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Australians Urged To Spoof IP Addresses For Better Prices

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-savings? dept.

angry tapir writes "Choice, a prominent Australian consumer advocacy group, has urged Australians to obfuscate their IP address to avoid geo-blocking and use US forwarding addresses to beat high IT prices. Australia is currently in the middle of parliamentary inquiry into the country's disproportionately high prices for technology. Choice also suggested setting up US iTunes accounts and using surrogate US addresses for forwarding packages from American stores. Choice has noted previously that Australians pay 52 per cent more for digital music downloads on iTunes compared to US users."

19 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Tor and using a specific exit node (and SSL!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is how I ended up buying Battlefield 3 premium on Origin for a fraction of the cost (1500 INR (=22 EUR) instead of 50 EUR) by pretending to be from India.

    1. Re:Tor and using a specific exit node (and SSL!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And this is the real reason for DRM, not piracy.

    2. Re:Tor and using a specific exit node (and SSL!) by 2fuf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, it's the reason for DRM and at the same time the reason for piracy ;-)

    3. Re:Tor and using a specific exit node (and SSL!) by Solandri · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not exactly. I do agree that region-coding DRM sucks and should probably be banned. But that's not what's going on here.

      The Australian dollar has gone up about 40% against the US dollar in the last 5 years. If you compare game prices in AUD vs USD and subtract ~40%, you'll find the prices are nearly identical.

      International contracts involving two currencies are usually written to cover one year at a fixed exchange rate. Consequently there's a large lag between when a currency goes up, and when prices go down (time constant is on the order of a year). Especially if the seller is a large manufacturer (like Apple), while the buyer represents a small market (Australia). They may not have enough negotiating leverage to get next year's contract changed to better reflect the high rate of currency appreciation. (To be fair, the manufacturer may also be worried that a currency rapidly rising in a few years is a sign that it'll also rapidly fall in coming years. And they don't want to get stuck holding the bag if that happens.)

      Then you have the same thing going on at the retail level, where the retailer (who got ripped off by the manufacturer) now realizes the shoe's on the other foot, and they now have the upper hand in negotiating prices with the individual buyer. So you end up seeing retail prices which reflect the exchange rate 5 years ago, with half the excess going into the pockets of retailers, the other half going into the pockets of the overseas manufacturer.

      The suggestion to buy from overseas is a good one. Typically the currency exchange fees and overseas shipping fees will more than offset any advantage you gain from lower pricing from buying overseas. But when the disparity is this pronounced, its sufficient to exert downward pressure on prices. The last thing you want to be doing in this sort of situation is grudgingly pay the higher prices.

    4. Re:Tor and using a specific exit node (and SSL!) by green1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      So how do you explain a country where the dollar has been at par with the US dollar (or within a few cents) for almost 10 years now, and yet all prices are close to 50% higher (not Australia, Canada) e.books cost more, mp3s cost more, physical products cost more.
      There's only one justification, and it is greed.

  2. Did you hear that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's the sound of the USTR laughing his way to the bank.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination

    It's just another hilarious way intellectual property law is used to make money through abusing international borders.

  3. Good riddance to geo-blocking by madsdyd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I live in Denmark, and recently spent 30 minutes to try and buy an english e-book online.

    Found it at 3 different retailers (US, UK, Australia), that refused to sell it to me (add it to the basket), because of my location.

    Then found it at 2 additional retailers, that allowed me to add it to a basket, then accepted my credit-card information, before refusing to actually sell it to me.

    Then I got sort of mad and decided to break a 15 year old principle on not pirating stuff. Went to google, and had the ebook literally 30 seconds later! 10 seconds later on my device, and I could start reading.

    What on earth are they thinking!

    Oh, and I then later wrote the agent for the writer in question here in Denmark, and in the UK to offer payment. I have not heard a word from the UK agent, and the Danish one just confirmed that they do not sell the english language version of that writer in Denmark as an ebook.

    Fools, really. And, they are probably, as I write this, banging on the door to the parliament, requiering stricter copyright laws.

    Fools.

    1. Re:Good riddance to geo-blocking by Chatsubo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Stuff like this is especially maddening when they require you to ship digital products.

      I had an experience recently where I got a gift voucher for Amazon. I went there knowing a game I wanted would be about the value of the voucher. To my delight I found a digital-only version for the right price.

      "Sweet, I'll be playing this puppy in an hour or so!". No beans. Digital copy not available in my country.

      WHAT?! Why?! I can go down the road and buy this title legitimately in my country for the same price!

      Then I was going: OK, I'll buy the frikkin physical thing then. Only to find shipping the damn disc to my country was going to cost the entire price of the game. So to use my voucher I was going to have to pay the entire price of the voucher for shipping. Something I could, once again, just go do at my corner store.

      Finally I contacted a US-based friend and just shipped the disc to him for no shipping charge, and had him email me the serial. Then I found a digital copy of the data myself.

      Hint: Never give foreigners vouchers for online retailers. It's a burden to the recipient.

      --
      > no, yes, maybe (tagging beta)
    2. Re:Good riddance to geo-blocking by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I live in Denmark, and recently spent 30 minutes to try and buy an english e-book online.

      Found it at 3 different retailers (US, UK, Australia), that refused to sell it to me (add it to the basket), because of my location.

      IANAL but the UK site is probably breaking the law due to the free movement of goods and services within the EU.

