Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's not that they don't WANT you to buy their books, but that their publishing contracts do not PERMIT them to sell you some of their books. If a publisher only has a contract to sell a book in the US, then they will be in breach of contract if they sell it to you if they sell it elsewhere. That's because, legally, the "point of sale" for a digital product is the customer's location, whereas for a physical product it's the store's location. So when you buy a paper book from Amazon US, legally it's being sold in the US, but when you buy an eBook it's being sold in the UK. Yes, it's stupid, but that's the way it is at the moment, and Sony and Amazon cannot just ignore the law.
|
So in other words BookDepository.US breaks the law by selling UK books and being based in the US or Alibris or Abe, not to speak of Ebay resellers?
The argument above is utter bs as is; I would buy an argument based on licenses, restricted electronic stuff selling and such - but books have been sold internationally all the time - even Barnes and Noble stocks here and there "sell in UK" only books btw and I would not be surprised if Waterstones or whatever UK big chains are there stock US only books here and there.
Ebooks are not books but licenses to read on a screen - I bought some e"books" recently that start exactly like this btw stating explicitly that what I bought is the "right to read the following on a screen" - and that is the argument you should bring in justifying geographic restrictions rather than the nonsense above