Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
B&N are making (from their point of view) reasonable restrictions to simplify setting up a new business for them. The US market for English language books is larger and simpler for them than other markets.
It is complicated for a company to arrange to pay citizens of other countries, when you take into account the actual method of payment, the currency the agreement is negotiated in, the tax and reporting implications and so on. By requiring the US bank account and registration they shift those issues to the author rather than them.
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Agreed. This isn't a matter of B&N having it in for "all those furriners." It's a matter of difficult legal and financial arrangements, different for each country, that have to be managed where they were never managed before. If you think things suck now, imagine what things would be like if they just opened the floodgates: Erroneous payments, no books delivered, no way to get recompense from foreign governments; it would
not be pretty.
It was always hoped that a truly global marketplace would work out some form of truly global payment system... but we're clearly not there yet. So give them time to work things out.