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One of the arguments that is sometimes raised in favour of stronger and more fine-grained control over copyright material is that it facilitates price discrimination. People who can pay more, do; people who can’t pay more, don’t. This looks good when you are a developing country seeking access to essential patented medicines. In that context, price discrimination with strong controls on re-export to other countries actually does look like a really good idea (and that is what the WTO Decision implementing the Doha Declaration on TRIPS Public Health in fact put in place.)

It doesn’t really look quite so nice from Australia’s perspective. Relatively affluent population. High consumers of IP-protected material. Isolated market where it ain’t so easy to nip over to nearby country to buy cheaper stuff (well, unless it’s from Bali and pirated of course). High price heaven for copyright owners, you might think. But surely not higher than the US?

Well, if you had ever wondered what the evidence was on price discrimination of copyright content (and the anecdotal little study that David Richardson did failed to satisfy your curiosity), head on over to my colleague Joshua Gans’ blog. He can tell you the answer is no. No, no, no.

Check out how much more we pay for iTunes music and games than they do in the US at his blog here. Oh well. at least it looks like we’re not quite as done over as Europe is.