Why can I no longer buy books from the UK?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Actually, never noticed the regional restrictions on itunes? The US store also has a much bigger selection and is much cheaper! So regional restrictions are still there in the music industry. Just DRM has disappeared.

Never even seen itunes...

(I was talking more about DRM actually as an example that groups didn't learn from each other)

[Krystian Galaj]

Does anyone know where I can buy Dorothy Sayers' "Five Red Herrings" and "Have His Carcase" in e-book form, from Poland, Europe? I think I went through some fifty ebook sites, and no trace of them.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

Does anyone know where I can buy Dorothy Sayers' "Five Red Herrings" and "Have His Carcase" in e-book form, from Poland, Europe? I think I went through some fifty ebook sites, and no trace of them.

I couldn't find them at all - I guess they're not in electronic form yet.

And they won't be public domain until at least 2028 in Poland, Australia and most other places, and until 2027 in the US, so they won't be turning up on Project Gutenberg or Gutenberg Australia for quite a while.

They are public domain in Canada at the moment, but they don't seem to be here or at Gutenberg Canada. (Not that it'd be legal for you to download them if they were.)

You could try working out who owns the copyright at the moment, and urge the owners to get the books produced in ebook form.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

Does anyone know where I can buy Dorothy Sayers' "Five Red Herrings" and "Have His Carcase" in e-book form, from Poland, Europe? I think I went through some fifty ebook sites, and no trace of them.

I'm working on "Have his Carcase." It may take another month or so because the scan is dreadful. But it will appear in the MR library eventually.
There are some other works by Sayers already there.

[Mike L]

Hekkel,

I can't add much to the information already posted here, except that you said "now you have to be a UK citizen".

That is completely untrue. Citizenship doesn't enter the picture. Any geographic restrictions that might exist are based entirely on the country where you're physically located at the time, not on nationality.

(I'm sure you already knew that, but I thought it should be clarified.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by Mike L

Any geographic restrictions that might exist are based entirely on the country where you're physically located at the time, not on nationality.

Or on the country where your bank is, depending on who you're buying from (buying things with a Canadian credit card while living in Europe can be an adventure sometimes...).

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Mike L

Hekkel,

I can't add much to the information already posted here, except that you said "now you have to be a UK citizen".

That is completely untrue. Citizenship doesn't enter the picture. Any geographic restrictions that might exist are based entirely on the country where you're physically located at the time, not on nationality.

(I'm sure you already knew that, but I thought it should be clarified.

That raises some interresting questions regarding this:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And they won't be public domain until at least 2028 in Poland, Australia and most other places, and until 2027 in the US, so they won't be turning up on Project Gutenberg or Gutenberg Australia for quite a while.

They are public domain in Canada at the moment, but they don't seem to be here or at Gutenberg Canada. (Not that it'd be legal for you to download them if they were.)

If I were to go to Canada for a holiday, and I download that book, am I allowed to do that? Should I delete it from my HD once I cross the border?

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Mike L

That is completely untrue. Citizenship doesn't enter the picture. Any geographic restrictions that might exist are based entirely on the country where you're physically located at the time, not on nationality.

In theory, maybe. In practice, stores implementing geographic restrictions often use other means to identify your location, usually based on your credit card (for which you need a bank account, for which you need to live in the country...). And there are reports of Amazon requiring passports or other identification from their US customers, so at the end the actual location doesn't seem to matter.

Geographic restrictions are silly, the way they are implemented is even sillier. It's like those tests that don't really evaluate your knowledge, but just your ability to pass the test[*]: geographic restrictions don't restrict based on the geographical location, but on your ability to bypass the restrictions

[*] This could be said of all tests, but there are some for which it is especially flagrant.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

If I were to go to Canada for a holiday, and I download that book, am I allowed to do that?

Absolutely. When you're in Canada, Canadian copyright law applies, and you can legally copy(download) anything that's out of copyright under those laws.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Should I delete it from my HD once I cross the border?

There's no need to delete the file from your HD when crossing the border. It might be illegal for you to view the file after leaving Canada, as that would involve making more copies of the file (in your computer's memory if nowhere else). Or that might be a permitted use, or otherwise OK, depending on exactly what your country's copyright laws say.

[hekkel]

Originally Posted by Mike L

I can't add much to the information already posted here, except that you said "now you have to be a UK citizen".

That is completely untrue. Citizenship doesn't enter the picture. Any geographic restrictions that might exist are based entirely on the country where you're physically located at the time, not on nationality.

(I'm sure you already knew that, but I thought it should be clarified.

That's what you'd expect. And this is what Penguin told me:

You can no longer purchase ebooks from Penguin unless you reside in the UK.

This is because for some reason the books will not download outside of
the UK.

But as someone else already mentioned, it's where your credit-card's billing address is. It was during the secure payment phase (which is handled by some third party) that my order was denied. So I could have been in the UK at the very moment, I still wouldn't have been able to order this book.

If this situation doesn't change soon I think I will get one of those on-line prepaid credit-cards, I believe they're issued by some UK bank.

[JanG]

I live in Israel. I can order print books from TheBookDepository and from Amazon (both UK and US), but I can't order DVDs or CDs. And most ebook sellers are closed to me.

Why? What's so special about an ebook? Why is it so different from a print book?

I don't have alternatives. There are no ebook sellers based in Israel, and the selection of English print books in the bookshops here is severely limited.

Geographical restriction is more evil than DRM.

--JanG.

[HansTWN]

Regional restrictions for anything are no big problem. For your DVDs, CDs, or other restricted physical items, use a service like shipito.com (I have used them, so I know they are ok. But there are many others). For ebooks drop me a PM and I will tell you what to do.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by JanG

Geographical restriction is more evil than DRM.

Couldn't agree more! At least with DRM I am allowed to actually read the book...

[JanG]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Regional restrictions for anything are no big problem. For your DVDs, CDs, or other restricted physical items, use a service like shipito.com (I have used them, so I know they are ok. But there are many others). For ebooks drop me a PM and I will tell you what to do.

Thank you, but for DVDs and CDs I use family or friends; as for ebooks, I'll be in touch.

--JanG.

[Flub]

Originally Posted by jhellingman

I would contact the author directly, and politely explain him that his publisher is not allowing me to buy his book; and also that I have (at least in the Netherlands) the legal alternative means of downloading it from some unauthorized source, that unfortunately will not result in royalties being paid to him either, but that you are willing to donate such missed royalties directly to him.

Readers really should try to get authors on their side in their fight against customer unfriendly behaviour of publishers.

The authors I've contacted over issues like this have either been apathetic (The publisher sorts all that out) or hostile against ebooks. This is fairly surprising since I've been contacting sci-fi authors. Only one has been encouraging. He didn't know the details of his ebook versions but he'd bring my problems to the attention of his publisher.

Considering that the end product is often their only source of income you'd have thought the authors would be keen to get themselves involved in how their books are marketted and sold. One sci-fi author (Who shall remain nameless) has been getting very annoyed at people on his blog who ask about ebook versions. It's crazy.