Extact: "But anyone who says surviving the boredom of economic theory is "not hard" is a better man than me ;)" Comment: In my experience, it was bring a good cd and tape the lecture, then apply the prinicples on a smaller scale that night in the local bar. Made it quite easy ;) Although recovering enough from really good study periods for a test was sometimes problematic. Extract: "...and none of which explain why I should pay more to download Poser 6." (plus additional) Comment: they do. 1 - DR determines (for some unfathomable reason that begs for derision) what currency format you can use. They choose to not allow purchase in USD for folks ourside the US. On the surface, this just screams idiocy in action -- but, in truth, judgement should be deferred until investigation reveals the reason they choose to do it that way. I certainly would not, and someone wiser in business than I recently asked proceeded to laugh in wonder when it was described. Nevertheless, this directly affects your rate -- in short, you cannot pay for it in USD. 2 - The actual bandwidth spent to download for you may be the same as for everyone else, but that does not mean that the costs for equipment to allow that download are the same. SInce fulfilment is done out of the UK for the worldwide market, the costs for equipment may be (and likely are) higher than they are for equipment in the us. Large download systems such as this are not the same as one's household server set up or even the same as the system employed by Renerosity -- they are typically much larger in scale and costs and capability. In short, Enterprise class servers and systems -- Something DR is rather proud to note they have so they can meet the obligations they contract for. THis directly affects the cost of your download as a whole -- and usually to a higher cost than similar fulfilment from a US server. 3 - Indeed, you hit it on the head with this one. It is bad business. 4 - deja vu -- see 1 ;) 5 - I am aware that Australia is not part of the UK. You seem to have misunderstood the comment. DR's set up is such that all non-US purchases are handled from the UK. SInce DR is the seller, and they re handling it through the UK, they must operate according to UK rules, not US. One possible extension of this factor could result in an issue in handling the currency conversion rates among all denominations other than USD -- if so, then that's further evidence of unwise activity. As for factual/actual -- you won't get it here. Here is only educated guesses. It is almost certain that Katherine has no idea herself -- it is outside her role within the company. Indeed, it is quite possible that CL cannot itemize the cost themselves since they are not handling that end of things. DR, on the other hand, likely could -- but most certainly will not do so in the forum, and most likely wouldn't do so in a public manner or a manner that would allow it to become public as well. An itemized cost would include revelation of potentially sensitive business data that no company with decent lawyers would share. In short, it costs more to buy it outside the US, and, other than asking CL to review (and hopefully change) the contract with DR when it is due for such, there is little that can be done about it but decide wether the value of the program to you is equal to the price that you will have to pay for it. (On the other hand, your question in a different (though related) thread likely should not have been asked -- you simply should have gone for it.Probably still should. Strikes me as the best solution to the problem -- use the inherent weaknesses of DR's system against them. I most certainly would do so in such a case, myself -- but I'm a cheap bastard.)