Author says give ebook to others to read. Publisher says copyright rules .. - Page 4

Lynx-lynx · 08-13-2013, 06:43 AM

Tompe does Sweden have its own Amazon site?

Or do you do like we in Aus do and create an account on the US site, which recognizes the IP address and shows content related to that?

That is, Amazon not only recognizes our IP address but applies geo restrictions accordingly. And prices the ebooks according to those geo restrictions as well - in USD.

That is, we get charged the price of the ebook releative to the Aus market, not the US market. Sometimes they're the same prices, some times they're not.

Seems they want it both ways - apply geo restrictions re country of origin but fail to adhere to currency of origin for purchases.

And what about elending? Can you be part of elending in Sweden? That is, borrow and lend to others?

HarryT · 08-13-2013, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Tompe does Sweden have its own Amazon site?

No, it doesn't. The only "national" Amazon sites are, to the best of my knowledge:

UK
France
Germany
Spain
Japan
Brasil

They probably base it on population. All the above have a population of 50m+.

EDIT: Oh, and Canada of course, which I believe was the first "national" Amazon store, probably based on its geographical proximity to the US?

llcj · 08-13-2013, 10:00 AM

If I remember correctly, Amazon ebook sales in Canada went through the US site until less than a year ago.

tompe · 08-13-2013, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Tompe does Sweden have its own Amazon site?

Or do you do like we in Aus do and create an account on the US site, which recognizes the IP address and shows content related to that?

That is, Amazon not only recognizes our IP address but applies geo restrictions accordingly. And prices the ebooks according to those geo restrictions as well - in USD.

Yes, that is how it works.

Yapyap · 08-13-2013, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, it doesn't. The only "national" Amazon sites are, to the best of my knowledge:

UK
France
Germany
Spain
Japan
Brasil

They probably base it on population. All the above have a population of 50m+.

EDIT: Oh, and Canada of course, which I believe was the first "national" Amazon store, probably based on its geographical proximity to the US?

I believe Amazon Italy exists as well, and has its own Kindle store.

But yes, overall it's only a handful of countries, and while there are likely several who do get the option of seeing the prices & paying in their own currency on Amazon.com, I'm pretty certain that customers in the majority of countries who have to shop for Kindle books on Amazon.com see prices in US dollars (not necessarily the same prices, for Kindle books, as American customers do, but whatever the publisher + Amazon have deemed appropriate for a given market).

And person-to-person lending is only available to US customers. As far as I know, even those in other countries that do have their own national Amazon/Kindle stores don't have the person-to-person lending option (yet anyway - I've seen articles indicating that the UK might get it at some point?).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

That is, Amazon not only recognizes our IP address but applies geo restrictions accordingly.

I'm reasonably certain that while Amazon can recognise your IP address, the geo-restrictions are not applied based on that but on the address you have entered in your account. Customers living in one country don't, as a general rule, suddenly get geo-restrictions applied when travelling, after all, when they have not changed their home address to their travelling address under their account details.

HarryT · 08-13-2013, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I'm reasonably certain that while Amazon can recognise your IP address, the geo-restrictions are not applied based on that but on the address you have entered in your account. Customers living in one country don't, as a general rule, suddenly get geo-restrictions applied when travelling, after all, when they have not changed their home address to their travelling address under their account details.

Yes, that's correct. Amazon will only query your location if you show a repeated pattern of claiming to be in one country while having an IP that's in another. Occasional travel isn't an issue - a few months ago I spend a couple of weeks in the US, but was able to buy a book from "amazon.co.uk" while there.

Mark Dawson · 09-02-2013, 06:16 AM

Hi guys - a quick Google search revealed a lot of discussion about my intentions for The Black Mile. Bottom line is - there's no DRM attached and I'm happy for you to lend it to whoever you want. That obviously doesn't mean pirate it, but if you think a friend would enjoy the book then I'm totally cool for you to pass it on to them. The mechanics of doing that - I'm not so hot on. And I didn't know that Prime lending was a US only thing, either, so thanks for pointing that out.

At the end of the day, I hope you enjoy the book. That's the most important thing to me.

Cheers

Mark

Lynx-lynx · 09-02-2013, 11:42 PM

Gee Mark thank you very much for popping into MR (and becoming a member) to answer my original post

I'm curious though, are you saying that one can elend the book to only 1 other person, or to more than one person?

Mivo · 09-03-2013, 02:06 AM

If he sold the distribution rights to a publisher, I'm not sure he can make that decision. That said, I really do like Mark's take on this topic and applaud him for having realistic views. A honor system is hard to implement legally, but an approach like, "It's okay to give a copy to one friend if you bought the book." is exactly the kind of handling that addresses my biggest issues with copyrights and DRM.

I see this sometimes done with video games where you buy a license and get a second, giftable one as a bonus. I almost always buy games like that at the full price instead of waiting for a sale. Has this ever been done with e-books?

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08-13-2013, 06:43 AM	#46
Lynx-lynx Treachery of images ... Posts: 4,069 Karma: 91561091 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Australia Device: Blackberry Playbook, Sony 650, Kobo Glo, H2O, Aura One, Forma, Libra 2	Tompe does Sweden have its own Amazon site? Or do you do like we in Aus do and create an account on the US site, which recognizes the IP address and shows content related to that? That is, Amazon not only recognizes our IP address but applies geo restrictions accordingly. And prices the ebooks according to those geo restrictions as well - in USD. That is, we get charged the price of the ebook releative to the Aus market, not the US market. Sometimes they're the same prices, some times they're not. Seems they want it both ways - apply geo restrictions re country of origin but fail to adhere to currency of origin for purchases. And what about elending? Can you be part of elending in Sweden? That is, borrow and lend to others?

08-13-2013, 10:00 AM	#48
llcj Addict Posts: 250 Karma: 883854 Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Canada Device: kobo touch	If I remember correctly, Amazon ebook sales in Canada went through the US site until less than a year ago.

09-02-2013, 06:16 AM	#52
Mark Dawson Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kindle	Hi guys - a quick Google search revealed a lot of discussion about my intentions for The Black Mile. Bottom line is - there's no DRM attached and I'm happy for you to lend it to whoever you want. That obviously doesn't mean pirate it, but if you think a friend would enjoy the book then I'm totally cool for you to pass it on to them. The mechanics of doing that - I'm not so hot on. And I didn't know that Prime lending was a US only thing, either, so thanks for pointing that out. At the end of the day, I hope you enjoy the book. That's the most important thing to me. Cheers Mark

09-02-2013, 11:42 PM	#53
Lynx-lynx Treachery of images ... Posts: 4,069 Karma: 91561091 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Australia Device: Blackberry Playbook, Sony 650, Kobo Glo, H2O, Aura One, Forma, Libra 2	Gee Mark thank you very much for popping into MR (and becoming a member) to answer my original post I'm curious though, are you saying that one can elend the book to only 1 other person, or to more than one person?

09-03-2013, 02:06 AM	#54
Mivo Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 3531054 Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Germany Device: In use: Pocketbook InkPad 3, Kobo Glo, iPad Air 2	If he sold the distribution rights to a publisher, I'm not sure he can make that decision. That said, I really do like Mark's take on this topic and applaud him for having realistic views. A honor system is hard to implement legally, but an approach like, "It's okay to give a copy to one friend if you bought the book." is exactly the kind of handling that addresses my biggest issues with copyrights and DRM. I see this sometimes done with video games where you buy a license and get a second, giftable one as a bonus. I almost always buy games like that at the full price instead of waiting for a sale. Has this ever been done with e-books?