Academic Report: Piracy is a ''Global Pricing Problem''

[News Portal]

The Media Piracy Project, which has run for the last three years with the combined efforts of 35 researchers, released its report last week examining the reasons, methodology, and impact of digital piracy across places such as India, Russia and Mexico. Their conclusion? Piracy is a problem caused by global pricing - something those of us who live in the outrageously over-priced country of Australia are all too familiar with.

Read full article by Tim Colwill

[Marius]

The last time we discussed piracy and markets it was an epic debate thread. I'll start off by saying: I agree with the report.

[PalZer0]

So in other words, Aussies have no excuse because we live in a high income area?

[Marius]

The report notes that even supposedly "developed" countries such as Australia routinely pirate content that is not legally available to them, especially when they are forced to wait days, weeks or even months to receive the content via legal channels - something that anybody who likes to watch TV shows is probably aware of.

[libbaz]

yeah I wasnt surprised by anything said by this report.

It concludes with the viewpoint that piracy is just "unmet demand"

well duh. If someone pirates something its because they want it to some degree, just not within Big Corp's pricing structures.

The solution proposed by the report calls for relative pricing structures, something that it admits will probably not be adopted any time soon

again, duh. not when:

protect the pricing structure in the high-income countries that generate most of their profits

[Yurtles]

Old business practises being applied to a new kind of market has always been one of the common arguments. I suppose it's nice that it has a bit more legitimacy now, not that any of the corporation types will pay any attention to it.

[Marius]

But it's very hard to have relative pricing structures when people can import from overseas.

[libbaz]

But it's very hard to have relative pricing structures when people can import from overseas.

indeed, just another instance of how a global economy is just going to screw over poorer countries. no way to avoid it really, particularly with digital services.

[Mekon]

Piracy is a problem caused by global pricing - something those of us who live in the outrageously over-priced country of Australia are all too familiar with.

The solution proposed by the report calls for relative pricing structures

I find those sentences somewhat contradictory. The reason prices are high in Australia is because we don't have global pricing, we have relative pricing (ie. what the market will bear). We pay almost double what customers in the US pay at retail.

If we could buy titles for the same price as the US, I'd be a a lot happier... although I'm not sure it would have much impact. Local distributors would be getting half the money they used to and I find it highly unlikely they'd get twice the sales.

edit: Although on re-reading the article, the study was based exclusively on emerging economies, so Australia (and other western economies) are irrelevant.

The argument may well hold true for second/third world economies - if releases there were more competitive with the counterfeit copies (of CDs, DVDs and video games) available everywhere, maybe there would be more legitimate sales, but it probably wouldn't have any impact on individual piracy... only on organised counterfeiting rings. Pretty sure that relative pricing already applies in those economies anyway for many products (although in some cases the local governments impose massive import and sales taxes which gobble up a substantial amount of the difference).

edit: and on reading the ars technica article, the term "piracy" is actually used to refer to "counterfeiting" (and the sale of pirated goods), rather than what we generally think of as piracy.

Not convinced.

[Exaemo]

But it's very hard to have relative pricing structures when people can import from overseas.

Assuming that it is legal for them to do so. See http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/03/aussie-customs-on-the-lookout-for-mortal-kombat-imports/


Also, lol...

For those who must have it for free anyway, you probably know where to look.

[Rogue]

Piracy is a problem caused by global pricing - something those of us who live in the outrageously over-priced country of Australia are all too familiar with.

The solution proposed by the report calls for relative pricing structures

Yeah, the assertion by Tim Colwill re: Aus consumers doesn't seem to make too much sense.

Australian consumers get angry over relative pricing because it turns out that the content producers think our market will bear higher prices than those we see for other regions (ie. Steam disparity), as you say.

In my reading of these threads I've never seen any Aus consumers rail against global pricing - in fact, most Australian consumers seem to indicate they would be happy with global pricing, in which we'd pay the same as the US/UK etc.

Of course, Aus consumers would also be happy to pay far less, but that's beside the point.

(The report calls for relative pricing because that would mean content sold in places such as India and Russia have pricing relative to the economic status of a particular region's consumers. The researchers presume that the lower prices in these regions would increase the likelihood of genuine sales in markets that can't support the global price dictated by what consumers in countries in 'the West' can bear, and thus lower piracy).

[Fireslide]

Relative pricing doesn't work in first world countries fairly, nor does it work when communication about prices can be freely communicated.

The reason we get charged more is because relative to the US economy we can afford more. However, we can also see what the US is getting charged for the same product. We also consider that among first world countries everyone's situation is fairly similar. So the price should be as well.

I guess we're just grumpy that we get the short end of the stick both ways. When the US dollar was worth twice as much, our games cost twice as much, so buying locally was worth it. When it's worth the same, our games cost twice as much. But we can avoid that by grey market imports or VPN purchases.

[Jez]

The reason we get charged more is because relative to the US economy we can afford more.

How do you figure that? Our GDP per capita when adjusted for purchasing power is lower than the US. I would think that the Australian market has just shown itself more willing to pay more for video games and the like at retail than the US.

[Fireslide]

That's what I mean. If we couldn't afford to pay more, the sales would decrease.

[Marius]

Busineses should charge as much as they can get away with, though.

I'm more of the mind that business should try to do everything in their power to make profits, and consumers should try everything in their power to get the most while saving money. If that means VPN and imports, so be it.

The problem comes from whining about stuff without any action to back it up. And yeah, I buy games at Aus retail prices so am not one to talk. I just don't care because I only buy a game once every few months.