ZDNet UK: Open source: Developing Markets and Anti-Americanism

“Rishab Ghosh, programme leader of an open source research
project at the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation
and Technology (MERIT) in Holland conducted a study recently
comparing licence fees with a country’s gross domestic product
(GDP) per capita.

“The results, even after software price discounts, showed that
the cost of proprietary software for non-Western countries is
‘enormous’ in terms of relative purchasing power. Buying Windows XP
and Office XP on Amazon.com in the US is equal to almost 3 months
of GDP per capita in South Africa and over 16 months of GDP per
capita in Vietnam. This is equivalent to charging a
single–user licence fee in the US of $7,541 and $48,011
respectively…”

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