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"greed" You mean profit? The reason that businesses exist? That is, the distinction that is literally in the description of for-profit corporations?
by Locke1689 12y ago
"greed"
You mean profit? The reason that businesses exist? That is, the distinction that is literally in the description of for-profit corporations?
- shmerl 12y agoProfit and greed are not the same thing. Greed means overcharging for no reason besides wanting to overcharge. I.e. ripping users off for the sake of it. Usually it's possible only when competition is weak. Otherwise customers would just walk away to the competitors. In the case of DRM in video, publishers are a tight conglomerate and there is little disruption there. So they enjoy all kind of sick idiocy they can force on users who buy their stuff.
- Locke1689 12y agoI don't buy your definition for greed, but even so this case doesn't fit. Copyright law provides for the difference between a one-time and perpetual license for content. Clearly, viewing content multiple times is more valuable than watching it once, and thus is appropriate for price differentiation. The fact that the company could take less profit by marking both as the same low price is irrelevant.
- shmerl 12y ago> Clearly, viewing content multiple times is more valuable than watching it once, and thus is appropriate for price differentiation. "Appropriate" is questionable. I already explained above. What is "appropriate" for raising a price? Or what can be called fair pricing? I don't consider raising the price fair, when the merchant has no difference in expenses. It's called a rip off. It is not irrelevant and as I said, it usually happens only when competition is weak. Healthy market tends to prevent such bad behavior, because completion could successfully use the lower price for both cases and all customers would prefer them.