Play.com is based in the Isle of Jersey which is excluded fro mcertain taxes, this allows companies based in Jersey to underprice pretty much all their rivals on the mainland. This is great for the customers but wholely unfair to any UK mainland business.
I think the tax is the VAT tax at 17.5% which is why they can undercut everyone else selling by a massive amount. This is also kind of unfair on us as customers as the number of businesses now based in Jersey using this loop hole means we as a society loose massive amounts of unpaid VAT taxation which would go back into government spending.
Odd in a way by buying from Play.com we are actually shafting the entire nation. :*( Well it doesn't matter since Gordan Brown is now looking to close the loop hole and claim the unpaid taxatino back from the companies based in Jersey.
J
Anyway on the matter of copy right protection, I feel as a web developer who knows abit about the complexities of programming even at a basic level, putting in copy protection into your software is without a doubt a waste of moneyy and time to implement. Since you can bet your sweet behind that by the time the first game is installed on a customers PC , that some ever smarter programmer than that of the copy protection writers, is well on their way to cracking the game.
Developers should do what Stardock has done, accept that the game is going to be copied but make it good enough that people think "damn this looks awesome, and look if I pre-order I get all these extra goodies like a poster and case etc" this rewards people for buying rather than downloading.
I really feel this is a very good incentive to beating piracy, encourage people to own something physical rather than just digital, anyone can copy the game disk, even the print on the CD but you won't even get a box, manual, poster, keyring from a pirated copy.
Just something to think about.
Happy gaming.
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