Private enterprise tends towards monopoly without government intervention. Private enterprise is not there for the consumer, it is a parasite. It does not care about people.

But if you’d like to live in Dickensian England, that’s the best example to date of “free markets”.

Adobe, Microsoft etc. have to the extent that governments have permitted them to do so tried to tie customers to their products. Microsoft has spent decades trying to hold on to proprietary file formats so that if you want to view their files you must use their product. Unfortunately for them, legislators have seen how bad this is for consumers. So they rely on whatever they can get away with, and tie customers in however they can. If Adobe is an industry standard, then there is no point your company using something different even if Adobe costs you double what your competitors pay.

I agree with you that government needs to understand why it is demanding something (and this conflates with the current discussion about data retention), but government continues to have a role on behalf of the consumer.

The coal seam gas debate is a different discussion, and yes farmers are getting screwed. On the TPP, my thoughts align with those of the authors of “Against Intellectual Monopoly” (http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstnew.htm).

But government must have a role, because consumers continue to get screwed otherwise – the problem is when government thinks its role is to promote business rather than people.

In response to those shouting “Price CAP!!” from the rooftops, perhaps our gov’t could simply make it illegal to geo-lock or geo-locate (By IP Address) Australian citizens. We would then be free to purchase from the same website’s for the same prices paid by US citizens.

They are avoiding public accountablity – going on record, and trying to bullshit their way out of being a pack of thieving lying, scheming cunts – who act with unconscionable conduct – to scam the consumer.

That is it in a fucking nutshell.

Captive Audience + Monopolistic Practices = Price Gouging.

Fuck them – kick them all in their cunts and nuts.

What solutions or successful examples do you have of a government entering a free market to force what is in effect a price cap? For that is what Mr Husic is trying to achieve. He is offering no reductions in the cost of labour, distribution, taxation or regulatory obligations. Just a demand that the price be lowered.

No, it is not off topic, it gets back to the question of ownership. Adobe, Microsoft or whomever own their products. They get to choose the terms of the sale and the price that they offer to the market. As consumers we get to choose to purchase or not. My Husic is confusing that model of ownership with the Australian model where no one owns anything, everything is subject to the whims of a government. Coal Seam Gas is an excellent example of this conflict whereby farmers own their land, have paid for it and have worked it yet have no say if a more affluent lobbying body desires it. Taxation is another example where governments confuse the concept of ownership – read some of Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on the matter. The TPP also highlights the conflict within government of this concept of ownership and the role of government in protecting it – for some but not for others. Ultimately Mr Husic is full of bluff and bluster and will have little effect but as a play to the cheap seats.

I would be delighted to hear in more detail your response to my views of government vs the private sector. I am pretty sure that I have basic economics behind me as well as examples from the history of Soviet era socialism. But if you can see perhaps a third way then I would be most interested to listen.

You are also off-topic, or I would respond in more detail to your laughable “ideas” of government vs. private sector.

And you misspelt “seam”.

Ultimately the purchasing decisions (Oz tax and all) are the product of a marketplace involving grown ups entering into a contract or not. Parliament has no place and little power in such an environment and should go back to important issues like mandatory plastic hats for bicycle riders or rewarding its minions with even greater powers as a measure of its otherwise impotent glory.

Coal Seem Gas extraction highlights what is wrong with this country, no one actually owns anything – everything is subject to government fiat. The reward for hard work and success is taxation and possibly total forfeiture to government. Who would invest in anything but the most basic structures in such an environment.

If Mr Husic really wants to change the game then he should campaign for SUBSTANTIAL reductions in government so we can be free of the real Oz Tax, the work for the dole scheme which is our public sector and the drag on investment and innovation that it represents. Perhaps even a bill of rights and a note on private ownership. Maybe one day if we are not all working to support our sponsored public servant then we might have time to write our own autocad or (heaven forbid) windows. Then we could charge whatever we liked in other countries.

There are _no_ reason downloaded software here should be any cheaper/dearer than anywhere else, especially when the support for it is usually based in some help centre in Asia…

In other words, if they dont have anything to hide, why are they hiding?

If someone scrutinised their numbers, and found their prices, or relatively near, were justified, then its something they could point at for years to come.

I for one would love to see someone truly independant audit their practice and add up every point of cost, both here and the US, and show what that real cost at each step is so we could see every markup along the way.