[MattW]

Hello,

I hope that what I'm going to ask isn't against forum rules - I've been reading along for a while now and don't think it is, but in case I'm wrong, please feel free to ignore / delete this thread if necessary.

I realise that buying ebooks from Sony's Connect store is only possible for US residents and I know that this is due to legal matters (as always), as ridiculous a it may seem (I mean, come on. I want to spend money on your product and you won't let me? How stupid is that?).

Anyway, I've got three questions:

1) Is there any way for me to redeem my 100 free classics from Europe? Can't I just enter a US address of a friend, skip the credit card details, register my reader (Sony PRS-505) and start downloading? Has anybody tried this?

2) How does buying work? Once you have your password, do you need to enter it again before each payment (as is the default on the iTunes Store, for example)? I'm asking, because if it is, then maybe I can get a friend in the US to set up an account for me, I can register my reader as one of the 6 reading devices, he'll change the password afterwards and we're set. I can send him the money upfront, he'll buy my books, send me the *lrf-Files and I'd be fine. Would that work?

3) Is there any way for a European to get an US credit card that would work in Sony's Connect store? Maybe by paying money into an account up front? Any ideas?

Again: I'm not trying to break any laws here. I want to buy and pay for a product that I can buy in hardcopy in any English bookstore in town.

And, yes, I know that DRM sucks. No need to tell me. But that's another story. I'd rather pay $15 for a DRM-crippled book than paying $35-40 (the price an imported hardcover book from the US has around here) and then spend two days scanning and OCR'ing it just to get a version with 3 OCR-errors per page.

Matthias