Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
No. The logic is that given the goal the rules are perfectly rational. And the goal was to get the effect you get for physical goods with respect to advantages for locally produced items ans so on. I think it is a bit silly for people to insist that they cannot see why the rules are rational given certain goals.
The questions if the goals good or bad is then a totally different questions that I have not expressed any opinion about.
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If an item isn't made in my region, I can have it imported, and expect to pay a premium for that item, in addition to shipping charges. But the geo-restrictions on ebooks aren't "people outside of the local region pay more," they're "people outside the local region can't buy this at all." Why?
There's no limited supply. There's no danger of running out of enough for the local community. There's no risk of losing the special value of the original--we're talking BOOKS, mass-produced items, not unique crafted art projects.
Is it that the local publishers fear competition from abroad--"if you live here, you need to put up with what the local writers produce, not import that fancy stuff from overseas?" Unless, of course you want to read it on paper. THEN you can get it from overseas. It's only the pixelated version that's too fancy to import.
Feel free to explain what I'm missing. How does it improve the goal of promoting local commerce to only allow pbooks from other countries?