Much Ado about Nothing
Methinks this is all rather silly. There are almost always pricing disparities between the USA and other nations, particularly when you are talking about computer products.
Back in my former life as a support manager, we frequently paid very large premiums for our products. I can't use the actual names but for an example, an item purchased from Company X might be priced at 20% off list under our corporate discount agreeement. The same product purchased for our European Design Centre in the UK (not even localized, the EXACT SAME product mind you) would cost 20% OVER list. So, if the list price was $100 USD, our USA price would be $80, while our friends in the UK would pay $120, or a 50% price increase. This happened all the time with virtually every workstation and/or software item we bought.
I'm not saying the pricing differences are necessarily fair; however, I am saying it is not all that uncommon. However, Adobe doesn't operate in a vacuum so in the end competition, piracy, eBay sales, government red tape, cost of doing business in a market, etc. will dictate the prices.
There are times when it is much cheaper to buy products in a foreign market that at home. I experienced that when I went to Japan...things like some electronic products and even scotch were far less than I could get them for in Chicago. And also think about pharmaceuticals...these are often times far less costly in Canada, Mexico and other places than at home.
It just strikes me as ridiculous that when this type of situation happens, so many people assume it must be the result of corporate greed than many other more likely factors.
If Adobe was charging LESS in Europe, we'd be hearing whining about how they were stifling competition, blah blah blah
