As I said in my original post, ebooks.com only checked the copyright issue at the time of book selection (which I overcame by my quick re-enable of the order buttons). Once the books were in my shopping basket, it was fine with a UK email address, a UK postal address and a UK registered credit card.
One of the things everybody needs to be aware of in the UK is that on printed books, no Vat is paid. Whereas ebooks are regarded as electronic media and so VAT is payable (if purchased in the UK), which makes an ebook automatically 17.5% more expensive than the same book as from say the USA.
Now as Waterstones are pricing their ebooks in the same ball park as printed books (the latest biog from Richard Branson is the same price in both printed and ebook format (less £1 off the ebook for a promotion), it means that any saving that would have been made for saving in paper, printing costs, stocking costs, postage etc etc etc is wiped out by the increase in VAT.
Its a mad, mad situation here in the UK. We get charged more becuase, well becuase we are British and therefore can be charged more (its called Rip Off Britian), then we pay VAt on electronic books (possibly a tax on learning), and suffer the bad service of Waterstones.
