I was reading through various messages and someone was asking whether protection should be legal or not. Someone also mentioned that if people only took a copy of the said item for personal use there would be no problem. I disagree. If the music, games and film providers stopped ripping the public off piracy would not go on. How can an audio cd be £14.99 in the UK and £7.99 in the USA? If they charged £7.99 people wouldnt pirate the disk. If they charged £15 for a psx or ps2 game instead of £40, people would buy the originals. Same with DVD. 20 quid for a DVD film is way of the top. look at supermarkets. If the sell something cheaper more people buy it and they make the same profit. If they sell at higher prices people cant afford it, so go to the pirates. The only way to stop piracy is to price them out the game. Sell the original product at a price where its not worth copying and the majority of the public will always buy an original.

So what do you guys think - including the pirates

The price is not the only thing that makes people copy CDs. As long as it is cheaper to copy a CD, rather thanbuying them, people will do so.

When I read the discussion in one of the Dutch forums that people could buy several Microsoft Programs legally for only €5 and they were still complaining and rather copying, I knew for sure that price is not the only issue (and secondly, some people are really pitiful )

True, the higher the prices the more likely it is for people to start/continue copying, but lowering prices will not solve the problem.

I think that when prices will be lowered, people will be more inclined to buy CDs. Speaking for myself, when I see certain CDs priced considerably lower in a certain store, that store might end up with a higher turnover (I spend more money than I would have buying these expensive CDs). A lower margin on CDs does not automatically mean lower profits (10 times €1 profit still beats 2 times €4).

But the problem starts with the morals people are taught at an early age. This does not only apply to copying, but to many other issues as well (discrimination, intolerance, other violations of different laws (such as traffic violations).

I agree to a certain extent. There will always be people who copy things just for the sake of copying or to prove they can beat the protection or whatever. But Joe Bloggs who has no copying equipment and stands at the market stall buying PSX games for 5 or 10 pounds wouldnt be there if he could afford the originals. Most people sell audio cds for £5 here. If the original was £7, why buy the copy? But when the original is £15, there is a big difference and people on low incomes will always buy the copy. I think if Audio was £7, PSX or PSX2 were £15 and DVD films were under £12 there would be less pirating. Of course that wont stop the guys who are professionally copying as thats big money, but it would encourage people to buy the originals. If a shop has a sale on, its always busier and people buy more because the items in the sale are cheaper. Stock them high, sell them cheap.

Prices can not be lowered just like that. You simply forget that there are several aspects that play a role in determining the price of the product.

As for games, they are not that expensive solely because the shareholders (or the management) want a 500% net profit. You cannot imagine how much time and other resources are invested in the development of a product, not to mention the marketing that goes along with it (in the end it is the average Joe who pays for the commercialisation of for instance sporting events).

One of the aspects of a price setting is the estimated sale (that is why you get a discount when you order in large quantities). There is a certain amount of money that needs to be earned to pay for all those expenses. That is why you will see that most products are expensive right after their release (for the so called early adopters) and drop in price after a certain amount of time (when research costs have been covered and the only thing that remains is the variable cost of production with only a minimum amount of fixed expenses for overhead and marketing).

This reminds me of a story I heard about a woman who was surprised that at the end of the season all clothes were half off. She wondered why those prices weren't available all year... As an economist I found this story amusing and sometimes I wonder how ignorant people can be

I appreciate that there is large amounts of money spent on developing games etc. But explain why in the UK we pay double what the USA pay for the same product? Example I wanted Picture Publisher 9 or 10. It was something like $39 in the states and £90 in the UK. Not even different companies as it was amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. Its the same product. I can buy british CD's via CDNOW (USA) cheaper than I can buy them in the UK. Its a rip off and until they stop ripping us off there will always be room for the pirates.

It is strange, especially when you consider that you can order from Amazon US too...

But there are some export and import restrictions that may play a role too. I know that in US prices are advertised without sales tax, whereas in the UK (Europe in general) prices are listed including VAT. That explains about 20% difference.

As for export and import restrictions I have no clue, those tariffs and alike are not known to me.

But differences in prices between countries its not necessarily the fault of the companies, there may be other things that play a role too (such as taxes)

Listen people, we are forgetting that humans are naturally selfish and greedy. Therefore if they can avoid paying for a product / service they will. People always use the cheapest option.

which brings us full circle. if the product is cheap people will buy it. Did you notice the PSX games fall sharply in price ones chipping was made available? Watch the PS2 do the same. When they realise that no one is going to pay £40 for a game when they can get it at a market for £5 or £10.

Look at the price of MS office or windows 2000. Almost every user has MS products but they dont make them any cheaper does it?

and to prove its not taxes etc. Tescos wanted to sell Levis and wranglers or other designer clothes but were told by the courts they couldnt do so. So the price stays high. They wanted to buy from cheaper European suppliers and out the savings on to the customer. But oh no. The customer isnt allowed that in the UK. Savings???? Same with the car industry. We pay inflated prices here and the government know it and try to stop it but to no avail. RIP OFF BRITAIN.,...... Up the pirates