Quote:
Originally Posted by asjogren
Yet, I can travel and buy a book where the publisher has no rights to sell in my home country.
Why is it OK when I travel physically, and not via the Internet? The Industry is trying to force fit an archaic model. And in doing so, making customers angry and foregoing sales. It is STUPID.
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The stupidity isn't the concept of geographic restrictions; it's the idea that some online purchases take place in the seller's location (hence the US sales tax weirdnesses) and some take place in the buyer's location (hence ebook distribution restrictions).
What we need is a ruling that establishes absolutely where an online sale takes place. Options include:
1) Where the webstore's server is physically located;
2) Where the seller's business legally resides;
3) Where the buyer's ISP's server is physically located;
4) Where the buyer legally resides;
5) Where the buyer is physically located at the time of purchase.
Right now, sales of physical goods are counted as #2; sales of ebooks are somewhere between 3 & 4, with no official statements about what's legally preferred. To fix the geographic distribution idiocy, we just need a ruling that says "the store is selling from its location, and is bound by laws addressing that location, regardless of where the buyer is sitting at time of purchase."