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Old 03-31-2011, 03:36 AM   #212
HansTWN
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Posts: 4,538
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Taiwan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck View Post
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?
I am one of those affected -- even though it is easy to get around those restrictions. But say we could buy normally, we would be recognized by the website. Europeans would automatically pay 30% more. Would you be happy with that?
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