[EowynCarter]

Mail sent to WH Smiths after bumping on the annoying message.

Hi,

I try to buy some e-book, and problem.
"" One or more of the titles in your shopping cart is/are not available for purchase due to publisher/author territorial restrictions. We apologise for this inconvenience. ""

So, you don't sell in france anymore ? Why it is that so ? That sad, and totally stupid, as I ask noting but to buy books from you... Should be simple right ? In the meantime, i'll get books from peoples who have enough senses not to tell their customers "We don't want to sell to you".

Catherine Hurbain.

I am no more hurting publishers by downloading a file than I am if I visited the library, borrowed a book from a friend or found one (as I did the other day) on the seat of a bus. They may have gained a sale though, in the long run, they may have made me a fan, but what they have never lost is money. You can't lose what wasn't there to begin with. And there is no need to further this argument, because this isn't necessarily an argument. You haven't actually made a cogent statement yet, or taken a position that isn't instantly laughable in the face of ten years of circumnvented DRM, ever increasing numbers of file sharers, and industries that are still turning a profit (despite the so-called scourge of piracy).

It's true that one download is not necessarily a lost sale. Sometimes the contrary. Hey, i began reading Harry potter with a .txt on my calculator screen. Result is I now own more copies of the HP books than i need.
And drm, regional restrictions, that's encouraging piracy.

I'm going to quote Joe Abercrombie because he SO got it right. Especially the part in bold.

My own feeling about e-piracy and so forth is that it's virtually impossible to put a stop to - the more popular you are the more torrents will endlessly spring up, and most of them in places where folks don't respond to a polite email. The only effective way to combat it is to provide people with a higher quality service than pirates do, more easily available and at a price that seems reasonable. Then I think most will be happy to pay.

WH Smiths have regional restriction, seams BookOnBeard too. That left only waterstones. But what happens the day waterstones decide to put on regional restrictions ? I can't buy e-books anymore. (French publishers won't provide me with book in english...)

I'd love to pay for books from my favourite authors. Sadly, they (aka the publishers) won't allow me to. They don't sell the books I want in my region, and I can't buy them from another region. And you really find it strange that people will go find other ways to get their book?

Yeap. I don't want crappy darknet versions, or go back to paper book, but the way things are going, i might not have a choice about that anymore sometimes soon...