amazon, Book Depository etc.. at half the price.

The regulations that were meant to protect local publishers left local retailers exposed. There are more factors involved in the collapse of major book chains such as Angus & Robertson, but this couldn't have helped.

Of course local publishers here are quite often just Australian divisions of multinationals. So in a way, multinationals and their lobbying has been partly responsible at least in this area. Of course, this is not digital products which is the main thrust of this discussion.

I have to admit to being a bit confused by how electronic books really work into the equation. Do Australian divisions of international publishers actually have any real input whatsoever into the purchase of ebooks in this country? Are the ebooks we purchase in Australia actually the output of Australian publishers (when not from Australian authors)? Are we just paying a premium on items not actually published here just so Australian publishers can continue to exist at their current size?

If local publishers downsized to accommodate a core focus of publishing Australian authors and relaxed parallel import laws for books from the UK and removed any surcharges for digital books, could this be a viable alternative for them? Geo-restrictions could be relaxed to encompass UK to increase choice but also to preserve UK English as the main language for media in the country if this is still a worthy goal.

Obviously I have no answers and I'm not really sure I'm grasping the essentials properly. The digital economy seems to be rolling forward, essentially demanding people/organisations to innovate and change. I can understanding trying to delay the change temporarily if it's to better prepare for it, but I'm not sure if that is what's happening here.

[Fbone]

Australian's minimum wage is more than double the United States. This probably is the reason some items appear costlier in Australia as compared to other countries.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/time...mac-6C10945727

[stepberr]

The basic wage in Australia has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.What Australians are complainig about is being forced to buy software from an Australian office of an overseas company and barred from buying a cheaper version from an overseas seller.I used to buy Adobe software from the US,then they opened an Australian store and wanted to charge me 40% more for then same product.I nolonger use their products.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by stepberr

The basic wage in Australia has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.What Australians are complainig about is being forced to buy software from an Australian office of an overseas company and barred from buying a cheaper version from an overseas seller.I used to buy Adobe software from the US,then they opened an Australian store and wanted to charge me 40% more for then same product.I nolonger use their products.

So-called "grey imports" are illegal in the EU, too.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by stepberr

I nolonger use their products.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

The Monkey Rebel likes to stick it to the man.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

The Monkey Rebel likes to stick it to the man.

You betcha

[stepberr]

So called "gray importes" are not banned by the Government.The blocking is by the private companies themselves.That is why the Parlimentary commitee has recomended consumer advice be provided as a stopgap until the consumer protection laws can be amended to outlaw the practice.