eBooks from Waterstones.com longer selling eBooks outside of the UK and Eire

[steved44]

Hi there everybody. I'm a bit new to the ebook game, but there's a point of basic principle here that perhaps someone can explain to me?

I now live in New Zealand, but used to use Waterstones a lot before I left the UK. Top bookstore IMO. So what is the fundamental difference between me buying a paperback book from Waterstones on a trip to the UK then reading it when I get back here, and me buying an ebook from Waterstones from NZ and downloading it and reading it here. Either way I've bought the thing in the UK but read it in NZ.

Or am I missing something important?

[Blue Tyson]

The only difference is that fewer middlemen exist in the digital transaction.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by steved44

Hi there everybody. I'm a bit new to the ebook game, but there's a point of basic principle here that perhaps someone can explain to me?

I now live in New Zealand, but used to use Waterstones a lot before I left the UK. Top bookstore IMO. So what is the fundamental difference between me buying a paperback book from Waterstones on a trip to the UK then reading it when I get back here, and me buying an ebook from Waterstones from NZ and downloading it and reading it here. Either way I've bought the thing in the UK but read it in NZ.

Or am I missing something important?

If you buy a paperback (even when using the Internet) the point of sale is the location of the shop.
If you buy an e-book the point of sale is your location. There are different ways to determine your location: your account address, your credit card billing address, your IP-address, etc..
Publishers usually only have the rights to sell a book in their own country. That is why the publishers have forced all e-book shops to implement geo-restrictions.