What Steps can we Take to Prevent Devaluation of Digital Products

[trobertson]

Hi everyone,
New member here.
 I wanted to start this thread to get input from admin and fellow members as to what steps are available to counter the devaluation of all digital products.
It has gotten to the point that legitimate resellers are being undercut by "get rich marketers" ( you know who you are ). 
 What can be done to counter this type of unscrupulous marketers?  U.S. laws prevent "price fixing" so trying to establish a minimum sales price is not enforceable.  Is there a way to change the wording in the licensing agreement to thwart this? 
 I welcome all comments as this is a serious problem and I, for one, would like to know all available options.

Put your thinking caps on folks. 

[Admin]

Hi everyone,
New member here.
 I wanted to start this thread to get input from admin and fellow members as to what steps are available to counter the devaluation of all digital products.
It has gotten to the point that legitimate resellers are being undercut by "get rich marketers" ( you know who you are ). 
 What can be done to counter this type of unscrupulous marketers?  U.S. laws prevent "price fixing" so trying to establish a minimum sales price is not enforceable.  Is there a way to change the wording in the licensing agreement to thwart this? 
 I welcome all comments as this is a serious problem and I, for one, would like to know all available options.

Put your thinking caps on folks. 

Price Fixing by sellers is against the Sherman Act of 1890, the setting of a Minimum Selling Price by the creator of a product isn't and is why the Sherman Act has been overturned in the US many times. Everyday companies like Sony, General Motors etc set what they call a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) price and it is perfectly legal. Now say Sony only had 5 US distributors and all 5 got together and decided that the price for a product will be 100.00 that is price fixing.

[Sid Hale]

Hi,

I wanted to start this thread to get input from admin and fellow members as to what steps are available to counter the devaluation of all digital products.
It has gotten to the point that legitimate resellers are being undercut by "get rich marketers" ( you know who you are ). 
 What can be done to counter this type of unscrupulous marketers?  U.S. laws prevent "price fixing" so trying to establish a minimum sales price is not enforceable.  Is there a way to change the wording in the licensing agreement to thwart this? 

While there are certainly "marketers" who totally ignore the license agreements, the bigger problem goes back to the creator/owner of the product.

Truth be told, most "license agreements" that I've seen on the web wouldn't hold up in a court of law.  First, to be enforceable, the terms MUST be disclosed BEFORE the purchase.  Second, the seller MUST actually extract an agreement (electronic or otherwise), rather than just stating their "terms".

There are a lot of problems - but are they really de-valuing the product?  Was the product really worth more than $5 in the first place? 

Ask yourself why the owner of the product is selling rights to the product in the first place.  You'll get all kinds of explanations (excuses), but I would guess that the biggest single reason is that they can't effectively market the product themselves.  What does that say about the value of the product?

If you buy resale rights, are you paying 20 times (or 100 times, you decide what denotes value) the amount that the owner indicates you should resell it for?  If not, what does that tell you about the value of the product in the first place?

Are you allowed to resell the resale rights?

What does that do to the perceived value of the product?  How much competition does that create?  And how low do you think the prices will drop, if you sell resale rights (along with everyone else)?  When a product has no market except for resellers, just what can it really be worth?  After all, there are only so many of those customers to go around, and in order to capture market share (and recoup their original investment), price gouging is bound to occur.