    3. Re:Good riddance to geo-blocking by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Welcome to what happens when copyright get's out of control. Thank the United States Congress for that.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    4. Re:Good riddance to geo-blocking by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

      BluRay drive for the computer. anyDVD and handbrake. It strips out the region locking and the useless DRM to allow you to create a file that can play on a media center or right there on your laptop/desktop

      Rip out their DRM.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  4. Legacy of Regional Pricing by StoneyMahoney · · Score: 5, Informative

    Regional differences in pricing stem from pre-globalisation economics. With no overlap between regional markets, prices would be set on a per-market basis and never the twain did meet. In a post-globalisation Internet-levelled playing field, regional price differences make no little sense for purely-digital products, except where national sales-related taxes differ. The only reason to maintain these regional price variations to artificially inflate profit margins at the expense of the consumer.

    In theory, the libertarian free-marker doctrine should cause this price difference to level out fairly quickly once the market starts to take advantage of (and offense to) these cross-border variations. Let's see if that theory works in practice...

    Anyone want to bet on legislation increasing to prevent cross-region sales instead?

  5. It's not just games by mjwx · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It's not just games that we buy from overseas for cheap. Phones, cameras, computers, car and bike parts. All because local distributors used to have us by the balls with pricing. Games were A$90, Movies and CD's A$30 a piece and considering the AUD has been above 1 USD for the last few years, pricing like this is just taking the piss.

    Well no more, I can order just about anything and get it shipped here for less. I order games from the UK for half the price of local games, DVD box sets that retail for A$75 I purchase for 11 pounds (AUD$17), My Canon Ixus 230 came from Hong Kong for A$100 less than here, I bought myself a laptop from the US, US$899 (A$840, a very favourable exch rate at the time) and got it shipped over tax free (personal imports under A$1000 are not subject to GST, note this is now A$900), Asus didn't even sell this model here but the previous model was A$1400. Even retailers are getting in on this very sweet action, JB HiFi and even Harvey Norman are selling "direct import" cameras and games and giving the middle finger to distributors.

    You think in this environment the distributors would have learned and instituted fair pricing... Well they haven't and as much as the bang on about it, no one in parliament will lift a finger to protect them. Suffer in your jocks you smarmy, self centred bastards. Now we just need to allow more used cars to be imported, an Australian Nissan 350z costs A$30-40K, an imported Japanese Nissan 350GT costs A$20-30K imported and they are practically the same car (the 350z was down-tuned compared to the 350GT) but you are only allowed to import cars on the SEVS list (Specialist and Enthusiast Vehicles) which were never available for sale in Oz so I couldn't buy a cheap JDM Honda Integra Type R.

    This is how I ended up buying Battlefield 3 premium

    My sympathies sir, I too bought Battlefield 3 before realising how crap of a game it was.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    1. Re:It's not just games by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Informative

      How much jet fuel does it take to ship a Technet subscription?

      Microsoft charges $599 in the US compared to $1048 in AU.

      http://i.imgur.com/qQNn4.png

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  6. Brazil have the same problem by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here we have the same problem, but in our case it affects anything and everything that comes from overseas. I have to pay three times what you Americans pay for an SSD, ridiculous is not it?

    Incidentally, interesting question ... Why businesses can freely look around the globe a place to produce things, while we consumers are forced to buy our things in a very restricted manner (You can even import, but only if you pay double or even triple) and for much more than we should? Capitalism and free market for large companies, Dictatorship for consumers?

    --
    Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
  7. and they wonder why we "steal" shit,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Steam does this - although generally not Valve who are good about this but more big big publishers who are sharing the service with Valve. Luckily with US contacts, I can be 'gifted' games at US prices.

    It's disgusting and it's bullshit, if you're willing to sell a game, or a song or a book or fuck even a physical product to an American for X price and I produce the same amount of money for you and I take care of the shipping (or downloading the fucking bits) then frankly, fuck you for trying to charge me more.

    This is much worse for console using folk on PSN and the 360, sure I have a US PSN account but I don't WANT to have to buy PSN 'money' in US format from gift cards just to get games at reasonable prices and then be left with 3$ or 13$ or whatever in 'change' on my account.
    Honestly this bullshit just stops me participating entirely.

    About the only reasonable thing of late is PC parts in Australia, due to the proximity to Asia and the AU$ being strong so long (and of course PC parts, high turnover) for the most part, CPU's, RAM, HDD's and so on are very very close to the US. Mind you if you are picky and want something high end or obscure like high end SAS controllers and stuff like that, sorry buddy, 4x the price.

    So as I started with,... they wonder why we steal shit.... sigh

  8. Very important by David+Gerard · · Score: 4, Informative

    Choice is really highly respected in Australia. This makes this an extremely mainstream issue, not just of geek interest.

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
  9. Re:Willful Misrepresentation is a Crime by bloodhawk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But we are not misrepresenting at all, I am legitimately utilising a VPN Service. I am not saying I am something I am not. It isn't our fault companies are morons and rely on a VPN address to try and work out what country I am from. IP Addressing was never intended for this use.

  10. Re:Here is where you are wrong by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The musicians don't want to be in control of getting their songs sold or booking performances. They want the "industry".

    Where do you get these "data"? How many musicians do you know personally? I know quite a few, and none of them would touch an RIAA contract with a ten foot pole, despite labels courting them.

    Face it, music is full of people who would be homeless and broke despite their talent

    It's also full of people who are multimillionaires despite their lack of talent. If you're good, you'll get gigs.

    The only one's that don't

    You should have paid more attention in class, son.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!