The morality of circumventing geographical restrictions only to buy cheaper ebooks

[rockymtnhigh]

ironically, the example the OP uses does not work. Log-in to Amazon.in and it knows you are in the US, and tells you the kindle version is available from Amazon.com (I guess you could change all sorts of country settings, but not sure it would be worth it), and..

on Amazon.com, the Kindle book of Maddaddam is $11.76, NOT $17.

I'll stick with Amazon.com. I have bought music from Amazon.uk, but I was trying to get CDs that were not available in the US.

[Crowl]

I used to get round geo-restrictions when books that I wanted were not available in my region, but these days I have such a backlog of unread books that if something is not available then I'll read something else.

I don't bother getting round such restrictions just for cost benefits as there are very few books I will pay more than £5 each for anyway.

[Mivo]

I don't buy books from Amazon, so this particular example doesn't apply to me, but in general I buy products where they are the cheapest, if the product is identical. I do not consider it immoral to not needlessly waste my money. My responsibility is to myself and my family, not to the vendor.

I do consider it immoral to sell an e-book at 18 dollars in one place and for 9 dollars in another, though you do have to take regional living costs into account. I would, however, never buy an e-book at 18 dollars in the first place, so if I bought it at nine bucks, that would be a gain of nine dollars for the vendor, not a loss.

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

I'm shocked at what I perceive to be the immorality of people getting around georestrictions. The poll is showing a large majority of people would do something to get around the restriction.

The poll is only showing that people disagree with this business practice. Not that they are immoral.

[cromag]

I don't bother -- it's too much work and there are too many other books in my own area. But I don't think it's immoral. If a publisher and a retailer agree to restrictions, that's up to them -- no one asked me. If I pay the asking price to a retailer for an ebook I'm satisfied that I'm within the bounds of morality.

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

I'm shocked at what I perceive to be the immorality of people getting around georestrictions. The poll is showing a large majority of people would do something to get around the restriction.

Would it be immoral too if I buy DVD and Blu-ray discs from legitimate sources in Europe, bring them to America and use a region free Blu-ray player to circumvent the region restriction?

[Lady Blue]

I have personally never come across an instance where consideration of circumventing geographical restrictions has even come to mind.

I've never been so fixated on wanting a particular book that I couldn't wait for availability or an acceptable price in order to get it. I would just move on and choose something else from the literally millions of great books out there that are readily available.

I often read about 3-4 books a week. I have a good 300 books on my personal wish list of books that I don't yet own, at least 60 on my "future releases" wish list, probably 1,000 or so that I already own on my TBR list. I'm sure I'll never run out of the next best choice available at an acceptable price or free from any of my 3 library accounts, Amazon, Sony's Reader Store, Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks.net, mobileread, or a myriad of other providers.

For me, there is just no good enough reason or interest to take that route.

Too many books ... too short a life span.

[BearMountainBooks]

An interesting question. As an author, my books are low-cost no matter where you buy and you can also buy most of them from my blog/website no matter where you live. Now, that may still be too much for someone living in India or some people living in Mexico. The market forces are different in different countries. I can set a different price on Amazon for different countries, but I choose not to. I did think about it because I'm well aware of economic differences, however, my prices are much lower than other books to begin with. And I'm not in India so I don't want to make too many leaps when it comes to pricing. My books go on sale now and then and are sometimes 99 cents--which is as low as a book can be set on most vendors in any country (the equivalent).

Hmm. As a purchaser would I change my location or otherwise work to get the better price? Yes, probably. Would the author make less? Not necessarily. Depends on her contract. Sometimes authors get a bigger percentage just for selling foreign rights. I know agents take a larger cut of foreign sales when it comes to their commissions. I guess as a reader, I'd go for the lower price because I can't know what the publisher is going to get, what the author gets, how hard the agent worked, etc. Too many pieces to consider, and at the buying end, if I can save a few bucks, I'm not going to get too concerned over their problem. I want the author (and others) to get their due, but I also believe in shopping around, be it comparing Amazon to B&N or Amazon UK to Amazon US, etc. It's in my nature and if it were easy enough to do, I'd buy from the low cost producer.

[tovare]

I think amazon's elegance in handling both taxes and import fees are admirable, i do however as a wifi only user think that the dollar or so added to each release is unfortunate because it makes smaller singles and serials too expensive. I haven't considered circumventing because there are other options like buying another full book, watching netflix or something else. I am slightly annoyed because the ebook media would be great for serial fiction.

[doctorow]

I don't do it - not necessarily for moral reasons but for technical reasons... I find using VPNs etc. in order to circumvent geo restrictions too cumbersome. Yes, I am that lazy.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by tovare

I think amazon's elegance in handling both taxes and import fees are admirable, i do however as a wifi only user think that the dollar or so added to each release is unfortunate because it makes smaller singles and serials too expensive. I haven't considered circumventing because there are other options like buying another full book, watching netflix or something else. I am slightly annoyed because the ebook media would be great for serial fiction.

Ugh. I hate serials. I've bought them by mistake a few times and I loathe the entire idea/delivery with the passion usually reserved for diseased cockroaches.

Sorry. Got OT there for a second.

[tovare]

haha, maybe i'm not missing out on anything by skipping them

[tovare]

In terms of morality, i like the shift to an economy where we essentially produce and consume bits. It is good for the enviroment. Taxing bits is better than taxing things people actually need, like healthy foods. I find however that the bits i produce doesn't give me higher status, but the bits i've consumed has helped my career

[Istvan diVega]

The heading asks about the morality of circumventing georestrictions, while the poll asks whether you actually do it. Not the same thing, so the poll is likely entirely useless.

In any case I fail to see that circumvention has any moral implications whatsoever, while charging different prices for identical digital products in different locations does.

[K. Molen]

Originally Posted by rockymtnhigh

ironically, the example the OP uses does not work. Log-in to Amazon.in and it knows you are in the US, and tells you the kindle version is available from Amazon.com (I guess you could change all sorts of country settings, but not sure it would be worth it)

Sure, if you use your current Amazon account. But it's easy to set up a brand new account using a new e-mail address, and then buy whatever books you want via Amazon India using regular Amazon gift cards. Yes, this workaround would require you to remove the DRM in order to read the book on your Kindle, but that's something I routinely do to any book I buy, regardless of store, so that's no hindrance for me or many other MR members.

Originally Posted by rockymtnhigh

and.. on Amazon.com, the Kindle book of Maddaddam is $11.76, NOT $17.

Maybe that's true if you've got a U.S. Amazon account, I do not. I have a Canadian Amazon account but I can buy books from Amazon.com and when I do I'm shown prices for Canadians. Maybe I should've made this clear in my post, but my profile on the left shows my location.

Either way, this price discrepancy in no way invalidates my original point. In fact, I'd argue it further illustrates my point.. If I don't want to go through the hoops of creating a brand new Amazon identity, I can just go into the manage my Kindle settings and change my country from Canada to the U.S. and then I'd get U.S. pricing, which apparently is in between Indian and Canadian pricing.