Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!ukc!newcastle.ac.uk!jpa
From: jpa@newcastle.ac.uk (John Aspden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: "not for Export" stickers on FullWrite boxes
Message-ID: <3122@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: 10 May 88 13:55:55 GMT
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE17RU
Lines: 66

Recently it was reported that FullWrite had finally hit the shelves of
Computer stores in the USA, but that the boxes were adorned with
stickers saying something to the effect "For sale in US and Canada
only - not for export". It was speculated that this may be because the
program contained an implementation of the DES encryption
standard.
 
The reason would seem to be much less to do with "national
security" and much more with maintaining good profits.
 
In the May edition of the UK MacUser magazine there are a series
of pieces under the title "PRICING! THE MacUser OPEN FORUM",
where various contributors give their views on the fact that software
sold in the UK costs almost double the price of the same items in
the States.  
 
The following is quoted (without permission) from a piece by the
Managing Director of (probably) the largest UK Macintosh software
importer and distributor.
 
(He begins by explaining the selling chain - the US vendor sells to
the (usually sole) UK distributor, who sells on to the Apple dealers,
who then sell to the customer. He then tries to justify the price
difference by explaining that the UK distributor has to do the
product marketing, unlike in the USA where the marketing is
usually done by the software publisher. "Bootleggers"  disrupt this
scheme by "selling a program on the strength of the legitimate
distributor's marketing efforts". This reduces the demand for the
product from the authorised (and more expensive) distributor,
which forces the price up further since with lower sales volume the
per-item profit needs to be bigger to maintain the same total
income....). The article continues...
 
 
"Without properly supported software for the Macintosh, Apple
dealers will find it harder and harder to persuade customers to take
the Macintosh seriously. Apple UK will suffer, as less Macintoshes are
sold (and why not bootleg the computers as well?). The whole
Macintosh community will suffer. If parasites are left to flourish,
eventually they can kill the organism they feed off. Then the
parasites die as well. That's scant consolation.
 
"This is one reason why we decided earlier this year, in conjunction
with some of our American suppliers, that the time had come to
change the rules of the game.
 
"In America, some of our suppliers are changing their contracts with
distributors to prohibit export sales. Non-removable stickers will start
to appear on the outside of packages declaring them for sale in the
United States only. Enlightened publishers realise that it is not in
their interest , any more than yours or ours, for bootleggers to get
away with it.
 
"Here in the UK, we are also making changes. Soon, you will be
seeing stickers on the boxes containing our software informing you
that they are the official UK versions. The stickers themselves will be
serialised to prevent others forging them."
 
So there you have it. Any comments?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 John Aspden, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England

 JANET: jpa@uk.ac.newcastle.cheviot
 UUCP : jpa@cheviot.UUCP
 ARPA : jpa%cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
 PHONE: +44 91 232 9233