This holiday season, a lot of predictable trends are unfolding: Online retail is growing faster than brick-and-mortar shopping, consumers are increasingly doing in-store, product price comparisons from their smart phones, etc, etc.

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After all, people planning to buy something often first go to websites and social networks to look for product descriptions, comparisons and reviews.

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International price comparisons of a differentiated product such as Internet connectivity should be taken with a grain of salt because the quality of Internet service might not be comparable.

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While it makes sense for The Economist to compute a Big Mac Index for a product that is basically the same wherever it is sold, price comparisons of services that are highly differentiated across countries are less revealing.

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Professor Harnad argues that what is at issue is what he calls 'self piracy': copyright was drafted to protect the author from theft of his product - but academics would be dealing with their own work, so comparisons with the widespread net piracy of music, text or software do not apply.

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Silicon Valley does not care for comparisons with vulgar Tinseltown, and it is true that technology is a much faster-changing product than entertainment.

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The ebb and flow of product introductions by these companies and their competitors can dramatically affect quarter-to-quarter swings, while annual comparisons show trends.

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