Blatant Profiteering?

The Autodesk discussion group is a good place to find angry Autodesk customers giving vent to their feelings. Recently I came across this post on the Autodesk VIZ discussion group.

“Why is Viz so expensive in the UK & Europe? I am about to upgrade from Viz 2005 to 2007. In the UK this will cost me around £700 whilst the Autodesk web site shows the price as $445, this is currently around £220. What is the justification for this? Is there anything to stop me from getting a friend in the US to buy the upgrade and sending it to me? At a third of the price the it hardly seems necessary to purchase a subscription which is another £230. Is there anything we can do about this blatant profiteering?”

I can understand Autodesk pricing their software relatively cheaper in emerging economies, such as India and China, for many reasons, disparity in income levels being the main reason. So does Autodesk consider Americans paupers as compared to Europeans or do they think that Europeans are more loaded than Americans? Same difference.