Quote:
Originally Posted by kittyhawk63
I think the publishers should at least allow our military personnel to download, but I read here the other day that a person in the military and serving overseas is restricted to the same rules. The publishers ought to reconsider that policy decision for our military.
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The world of publishing is still years behind real life in the age of the internet. This isn't a new issue, it's based on business practicies that date back decades. Authors sell rights for specific geographic areas, like North America, and agents who do not insist on these restrictions are incompetent. The reason being, once you've sold worldwide rights once, you can't sell them again to someone else, and your income (royalties) are based on sales. So if you sell worldwide rights to someone who will only publish in North America, you have no income from the rest of the world.
The internet changes all that, because anyone can sell something, especially something electronic, to anyone anywhere in the world, but the publishing industry is still trying to figure out how to deal with that. And only books published in recent years have any chance of being under a contract that reflects that. Stuff that's been around for longer than the internet is under contracts with geographic restrictions, and renogiating simply isn't going to happen (because for one publisher to gain rights in other countries, any foreign publishers in those countries must give them up.)