Quote:
Originally Posted by stustaff
Whilst i recognise what you say as correct, how does the fact that I can buy US books from amazon.com and have them shipped from the US to the UK when these Pbooks are under the same publisher restrictions factor in?
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A lot of it has to do with publisher vs. distributor vs. retailer. Amazon can sell p-books across the oceans because they're a retailer. If publisher "X" holds US-only rights to title "Y", they're restricted by contract. They can only sell to US-based distributors and booksellers.
Amazon isn't party to that contract. That contract is between "X" and the author/rights holder. (This is simplified, because Amazon is probably buying the title from Ingram who bought from "X", but it still holds.) The publisher has no right or reason to restrict where a bookstore's customer is.