I don't know all the ins and outs, but my initial guesses are:
• As already mentioned, there are all kinds of contractual obligations and taxation issues.
• I'm not sure that purchasing and downloading an electronic item qualifies as a "parallel import."
• Not many big retailers are willing to sell grey market goods anyway.
• Even if it is 100% legal, it would tick off pretty much every local publisher, as they'd see their American counterparts collect revenues that normally would go to the local. E.g. if the US has wider availability and cheaper prices (due to a lack of VAT for example), Aussie and British publishers would climb the walls due to lost revenue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alvico
B&N restrict sale of my book to US residents. This is their decision and has absolutely nothing to do with any contractual obligations. The book is available elsewhere else DRM-free and without restriction of any kind.
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Sure, but in addition to all of the above, their ebook service also isn't set up for any international sales afaik. They can't set up an entire international business just for a handful of titles.
I assume that once B&N starts doing ebook business abroad, they'll make all the Smashwords stuff available internationally.