Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Tyson
Different things for different formats is crazy, because going by the latter, they shouldn't send you a dead tree book, either.
'Arbitrage' by buying the cheaper version is done in paper, as well, so strange. If we pay money to postage companies we have less money for books, so even nuttier.
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The difference may indeed be crazy. But for dead tree versions, it all turns on the combination of the legal definition of where the sale takes place -- the "locus" of the sale, in legalese -- and the concept of the "first sale" rule. I don't pretend to understand how the locus of a sale is determined, but I observe that for physical stuff it generally appears to be the location of the store-front (for in-person sales in a shop) or the warehouse (for catalog/internet sales).
After that sale has taken place, the "first sale" rule comes into play. A very brief (and probably over-simplified) version of this rule is that although a seller may choose to use relatively arbitrary conditions when deciding whether or not to sell to you, they cannot impose restrictions on your use of the product after the sale. Thus, they can sell only in a limited geographic region, but they cannot restrict you from shipping elsewhere post-sale.
So, with dead-tree books the locus of the sale is the warehouse. As long as the warehouse is in the correct geographic region, the geographic conditions have been met. Shipping after that is beyond the control of the publisher (or author/agent/copyright-owner/whatever).
The thing that strikes
me as being weird is the idea that the locus of sale for an internet transaction is the customer's computer/device!
Xenophon