If only I lived in the US.

[martienne]

Originally Posted by lente

If only I lived in the US...

I think you have been drinking too much Coke my friend...

Unless you are stuck in some particularly nasty part of the third world, what would you like to live there for? The way they run their foreign policy (starting wars, trade embargos, littering the world with military bases and pushing their hypocritical ideology...) Everyone else is getting very fed up with them!

Anything that you might like from the US (and lots of things you might not like) is available outside the US borders.

If you want to buy some particular gadget that is currently only available there, just use a delivery service like USAmail and similar.

If you are unfortunate enough to live in a country that is under US trade embargo, then just order what you need from Europe instead.

[martienne]

Oh and one more thing: While the crazy current copyright laws (crazy - 20 years from now, people will laugh at them!!) are in place; then buy what you legal CAN purchase in light of financial circumstances and geographical location. For everything else... the internet is big and the copyright enforces are few... Seek and ye shall find....

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I don't agree with the Apple and Amazon special cases, where they are guaranteed the lowest prices, in an ideal world publishers should set a 'wholesale' price to the bookstores, who can then charge whatever they like at retail.

This was the original system but (if reports are accurate) Amazon was selling ebooks up to $5 below costs. Amazon was losing money on many bestsellers. Their competitors cant compete with that and Apple refused to do so.

[roger the rabbit]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

From that:
"[...] allowing Amazon to pick a price point, sell at that price point, and only pay the publisher a percentage royalty, rather than a fixed discount off a (publisher-set) SRP.

Amazon got what they wanted at first, because they were the biggest ebook vendor; if you're the only game in town you can play hardball. Apple broke this perception earlier this year when they proposed an alternative model: neither wholesaler nor publisher, but agent, taking a commission on whatever the publishers sold their books for."

If this is an accurate description of the pre-Agency 5 situation, I'm not surprised they did their deal with Apple, and I think they were perfectly correct to do so.
The ideal that you would hand your product over to someone else, who would have complete authority to set the price and pay you a percentage, is ridiculous.
I don't agree with the Apple and Amazon special cases, where they are guaranteed the lowest prices, in an ideal world publishers should set a 'wholesale' price to the bookstores, who can then charge whatever they like at retail.

In the UK that was called *Retail price maintenance* i.e. price fixing - and if I am right was judged illegal many years ago.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by roger the rabbit

In the UK that was called *Retail price maintenance* i.e. price fixing - and if I am right was judged illegal many years ago.

No, the UK Net Book Agreement fixed the retail prices of books, what the retailer charged the customer. That exactly the opposite of what I said, where the publisher sets a wholesale price for the book, and allows the retailer to charge the customer whatever price they like.