Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
Ahh, but why does Amazon UK let me buy UK editions of Harry Potter and have them shipped to me in America?
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As wallcraft said earlier, when you buy from Amazon UK the sale is considered to take place in the UK. So a UK edition is perfectly fine; where it gets shipped after that is something the publisher cannot and should not be able to control.
By comparison, when you purchase an eBook the location of the sale is a much more difficult question. Does the sale happen at the eBook retailer's server? At the eBook retailer's corporate headquarters (possibly or probably a very different location than the server's location)? At your location? Who knows!
For some reason the publishers or perhaps whoever wrote the contracts with the publishers considers the customer's location to be the relevant locus for the eBook sale. And that leaves the publishers having to require their retailers to do the geographic restriction thing. It also makes me understand why Baen insists on universal (but non-exclusive) eRights.
Xenophon