Software Pricing Racket Exposed

News.com.au reports that Australian users are paying up to five times more for software downloads than their counterparts in other countries!

The site points out that downloads are supposed to be cheaper than conventionally shipped software due to the fact that there are no transportation, packaging and distribution costs.

Companies such as Adobe, Steam and Electronic Arts, Norton and McAfee are involved in the practice.

A price comparison chart, and further information is available on the news site

One wonders how such a large price difference can be justified, given the absence of the cost of traditional means of distribution.

Using the cost of processing for tax and so on wouldn’t qualify as a valid reason, as the price in Britain is still cheaper than that in Australia with the tax there taken into account.

While it may be easy to say that this is something that only Australians need to worry about, it can also be said that if these companies can get away with it in this market, they can do it in other countries as well!

I would never justify theft or piracy, but surely lower prices across the board from software companies would mean less loss from piracy, leading to a higher profit anyway?

What do you think? Are there costs that we don’t know about?

Have your say in the comments section below…