FM distribution in U.S. vs other countries

[Jay Smith <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

There has been some talk about the selling prices of FM in other countries....

Question: Is there anything legal or practical which prevents somebody in
Europe (or wherever) from buying a U.S. version of FM from one of the many
U.S. resellers and retailers that sell it?

For example, are overseas FM owners denied tech support if they have a valid
U.S. product serial number?  What if an FM owner moves from the U.S. to
wherever -- must they buy a new copy of the program if they want to get
support or upgrade when the next version comes out.

Are resellers prevented, either legally, or simply through the threat of
product starvation, from selling to overseas customers?  [I am asking a
question, not making any accusations.]

For example, could I not buy 50-100-500 copies of FM and sell them to whomever
I wanted to?  I already am an expert in overseas shipping due to our
international publishing work (though there is not much to ship since the
manual is getting a little too thin).  It sounds like an attractive
proposition.  However, since I hear nothing about anybody doing it, I wonder
what is preventing it.  

IF Adobe has to maintain overseas support operations, I can understand why
there could be a significant price difference for the U.S. version.  (The
localized versions are a different story, of course.)  I can also understand
that since Adobe is a reasonably large company, operating in the "real world",
they have to have tax and legal representation everywhere they operate, etc.,
etc.  That costs a lot of money and it is getting worse, not better.  That
cost has to be amortized over the number of copies sold in that market.

I also understand that if copies were made available in the manner described
above, it would increase Adobe's apparent "U.S. sales" and decrease the
recorded "[name a country] sales".  Eventually, Adobe might be forced to raise
the [name a country] price even higher, or abandon the market.  I have seen
this happen with certain types of annually issued books.

However, switching back to the positive side, the increased overseas
availability of copies of the U.S. version at a lower price could increase FM
penetration into such markets -- and eventually that penetration will become
mainstream.  Big companies don't buy quantity licenses in the manner I am
describing.  However, if FM worms its way farther into the beast, maybe the
eventual result will be more users and thus a stronger product.

Hmmmm....

-- 
Jay Smith

e-mail: jay@jaysmith.com

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