.foXinternet - a bunch of stuff by tucola

Wednesday, September 15, 2004 :

I-Tunes

What do you think about the idea that I–Tunes (whizzy though it is) is totally ripping off the British public by charging 79p to download a song when this only costs 67p in France and Germany (and 55p in the US)?

UK customers are barred from purchasing from the European or US sites by the requirement that payment be made by a credit card registered to an address in one of those countries. With no shipping costs involved, what is the real justification for this? My guess is that they would plead copyright restrictions, tax rules or the need to fight credit card fraud. But in relation to France and Germany, at least, why is this not against the free market principles for which the common market is supposed to stand?

On a similar note, I was somewhat annoyed recently when I wanted to buy a digital download from Amazon. I would be paying by credit card. I would download over the internet. The amazon.co.uk price was more–or–less in pounds what the amazon.com price was in dollars. On putting my credit card details into the US site, I was told that European customers were not allowed to order digital downloads from the US. What a rip off. Result? I said stuff it and decided I might as well just buy the hardcover edition and get it shipped.

The internet is obviously a force encouraging global competition in a worldwide marketplace, because it allows price comparison and sometimes purchase across national boundaries. Aren’t attempts by companies to restrict this (whether it be under the guise of copyright restrictions or whatever), basically attempts to continue to partition the world market, with a view to restricting ‘virtual’ parallel imports and to continuing to rip customers off as much as possible?

posted by tucola @ 16:16

Comments:

Well, it's copyright restrictions, tax rules and the need to fight credit card fraud, dipshit. Stop whining and get over it. Serves you right for living in England.

# posted by Anonymous : 4:45 PM

My guess for the price discrepancy would be that in certain countries (and I know this is the case in Germany), the customer pays a levy when buying things that copy stuff (like video recorders etc) which goes to the collecting societies who represent the interests of artists etc. I think such levies have recently been extended in Germany to PCs. I guess the thinking is that if you have already effectively paid a fair whack to the artist by virtue of simply having the means to download his tune, you shouldn't have to pay him again. I'm not aware that you pay any similar sort of levy in the US though.

# posted by Anonymous : 4:48 PM

Taking my specific example, what tax rules exactly? I believe that UK excise duty is not charged on books and they are also zero rated for VAT in the UK. Maybe one of the tax boys will correct me if I'm wrong?

# posted by tucola : 4:49 PM

For the avoidance of doubt, my last post was in response to the first post and the "example" I was referring to was the amazon example.

Interesting point about the levy. But I can't help feeling that it's reaching a little bit to ascribe cheaper legal music downloads via PC's in Europe to the fact that Europeans are already charged a levy on their PC purchases, effectively to compensate artists for the illegal downloading of music in breach of copyright to the detriment of the artists that the law-makers have deemed a consequence of the sales of the PCs. Are we suggesting that the extra money charged on the UK downloads goes into a similar fund to compensate artists for illegal downloads? I bet it doesn't. Anyone?

# posted by tucola : 4:58 PM

I had the same thing with Norton antivirus, which UK customers are forced to pay for via the (more expensive) UK site. I blame VAT (for everything). However I'm fairly sure prohibiting downloads from France/Germany is illegal in the same way that car dealers in Calais can't refuse to sell you a right hand drive car under EU competition law.

# posted by Harsh : 9:14 AM

Norton must have changed that. A couple of years ago, I was allowed to buy cheap Norton by credit card in dollars via the US site. I then had the joy of dealing at length with customer support clowns all over the US when the download failed to work for the first four attempts and then the software failed to work after that. In the end, I gave up, took it off my computer and got a refund on my credit card. Unfortunately, I didn't get the £12,000 incurred in international telephone calls refunded.

# posted by tucola : 10:13 AM

I paid the more expensive UK price for Norton Internet Security. It was crap, I couldn't be bothered with customer support so I just removed it from my computer and replaced it with freeware stuff.

# posted by Harsh : 1:05 PM