[Piper_]

Originally Posted by queentess

My understanding is that it's to do with where the sale occurred (which has a bearing on tax as well). If you're importing the pbook, the sale occurred at the store from which it was purchased. If you're buying an ebook, the point of sale is your location, which the publisher may or may not own the rights to. It's even possible that a publisher can own rights to sell a pbook in your area, but not have the rights to sell you an ebook.

It's a very strange way in which the digital world has affected the physical world... geographical territories don't make sense like they used to when you take in account e-commerce.

Yes, that is the issue.

The problem all stems from a (crazy, imo) law that says the point of sale for a digital book is at the customer's computer.

The point of sale for a paper book is the store itself.