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Quoth · 02-18-2023, 08:18 AM

Kobo have no address on my account I used for buying an ebook. Happens before checkout on Kobo and eBooks.com. Don't even need to log in on ebook.com

I used to be able to buy ebooks on Amazon.com with a Kindle account only registered from the Kindle via a Gift voucher. Then later they wanted a US address even for ebooks.
I had a USA address supplied by Irish Postal Service, An Post. But later Amazon added address checking and now the address has to be a USA residential address (Is there a database? Zip Code?).

Irish Kindle users can use either USA market place or UK Marketplace (the choice affects ALL your kindles), so what was the USA Kindle now has an Irish Address, but is still using Amazon USA. The USA titles not on UK Marketplace become "Unavailable" when you log in.
Often ebooks are cheap or free on Amazon USA and not at all on UK marketplace, or else at full price, even if KU and not a major publisher. Some people don't seem to know how to set up KDP, or mysteriously think it should be USA only.
There is a different historical reason for big publisher books in English only available in certain regions. UK & USA publishers agreed on a world carve up. This historically happened on other products too. Mallory/Duracell USA maker could sell in UK and Ireland, but USA Eveready (before Energizer) couldn't and UK Ever Ready (now gone) couldn't sell in USA. USA NCC/Eveready sold overseas as Ucars or Eveready and UK Ever Ready (Before 1906 actually UK subsidiary of USA parent) sold as BEREC, mostly in agreed separate territories.

The present Publisher carveup, mainly in English, is bad for authors and consumers as it can mean a title is unavailable due to the Publisher agreed for that region being uninterested in the book. I think Canada passed some strange law to ensure USA titles somehow get published there?

It's a disgrace as is region locking on DVD, BD and Games. Originally on DVD it was because Cinema still used film prints, so DVDs would be delayed till after the film print. Now DVD region locking is rarer because Cinema distribution is more world wide at the same time due to digital distribution.

The country based distribution rights and region locking now benefits commercial piracy than the publishers of any media. Book publishers will only changed if forced or as competitors are bought out by the Big 5 or 6 and Amazon.

02-18-2023, 08:18 AM	#6758
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,168 Karma: 105212035 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Kobo have no address on my account I used for buying an ebook. Happens before checkout on Kobo and eBooks.com. Don't even need to log in on ebook.com I used to be able to buy ebooks on Amazon.com with a Kindle account only registered from the Kindle via a Gift voucher. Then later they wanted a US address even for ebooks. I had a USA address supplied by Irish Postal Service, An Post. But later Amazon added address checking and now the address has to be a USA residential address (Is there a database? Zip Code?). Irish Kindle users can use either USA market place or UK Marketplace (the choice affects ALL your kindles), so what was the USA Kindle now has an Irish Address, but is still using Amazon USA. The USA titles not on UK Marketplace become "Unavailable" when you log in. Often ebooks are cheap or free on Amazon USA and not at all on UK marketplace, or else at full price, even if KU and not a major publisher. Some people don't seem to know how to set up KDP, or mysteriously think it should be USA only. There is a different historical reason for big publisher books in English only available in certain regions. UK & USA publishers agreed on a world carve up. This historically happened on other products too. Mallory/Duracell USA maker could sell in UK and Ireland, but USA Eveready (before Energizer) couldn't and UK Ever Ready (now gone) couldn't sell in USA. USA NCC/Eveready sold overseas as Ucars or Eveready and UK Ever Ready (Before 1906 actually UK subsidiary of USA parent) sold as BEREC, mostly in agreed separate territories. The present Publisher carveup, mainly in English, is bad for authors and consumers as it can mean a title is unavailable due to the Publisher agreed for that region being uninterested in the book. I think Canada passed some strange law to ensure USA titles somehow get published there? It's a disgrace as is region locking on DVD, BD and Games. Originally on DVD it was because Cinema still used film prints, so DVDs would be delayed till after the film print. Now DVD region locking is rarer because Cinema distribution is more world wide at the same time due to digital distribution. The country based distribution rights and region locking now benefits commercial piracy than the publishers of any media. Book publishers will only changed if forced or as competitors are bought out by the Big 5 or 6 and Amazon. Last edited by Quoth; 02-18-2023 at 08:41 AM.