Sony PRS505 in Canada

[astra]

Originally Posted by simonp

How do you answer a question like that?

Very easily.
There are many what should or what should not bes....however, when faced with a certain situation, I like to look at it as it is, not as it should or should not be in theory. That's life.

All that said, I do hope that yvanleterrible is right and French support is being developed and will come soon.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by balok

I don't expect Sony to base their decisions on anything else than making money. What I'm complaining about is the fact that Canadian law allows this kind of thing. If importers are forced to have bilingual labels on their goods, why shouldn't they be forced to market a bilingual user interface? It's not a question of disrespect on the part of Sony, but rather of disrespect on the part of the Parliament of Canada for French speaking citizens.

But not even the French care about French Canadians.

[balok]

Originally Posted by simonp

My ideal is an independent Quebec in a strong and united Canada.

You might get lynched saying things like that in the ROC (lynch mobs just get mad when they don't understand ambiguous statements)

[hekkel]

Just some loosly related remarks: My recently purchased PRS-505 came with a dual language information sheet: English and French. And the 2.1 version of the ebook software downloaded from the Borders site already had the option to select the country: US or Canada.

[sebastien]

Originally Posted by astra

I believe the reason is that Sony Reader supports books in English only.

Nope, the Quebec law requires that an operation manual be available in french, not the device/menu itself.
I will check tonight, but I do believe that the one I bought from B&H a few months back was already bilingual.

[igorsk]

Yes, the 505 had bilingual box and manual since the beginning.

[Megatron-UK]

My PRS-505 which arrived today also had English/French instructions. I believe the outer packaging was also in English/French too.

In fact, the Reader is on my desk now, and the information on the back states:

"This class B digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003.
Cet appareil numerique de la classe B est conforme a la norme NMB-003 du Canada"

[sebastien]

Originally Posted by Megatron-UK

My PRS-505 which arrived today also had English/French instructions. I believe the outer packaging was also in English/French too.
Canada"

So the device is ready to be sold in Québec.

I bet Sony is holding on the sale of the device in the province in order to cut down on the inevitable costumer inquiery: "Quand est-ce que vous allez avoir des livres en francais sur vot'e site" (bad french intentional).

A few months back I polled a few local publisher about their entering the digital era and all said that they were not planing to release ebooks in the future. (Please no thread about copyright and piracy!!!).

I know that my mother and sister, both avid readers, wouldn't buy a PRS until they could get their 'auteur Québecois' on it (legaly).

Next step is to get 'Québec Loisir' on the bandwagon and get french ebook for their Québec readers. An association with Sony could be profitable for both... But what do I know.

[yvanleterrible]

A best seller in Québec nets around $3500 to the author. You think they'd let their books go to possible piracy? No sirree. Stick with paper. After all it's cut here ain't it?

Oh brother when are they gonna change...

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by balok

I don't expect Sony to base their decisions on anything else than making money. What I'm complaining about is the fact that Canadian law allows this kind of thing. If importers are forced to have bilingual labels on their goods, why shouldn't they be forced to market a bilingual user interface? It's not a question of disrespect on the part of Sony, but rather of disrespect on the part of the Parliament of Canada for French speaking citizens.

I ordered a Reader from New York last month, (I live in Nova Scotia) and was surprised to see that all the stickers said it conformed wiht all Canadian regulations, and all the documentation was in both French and English. So maybe a French release is planned as well.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by Victoria

I ordered a Reader from New York last month, (I live in Nova Scotia) and was surprised to see that all the stickers said it conformed wiht all Canadian regulations, and all the documentation was in both French and English. So maybe a French release is planned as well.

Have you tried registering at the Sony store? You shouldn't be "nervous about finding books in Canada" now.

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by Barcey

Have you tried registering at the Sony store? You shouldn't be "nervous about finding books in Canada" now.

You're right, I'll need to figure out how to change profile. You can't even imagine how excited was when I logged on and saw this thread. Last weekend I actually booked a flight and hotel to go to New York in mid-May, and a major reason was to go to Borders and get a Sony gift card . (wouldn't dream of cancelling the trip though ...

[Paradoxikon]

Salut à vous tous de la belle province.

Sony will not have the Reader in the retail store in Québec.

Why ? the only few reason I can think is :

Their ads campaign are not ready.
Not to forget, the campaign has to be different to reach us.
Which french book to sell
How to connect to buy books
Where to buy those book


and most important, Céline did not put our foot down. :-)


May be Sony does not know were to find free french books to download. We would need to provided them with a list sites.

Ah yes, this problem.
I remember a few years ago, a little argument between a Quebec site having many text book (copyright expired) and a few publishing house in France that were not happy. Something of the effect that the law in France has a longer expiration than in Québec. or something like this.

Does Sony wanted to be caught in this kind of argument.
Are their lawyer loooking at the whole issues ?

Just a few thought.
---------
I need to find a new reader. I miss my EbookMan.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Paradoxikon

Their ads campaign are not ready.
Not to forget, the campaign has to be different to reach us.

I wouldn't make too much of that -- they didn't have any English ads to speak of in the U.S. until about three months after the PRS500 launched, and they still aren't exactly flooding the advertising spaces.

[sminarovich]

I have the 500 does this mean as a Canadian I will be able to purchase books from Connect now?