Thread: B&N vs. Borders on my Nook
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Old 02-21-2011, 07:39 AM   #4
geertm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mwdowns View Post
I found out this weekend that it's easier to get books onto my Nook using Borders rather than B&N. I live in Japan, and for some reason or another B&N will only let you buy books from their website if you are physically located in the US, whereas Borders lets you buy ebooks from anywhere.

What kind of ridiculous policy is it that B&N won't allow purchases on their website from outside the US? I'm using a US credit card and the billing address is in the US. I can kind of understand why I can't shop using my Nook and wireless, but not being able to use my computer to buy stuff from B&N....really? Really?

Any folks here work for B&N and can explain to me why it is you don't want to take my money?
US publishers do not allow e-bookstores to sell their books outside the US. They (especially the agency 5 publishers) have forced all bookstores to implement very strict geo-restrictions. This is true for all US bookstores, except Amazon. Amazon is the only US e-bookstore that is allowed to sell books outside the US. I have no idea how they ever got the publishers to agree to this. No other bookstore has succeeded it getting this permission.
I am sure B&N would like to sell their e-books outside the US, but the publishers do not allow this.

Borders has no e-bookstore of its own They are using the Kobo bookstore. Kobo is a Canadian bookstore. There is no agency model in Canada yet. And it seems like Canadian publishers are not forcing bookstores to implement very strict geo-restrictions (for now). Kobo seems to be the only bookstore where Europeans can buy e-books without lying about there location, or having to use an VPN.
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