MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - How are geographic restrictions affecting you?

sabredog · 08-05-2010, 01:34 AM

Geographic restrictions are the number one issue for me currently regarding the way the publishers distribute books.

I do not care too much about DRM or even the increasing prices of ebooks if I cannot purchase those ebooks to start with.

Just recently, after the Agency 5 rorts, I lost over two thirds of my purchased Diesel bookshelf purely to geo restrictions. Fortunately, the CEO of Diesel was happy to refund me over US$100 for the loss of my ebooks, a 100% refund for what it is worth. I have not gone through the list at Fictionwise as yet but will do so. BTW, I lost the downloaded ebooks when my PC HDD crashed and I discovered my backup was corrupt.

Many were ebooks in a series that were geo restricted whilst earlier ebooks in the series remained accessible.

It takes a lot of effort now to circumvent these restrictions. Most times I am successful, other times I am not. So I look elsewhere for the book I want to purchase but cannot.

I would hazard a guess that my story is identical to many other ebook readers residing outside of the US/CAN region where geo restrictions do not factor so heavily if not at all. As such I am not so sure that a lot of ebook readers living in those regions even understand just how insidious this system has become. Sympathetic? For certain. Fully understanding? No.

To my belief, geo restrictions are the single most reason why ebook piracy is increasing. DRM comes second to this reason.

If these unnecessary restrictions were removed, then I am sure piracy would decrease and ebook sales would surge. This would be particularly true with Amazon, when over half of the ebooks for sale are not available to Australians.

08-05-2010, 01:34 AM	#2
sabredog Geographically Restricted Posts: 2,630 Karma: 14933353 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Perth, Australia Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2	Geographic restrictions are the number one issue for me currently regarding the way the publishers distribute books. I do not care too much about DRM or even the increasing prices of ebooks if I cannot purchase those ebooks to start with. Just recently, after the Agency 5 rorts, I lost over two thirds of my purchased Diesel bookshelf purely to geo restrictions. Fortunately, the CEO of Diesel was happy to refund me over US$100 for the loss of my ebooks, a 100% refund for what it is worth. I have not gone through the list at Fictionwise as yet but will do so. BTW, I lost the downloaded ebooks when my PC HDD crashed and I discovered my backup was corrupt. Many were ebooks in a series that were geo restricted whilst earlier ebooks in the series remained accessible. It takes a lot of effort now to circumvent these restrictions. Most times I am successful, other times I am not. So I look elsewhere for the book I want to purchase but cannot. I would hazard a guess that my story is identical to many other ebook readers residing outside of the US/CAN region where geo restrictions do not factor so heavily if not at all. As such I am not so sure that a lot of ebook readers living in those regions even understand just how insidious this system has become. Sympathetic? For certain. Fully understanding? No. To my belief, geo restrictions are the single most reason why ebook piracy is increasing. DRM comes second to this reason. If these unnecessary restrictions were removed, then I am sure piracy would decrease and ebook sales would surge. This would be particularly true with Amazon, when over half of the ebooks for sale are not available to Australians.