MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The morality of circumventing geographical restrictions only to buy cheaper ebooks

pdurrant · 09-14-2013, 11:52 AM

I've just had this dilemma for the current Book Club book. It's Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. In both the US and the UK it's published by Random House.

At Kobo UK it's £6.49 and the 50% off coupon won't work.
At Kobo US it's $11.99 but the 50% coupon does work. Add in (say) Colorado taxes, and it's $6.45 net, which works out to £4.20.

So, what should I do?
The author is the same, the retailer is the same, the publisher is the same.
The author is a British Indian living in the US. The retailer is Canadian. The publisher is global.
But I save £2.29 if I buy at the US store. In other words, buying from the UK store would be just over 50% more expensive.

Does anyone really think the author, retailer or publisher would think that it was just as wrong for me to pirate the ebook?

09-14-2013, 11:52 AM	#178
pdurrant The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠 Posts: 74,129 Karma: 315558334 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Norfolk, England Device: Kindle Oasis	I've just had this dilemma for the current Book Club book. It's Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. In both the US and the UK it's published by Random House. At Kobo UK it's £6.49 and the 50% off coupon won't work. At Kobo US it's $11.99 but the 50% coupon does work. Add in (say) Colorado taxes, and it's $6.45 net, which works out to £4.20. So, what should I do? The author is the same, the retailer is the same, the publisher is the same. The author is a British Indian living in the US. The retailer is Canadian. The publisher is global. But I save £2.29 if I buy at the US store. In other words, buying from the UK store would be just over 50% more expensive. Does anyone really think the author, retailer or publisher would think that it was just as wrong for me to pirate the ebook? Last edited by pdurrant; 09-14-2013 at 01:03 PM.