Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
Perhaps in Poland there is no respect for contracts, but in most of the Western world contracts are respected and publishers do not own worldwide rights. Publishers did not invent geo restrictions within the past year; geo restrictions have been part of publishing for decades.
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if georestrictions have been part of publishing for decades, why is it that pbooks and ebooks are treated differently? Seems to me that georestrictions have started affecting consumers (in video, music and books) only when goods started becoming digital.
There is quite a difference IMHO between 'I will give Feltrinelli rights to publish this book in Italian for Italy' and 'I will give Feltrinelli rights to publish this book in English for Italy': I haven't ever seen a local publisher in a non-English-speaking country publish an English version of their book, so why shouldn't the english ebook be available?
Regarding the English-speaking situation (with UK/US/Canada) I understand that a Canadian publisher can buy the rights to publish a Canadian edition of a book and wouldn't definitely like if a US publisher could sell it directly, on the other hand as things stand now I *can* buy a pbook in the UK from Canada (paying import duties) so why not an ebook?