Quote:
Originally Posted by meraxes
You know, when blacks were not allowed on the same bus with whites, or when women would not even be considered for a decent job, that too was "based on the old world order". And "working around those restrictions" was pretty easy too. You could just find some other country to live in, or be a housewife and spend all your life in front of the kitchen sink, what's wrong with that?
In your "old world", geographic restrictions on selling books were based on the real-world limitations, so they were not discriminatory. You couldn't blame Waterstones for not opening a store in Congo so that some tribsman could buy a book in English. Now, however, this tribesman is one click away from the store, but the store refuses to treat him as a paying customer because he's from the wrong continent. The online stores and publishers keep acting as if the real-world geographic limitations still apply on the Internet, and refuse to recognize that technology has made their old business model blatantly discriminatory and anticompetitive. Old restrictions on WHERE you can sell (which are merely obsolete and anti-free trade) have somehow been translated into restrictions on WHO you can sell to, which are just plain wrong, unfair and anticonstitutional.
So if the publishers don't respect my basic rights, they should not act all outraged if I refuse to respect their rights in return. Call it stealing if you like, it means nothing to me. If copyright holders throw my money in my face because they don't like my nationality, I'll help myself to their "copy" for free and won't feel any compunction about it.
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To take your hilarious analogy a little further. So someone doesn't sell to you because you are gay, black, or Jewish, whatever. So what is the right course of action? Hit the man over the head and steal the item or sue the guy for discrimination?
There are plenty of restrictions, for cars, for electronics, you name it. Distributorships are assigned to have local sales and service in a particular country. And companies that take over a distributorship expect reasonable protection so that they can return a profit for their efforts.
Additionally there is censorship for books in many countries. In some European countries books cannot be discounted. There are countries with VAT on internet purchases. So I say it again, your country may force booksellers not to sell to its citizens.
You are not really arguing your point, you plainly are just looking for an excuse to download the books illegally for free. Apparently you still have a conscience and try to shout it down. Sorry, theft is theft -- there are no excuses.