Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan Crealock
I'm afraid you'll have to ask Amazon the answer to this question; geographical restrictions are common with companies (e.g. Barnes & Noble) who are offering books free to U.S. customers. Some will reject non-U.S. IP addresses regardless, others will allow these customers to purchase books if they have on file a credit card with a U.S. address. I suspect there are other ways to get around the system, as well.
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Amazon, like all retailers, merely abides by the restrictions set by the publishers, who in turn abide by the contract rights assigned by the author. Neither has the ability to legally offer the book anywhere the author has not assigned them the rights.
So, ask the author why on the geographic restrictions.
For B&N and several other stores, they simply are not set up to enforce the restrictions (or to collect VAT; sometimes they can't sell outside the US for tax reasons or due to not having a valid business presence in a foreign country or due to the US not having diplomatic relations with a country) and so block all non-US IP addresses or just mailing addresses. All because an electronic sale takes place where you are sitting, not where the business' HQ is located (or it's server farm).