|
I would actually love to see something like this go to court. The whole problem lies in the interpretation of the region of sale. Some authors and foreign retailers want the region to be defined as the home region or billing region of the purchaser. US retailers and book purchasers understandably prefer that the region be defined based on the location of the merchant.
Harry, I disagree with you about whom is doing the selling - I purchase directly from my ebook retailers. My credit card is charged by fictionwise or sony or bob, not little brown or mcgraw-hill. The retailer may be "purchasing" the rights and the distribution quota from the distributor (lightening, overdrive, etc) seconds before my sale is fully consummated, but nonetheless, I would suspect a reasonable court would define the retail seller as fictionwise, for example, not little brown.
Given the precedence with retail bookshops, I can't see a court then arguing that a sale made by a US ebookstore, to a user vacationing in Australia, with a credit card addressed in Poland should be governed under the jurisdiction of Poland, for example.
The rationale for the current brou-ha-ha has nothing to do with author's rights - were any author to bring suit they would be very unsure of a verdict in their favor. This contretemps is all about greed - foreign regional retailers being undercut by US eretailers throwing up the specter of a lawsuit, unwinnable or not, and the publisher folds.
Like I said, I'd love to see this go to court.
|