Cheap CDs in Mexico There's a NYTimes piece on cheap CD copies in Mexico. One shopkeeper argues that Mexicans buy copies because they can't afford expensive original CDs--so why doesn't the recording cartel lower prices across the border? Because these cheap CDs would be reimported back into the US undercutting the prices there (if the recording companies could price discriminate, they would). Regional encoding is how the movie and console cartels price discriminate between countries, but there is no regional encoding on CDs (yet).