geographic restrictions at Fictionwise

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Snowman

(ps The previous fiasco with Overdrive set my personal annoyance level to 'miffed'. I have now raised this to 'peeved')

At least with the overdrive problem we got an emailing in advance about the expiring date. They even told you to make a backup of the book on your own computer. This is completely out of the blue. Which is what makes me angry. My oldest book is from march 2004. And I'm now unable to download it unless I mask my IP...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Snowman

However, looking at this from the mobipocket.com site:


and this from fw:

I have not checked myself but in previous discussions about these issues here people have claimed that they only guarantee access to you books for three months from the date you buy them.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by tompe

If you buy a DRM:ed book you have no guarantees that you can re-download it to a new reader at a later time point. So the problem is really people supporting DRM by buting DRM:ed books. Hopefully these ind of event when people lose access to old book will make them stop buying them.

Not everything is a DRM problem. Regional restrictions are not a DRM problem. They are a regulation from the publisher and have been enforced recently due to some publishers and dealers over in England complaining, which forced the issue.

Dale

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Your bookshelf looks really interesting! How was the Chaucer?

I have I think two books that are now restricted but were not when I bought them. So far, they look fine. Fwiw I am in Canada.

Thanks, but as you can see, I only acquired the chaucer reader quite recently ;-)

In other news, the additional check seems to be gone now, for those 2 books that had it yesterday.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Not everything is a DRM problem. Regional restrictions are not a DRM problem. They are a regulation from the publisher and have been enforced recently due to some publishers and dealers over in England complaining, which forced the issue.

Dale

They should have gone further and tried to prevent the US publishers from doing an eBook altogether. That would have forced a negotiation to append the contract to either have a single publisher have worldwide eBook rights or force the two publishers with arguable rights to share in each other's profits.

Neither of those solutions would have resulted in geographic restriction... the consumer would have won.

- Ahi

[AnemicOak]

It's to bad the publishers can't combine resources/costs to create the digital file and then let the distros handle who gets paid depending on where the buyer is from. To complicated I suppose.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It's to bad the publishers can't combine resources/costs to create the digital file and then let the distros handle who gets paid depending on where the buyer is from. To complicated I suppose.

They should share the profits equally. If only one of them got the rights, they'd be selling to all buyers regardless of their location. If they share the rights, and the content is basically the same, they should share the profits equally... or almost, depending on how much money each put into it.

- Ahi

[geertm]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

In other news, the additional check seems to be gone now, for those 2 books that had it yesterday.

All the books on my bookshelf can be downloaded again. It seems that Fictionwise has removed the additional check.
I wonder for how long?

[Ea]

Originally Posted by geertm

All the books on my bookshelf can be downloaded again. It seems that Fictionwise has removed the additional check.
I wonder for how long?

Yeah, changed again. Oh, well... I've already everything downloaded and de-drm'd and backed-up, just in case. They probably hadn't thought it through - but I guess they'd at least implement a restriction of books bought after a certain date.

[loboMuerto]

I just bought some reading material for the weekend from Fictionwise... and I had the same problem. I was going to post a new thread about this outrage when I saw this one. The following books are locked in my account:

• Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman
  
• The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong
  
• The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
  
• Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science by David Lindley
  
• The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
  
• English Passengers by Matthew Kneale

I'm really, really upset about this. If Fictionwise had put a warning on their site I wouldn't be so mad about this. I feel cheated, and won't be making more business with them unless they do something about this situation. I will spend my last micropays... and good riddance to bad rubbish.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by geertm

All the books on my bookshelf can be downloaded again. It seems that Fictionwise has removed the additional check.
I wonder for how long?

Same here. Yesterday I had 5 I couldn't redownload, today I can redownload them all. Fortunately, I already had backups just in case. I hadn't even had to do anything to get past geographical restrictions when I first bought them, either, which made it more annoying.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by loboMuerto

I just bought some reading material for the weekend from Fictionwise... and I had the same problem. I was going to post a new thread about this outrage when I saw this one. The following books are locked in my account:

• Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman
  
• The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong
  
• The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
  
• Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science by David Lindley
  
• The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
  
• English Passengers by Matthew Kneale

I'm really, really upset about this. If Fictionwise had put a warning on their site I wouldn't be so mad about this. I feel cheated, and won't be making more business with them unless they do something about this situation. I will spend my last micropays... and good riddance to bad rubbish.

I you already paid, I suggest you email them about it and ask for a re-imbursement. If you haven't downloaded any of those books you might be able to get it - especially if you bought them in good faith

[Ea]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

..... I hadn't even had to do anything to get past geographical restrictions when I first bought them, either, which made it more annoying.

This is exactly the issue. You bought them in good faith, like many others here. I was miffed about this, too. I hope they find a good, permanent solution. It's not resonable to deny access to books bought in good faith.

[loboMuerto]

Originally Posted by Ea

I you already paid, I suggest you email them about it and ask for a re-imbursement. If you haven't downloaded any of those books you might be able to get it - especially if you bought them in good faith

Thank you for your advice... I just did, I will post their answer here as soon as I get it.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Not everything is a DRM problem. Regional restrictions are not a DRM problem. They are a regulation from the publisher and have been enforced recently due to some publishers and dealers over in England complaining, which forced the issue.

Yes, of course (or maybe you could argue that regional restrictions enforced when buying the book is a digital rights management system...).

My point was that when you buy a DRM:ed book you must be prepared to loose the possibility to re-download anytime. So whatever the reason is you should not be surprised.