Russia, high prices, and piracy
p2pnet.net news:- On Tuesday p2pnet ran a post making the point that the Russian government had slammed Microsoft’s “overly strict and costly licensing regime,” blaming “high rates of consumer piracy” on it.
We also said there wasn’t a whole lot of difference between Bill and the Boyz’s venality and that of the Organized Music gang, to wit:
Striking similarities between the complete failure of Warner Music (US), EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), the members of the Big 4 Organized Music cartel, to establish a viable corporate online music business are being reflected in news from Russia where the government is hitting out at Microsoft.
Exorbitant prices and low quality product, coupled with a refusal to abandon outdated and outmoded business models, are behind the Big 4 labels’ continuing inability to establish themselves as even marginal suppliers of online music downloads. Instead, music lovers use the free p2p networks or independent sites.
_-Jile-_ had a few thoughts on the plight of Russians foolish enough to want Microsoft product. In a Reader’s Write, he says:
According to a report on Pravda that comments about how the average income had risen to $300/mo in Russia, the costs I’m seeing more like $199 for the full version of windows vista basic.
Presuming that’s all the average Russian pc user there wants, then 1/18th of their annual wages are ‘all’ that’s required to buy in.
According to the US Census website the average American makes $43,527 {I wish I made that} which means for the Average American only 1/218th of their annual wages are needed to buy into the latest basic windows version.
If only 1/218th were used of the ‘average’ Russian wage, that’d mean their cost would be $16.51 to be in the same cost-range as the ‘average’ American… or for their pricing range to be used on us, our price would be $2,418.16 for that basic version of Vista. Kinda makes you want to just rush out there and drop two grand down doesn’t it? NOT!
I’ve commented on this kind of price insult before (heck if I can find the link) on p2pnet, when price was brought up regarding Russia and their cd prices. Piracy is going to stay in Russia as long as they make pitiful wages…. When the average Russian earns $43,527 then charging them the same for software and having less piracy could be expected.
Just my 10 cents,
_-Jile-_
The comment post he’s referring to is from March last year in an item which kicked off with, “MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) boss Dan Glickman regularly trips over to China as Hollywood’s hit man, carrying the message that the country had better shape up when it comes to copyrights. Or else. And with the Bush administration behind it, Hollywood’s threats have validity.â€
Back then, _-Jile-_ posted:
Look, the reasons that drives file sharing (I only consider piracy the buying/selling of IP works – not the fair use of sharing it) in the USA and Canada is a lot different than what drives the piracy problem in Russia.
What’s the average wage of a family in Russia? I’ll tell you, the average household income in 1998 was 6,395,000 rubles ($1176 USD) according to CNN. Oh, I’m sure it’s gone up a little, lets just ‘assume’ everyone got a 5% a year raise (which I’m sure didn’t happen but for my point we’ll assume it). That means the average income is now 9,448,328 rubles or $1,737.48/yr which comes out to $144.79/mo or $33.41/wk.
Ok, now let’s look at America – I’m going to say the ‘average’ income here is about $24,000/yr so ignoring tax, which would mean $2000/mo or $461.54/wk. That $20 cd/movie here is about 0.083% of the income; however, in Russia that same $20 is 1.151% of their annual income. To make it a little clearer, that’s 1,381.31% higher price to the average Russian than the average American. In other words it would be like our cd’s/movies were priced at $276.26 each!
Now, all that said – WHO would pay $276.26 a movie or cd?? – NOBODY!
When the prices are equal, I bet Russians would buy more. So to pass along the same price ratio that’d mean the prices in Russia would need to drop to $1.48 just to match the price to income ratio. And keep in mind boys and girls that Americans think the $20 is too much, in fact, most of us on polls I’ve read want the prices down around or below $10, so lets put all the cards in here and say if the MPAA/RIAA dropped all prices to $10 in America and $0.73 in Russia, then they’ll start making sales.
Yep, I know – not going to happen. And neither will forcing Russians to buy the RIAA/MPAA product!
I’d read a while back a comment from a Russian girl when presented with ‘does the average person buy pirated or new-movies/music typically’? Her answer was basically that the only time anyone buys a new cd/movie is for a special gift but the rest of the time they buy from street vendors and that ppl who buy the high-priced ones were seen as wasting their money and preppy, stuck up types… the average person only buys off the street.
All this said – I support p2p, I’ve never supported piracy and I never will. But the fundamental problem in Russia is income and WHO or not, unless they reinvent the wheel and find a way to multiply the average wage there wont be a change that’s enforceable and even if they did stop piracy, they would only be stopping the music from being shared as there would be VERY minimal purchase changes given their income limitations.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
strict and costly – Microsoft prices too high: Russia , February 20, 2007
Hollywood’s hit man – MPAA turns attention to Russia, March 30, 2006
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I visit Russia from time to time. It is not hard to find legal software, CDs, DVDs in the large stores or online. Still vast (i would say above 80%) majority of people buy from the street.
A couple of examples: at approx $4 one will get a DVD with full Adobe suite includes everything, cracked, hacked, zipped to the point that it takes more than the DVD standard allows, but it is still readable and installable.
It is hard to buy off the street VisualStudio, but DVD containing Windows XP professional + Symantec AV + VisualStudio + English/Russian dictionary + … can be bought at the same $4
I should mention that copies are very good and include original art work and everything. Service in the “stores” is adequate, If this specific place does not have exactly what you are looking for the friendly seller will point you to the place where they have the product.