Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulkas
So reading this thread we're rapidly approaching the point that the loopholes are being closed and we won't be able to buy most new ebooks as they are all (the ones I want) geographically restricted. All my books are mobipocket which is basically what my readers can read. I can't find a decent UK-specific mobipocket bookshop (any suggestions for bestsellers?)
The ebook industry is determined to shoot themselves in both feet aren't they? Unless you're american. It'll reach a point soon when the eReader gets put away & I'll go back to paperbacks, what a joke.
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I agree except I think it's the publishers that are trying to kill off ebooks. Or maybe authors. Many people have commented here that it's the publishers who are insisting that geographic restrictions be enforced-but it's the authors who (technically) set those restrictions up in the first place.
The difference between technically & practically depends on how much the author is able to change the publisher's standard contract. In some cases, all the author would need to do would be to ask that ebook rights be excluded from geographic restrictions. If the publisher wants the book badly enough, they'd do it.
I just can't see how geographic restrictions, regardless of media, are in the best interests of the publisher-so I'm fairly certain that they got started by authors. Makes sense, at least-authors would want their books to be sold world-wide, but that usually meant (prior to ebooks) selling the rights to more than one publisher. And the geographic restrictions were developed to do that. So it was the authors who developed the restrictions and I feel certain that the authors could get them changed for ebooks-if they wanted to. (Not necessarily individual authors. A few might have that leverage, maybe, but most would need to work thru an organization. Is there a writer's union that provides advice to authors about contracting with publishers?)