Slashdot Mirror
Game Piracy Results in Lower Prices?
meejahor writes "The BBC reports that Sony will soon launch the PlayStation 2 in China, following Nintendo's lead with the GameCube. Most interesting about the story is the news that, because of widespread piracy in China, PS2 games 'will cost far less than they do in the US or the UK, but still be slightly more than pirated discs.' We've always been told that pirate games push prices up, but doesn't this news suggest that piracy in China has in fact pushed prices down? The story also notes that 'only two or three games will be available at launch' which seems crazy considering the likelihood that people will pirate imported games instead of waiting for them to be released officially." While the Chinese launch of PS2 has been known for a while, the pricing of Chinese games is pretty interesting, given their long history of piracy. I imagine this sort of thing would be considered in the U.S. and other countries were pirated games as widespread as they are in China.
Actually in regards to drugs I think it is only the US where the prices are that high. In other developed nations eg. Europe, Australia, Canada, the governments impose some sort of control over the prices to bring down prices to more affordable levels and they tend to subsidise a lot of drugs. Also in other developed nations, healthcare is much less privatised, with the governments taking a much more active role in subsidising medical care and drugs. For example, the wholesale prices of the ten most prescribed drugs in Australia are 79-306% more expensive in the US.
To tell the truth, the American medical system isn't much admired. The usual horror words for an opposition to utter about a government's policies is "They're bringing us to an American-style health system." That always seems to bring shivers down voter's spines...
Basically you can look at in two ways. Either the US is subsidising the rest of the world including all other developed nations like Australia, Britain, Canada etc. Or (what I think is more likely), US people are getting ripped off in a major way because the US Federal government refuses to crack down on the drug companies.
Set timelines. (Closed: I can set a deadline and everyone will work towards that goal. Open: Its done when its done.)
Not if there is a company setting the deadline but there are open sourcers working on it in addition to company employees.
Definite commitment to the project. (Closed: people have alot invested to make sure that the project is a sucess. Open: I can leave the project at a drop of a hat and have very little repercussions)
Again, this is if only volunteers are working on it.
Startup (closed: I just have to convince upper management that people should be working on my project. Open: I have to convince everyone that they should work on it)
closed: I have to convince upper management to put people on my project. open: I may convince anyone to work on my project.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
-h-