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Comment could local laws contribute to this? (Score 1) 206

I don't know about the laws in your country but I know that this contributes to high prices in many countries. Many countries restrict or ban the international megastores in an attempt to protect small 'mom and pop" stores. In many cases the megastore can sell an item at a price equal or lower than the small retailer can even buy it. In these cases tyhe government (and theoretically the public) has decided that local ownership is more important than the citizen's standard of living. Unless a retailer has a local presence in you country, it makes no sense for the retailer to refuse to sell you something. They are greedy bastards and would not hesitate to sell another unit if they could legally do it. If they won't sell it to you, it is because someone else is making it illegal or contract breaking to do so. I used to buy books from Canada because the Canadian publishers edit the books better. A few years ago my vendor notified me that they could no longer allow me to buy Canadian books because of new government regulations concerning intellectual property rights. It seems that the US publishers objected that the Canadian versions were violating copyright laws protecting US publishers.

Comment Re:The difference? (Score 2, Insightful) 364

Freedom of speech is freedom from the government controlling what is said. It is NOT freedom from all entities to control what is said in all situations. In fact a big part of freedom of speech is the freedom to do just that. A newspaper nor anyone else can not be forced to transmit speech by another. There is a big difference between China's government controlling speech and a US company choosing to to transmit speech by another.
That being said, it is important for the internet to include access to all sites. Companies providing access should not make access content dependent except under extreem circumstances (Phishing, child porn, etc.) Internet providers should be required to provide access to all sites while individual sites should have the right to restrict speech as they see fit.

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