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Comment by johnbender | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious if you have specific examples of where Adobe was "not an honest company"?

Selling software at inflated prices in other territories is pretty dishonest. For instance the cost of the design suite in the US is $1,299 while in the UK it is £1,032 ($1,638) before taxes are applied. While I accept that prices can be variable depending on exchange rates, this is downright dishonest.

Try their pricing in smaller markets...

A copy of CS5 Web Premium on amazon.com: $1,734.13

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-65118862-CS5-5-Web-Premium/dp/B0...

A copy of the same software on South Africa's kalahari.com: $2,720.61 (http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert/?Amount=22079.95&From=ZAR&...)

http://www.kalahari.com/electronics/Adobe-CS5-Web-Premium-5-...

That's a typical example.

>For instance the cost of the design suite in the US is $1,299 while in the UK it is £1,032 ($1,638) before taxes are applied.

Tell me for what software that isn't true. For some reason every publisher charges more for software (and games) in Europe and Australia, when compared to Canada and US.

That's absolutely true and Adobe are not the worst. Autodesk are really bad at this; $3995 for AutoCAD in the US vs $7,635 in the UK. This doesn't make Adobe any less dishonest though. Software piracy is a complete anathema, but with gouging and disparity like this it's quite clear why it goes on and begs the question as to who is the thief and who is the victim.

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