privacy and international use survey

[hermes]

In the interests of the privacy and convenience of world travellers I look forward to hearing others' experiences with their devices and accounts. It could be your friend or relative, but third hand stories tend to get murky in the details) Specifically...

Have you successfully (or not, that would be equally interesting)...

1. Purchased a second-hand Kindle, or a new one through a proxy, been given one as a gift, purchased one with a non-traceable financial source or for cash.

and/or

2. Registered the Kindle in a name that was not strictly speaking (or even remotely) correct, or not registered it at all.

and/or

3. Registered your Amazon account in a name that was not strictly speaking (or even remotely) correct. Or not registered it at all.

and/or

4. Purchased ebooks/audio books without using your real name, address, telephone number etc. and installed them on your Kindle.

and/or

5. Downloaded ebooks/audio books while outside of the USA/Canada while your account was registered or quasi-registered in the USA/Canada.

I already have it on good account that Kindle ebooks/audio books can be downloaded overseas (although I would be very curious to hear from persons who have downloaded in obscure third world countries or remote territories).

No, I don't work for Kindle.

[captkjaneway]

I have a UK Kindle and now live in HK and buy books from the UK site - not sure if that fits any of your criteria though :P

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by hermes

I already have it on good account that Kindle ebooks/audio books can be downloaded overseas

Define "overseas".

Everybody is overseas from somewhere.

[Tome Keeper]

[QUOTE=Mike L;1559776]

Originally Posted by hermes

I already have it on good account that Kindle ebooks/audio books can be downloaded overseas /QUOTE]

Define "overseas".

Everybody is overseas from somewhere.

I have a UK Kindle (which I think is the same as the international one) and as long as the place you are has 3G and/or Wi-Fi I get free internet access and have downloaded books. I have even downloaded books on GPRS which is the only mobile internet available in the area I live.

[hermes]

Originally Posted by Mike L

Define "overseas".

Everybody is overseas from somewhere.

Yes, I was unintentionally vague. The size of the body of water is unimportant to my question. I was writing sloppily.

short answer: by 'overseas' I mean any nation, jurisdiction etc where the policies/accessibility of the original purchase/gifting of the device do not apply, or semi-apply. For example, USA and Canada sometimes to have special business relations not quite identical but not quite entirely different, whereas if one buys a Kindle in Norway, then goes to do work in the Gulf states, maybe everything changes. Truthfully, I don't know.

So, I mean, in relation to one's tied-to-a-state identity/financial source payment method. I don't know of any modern nomadic people who don't have to answer to some Big Brother - financially, sexually, artistically, intellectually, politically etc (there are even some nations that will follow their citizens around the world for income earned elsewhere [taxes] or offences against the 'home' nation's culture/laws even though legal overseas: typically vice 'crimes' - drugs, prostitution, pornography, gambling, etc.) And as more than a few corporations, operate transnationally (e.g. Amazon) these aspects should be considered.

Back on subject... If one purchased/registered a device in one's home (whatever that means - I don't have one, I have a passport and a citizenship, but Canada is not my home - oops, there I go again!), for example, a first world Anglo nation (UK, Australia, USA, etc.) But it could just as easily be from the EU or parts of South America if Amazon is doing business there.

... and is an expat, tourist, business traveller etc elsewhere...

1. first world nations other than where one bought/registered (or not) the device (e.g. Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei)
2. second world nations other than where one bought/registered (or not) the device (e.g. Malaysia, Thailand)
3. and third world (developing) nations other than where one bought/ registered the device (e.g. Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia)

I expect that these tiers of nations may have differences in downloading accessibility.

Regarding privacy, it has been my experience that while first world nations have more legal protections for privacy and 'leave me alone unless I hurt/defraud/steal from/assault/rape someone', in practice the opposite is true, whereas dictatorships and bizzare communist states, might in theory have less personal freedoms, for people who are passing by (and have money to spare - corruption is a two-edged sword) effectively have more personal freedom than back 'home'. This doesn't mean that the Kingdom of Inner Narnia mightn't not treat their own citizens like crap of course. But again, I have gotten off-topic into PT subjects.

And I am also curious to know which is more important in nomadic people's experience - where one obtained the actual device or where one registered it/subscribed to the content service. Based on a brief sampling of replies it appears that the later is more important to licensing/legal considerations.

[patientxtr]

I got a working in US American Express credit card that was sent from my bank after extensive use on foreign online shops (I am not entirely sure about this but this seems the most logical explanation since this card is given to most valued costumers who are spending more than 10 thousand dollars equivalent money every month and my cards limit is only 1000 dollars guess I am just lucky.)

This AMEX card also gives me some special services.One of them was a shopping system which an international company working with my bank that gives me an US address, telephone number and forwards anything that I bought with the AMEX to my country. Amazon doesn't even allow me to see the store yet alone buy any books or the actual e-reader. So, I began by first making some money of mechanical turk to buy a 3ds than after that is finished I made some more to put to good use later... The KSO came just after this so I used the little money I saved plus the AMEX shipping service, voila! I got the kindle kso! I bought more than 20 books until now and I even used a few of the special offers like audible 6 moths for 6 dollars and %50 of off the light cover. All of them came of good actually. It is working very well...

I don't see why they wouldn't ship the reader to my country, after all I am willing to buy books from them not pirate them ... I have to admit that I have pirated lots of ebooks in the past to read in lots of devices (I started with a gba, palm tx, ds, a 5 inch pmp and lately a jetbook lite) for several reasons... But now that there is a legal way that I can own them I am trying to buy them one by one. I respect the authors and the sellers, I just want them to respect readers like me so they wouldn't put any restrictions on selling books and devices to us...

Just some random ramblings , forgive me for the unnecessary longevity of the post.

[kkinser]

My US registered Kindle worked fine downloading books and surfing web in India and Turkey

[DMB]

I have a UK Kindle and can download books in Switzerland.