geographic restrictions at Fictionwise

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by ahi

They could go the way Amazon does. Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, et cetera.

Except I can and have bought from Amazon.com in the past. Print books, not ebooks of course...


Ea - My method is simple. If they don't want to sell to me because of things like geographical restrictions, I don't want to buy from them. Becuase of the way they've implimented the checks... (allowing buying but not downloading...)

/router droplist add fictionwise.com

[A Nonny Mouse]

Originally Posted by Crowl

It does seem slightly odd that they would be bothered, you would think that implementing the geographic restrictions would enough to keep the store out of trouble.

Not while we are all posting here how to circumvent their restrictions!

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by Ea

Not necessarily hard, but implementing any kind of restriction carries the risk of restricting more than you want. For example:

They would need to be positively certain of who you are. Only showing books at all if you are logged in would be a way of ensuring that. Wouldn't that be annoying you were at a friend's and wanted to look for a book?

Sorry, I think I was too brief in my previous post. Optional filter, as in 'let the user filter by a country of their choice'. Takes out the uncertainty principle. And simply make the restrictions transparent - "you must have a credit card issued by a credit provider in one of these countries" etc.

[George]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Looks like we shouldn't be discussing ways to get around geographic restrictions in the open here. Websites are watching this forum and plugging the holes as we speak. Perhaps by PM on request? I finally managed to get around the Amazon/iphone app regional restrictions after lots of failures. Similar ways have been reported but they had plugged some of those holes, one final twist did it.

Well since you think they read these forums I have something to say to them and the publishers. Keep this up and you'll find your customers shopping for torrents.

[Alfy]

Originally Posted by Ea

Personally, I've decided that it's a waste of energy of being very angry about this, and just move on. There's not much I can do. Prices have levelled out a lot, and I already have a great deal of books in my to-read "stack". On top of that, even if books bought in UK are more expensive than US, they're still much cheaper than what I'd pay for Danish language p-books.

It'll all probably change in a few years, like it did for music, and in the meantime I'll make do with what I can find - and it's less likely that I will return later, but ultimately that's their loss, more than mine.

I feel it's the other way round: things will change only if consumers show how unhappy they are with the current state of affairs.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by A Nonny Mouse

Not while we are all posting here how to circumvent their restrictions!

But what are the restrictions supposed to be anyway?

If, as it has been said, the problem is to allow downloading only from specific countries (since there's where the sale in considered to take place), then they could simply check the IP address (assuming it's possible to tell the country from that). Sure, it's easy to use a proxy or a remote computer, but is it actually "circumventing the restriction"? I don't think so, just like travelling to the US to buy a [whatever device available only in the US] is not circumventing anything.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by nomesque

Sorry, I think I was too brief in my previous post. Optional filter, as in 'let the user filter by a country of their choice'. Takes out the uncertainty principle. And simply make the restrictions transparent - "you must have a credit card issued by a credit provider in one of these countries" etc.

Ah, okay I was thinking of automatic checks. Letting the user voluntarily choose location is a good idea. I think I would do it, so as not to be disappointed by all the books I couldn't buy. I actually came across such a solution a few days ago - not book-realeted though: https://www.henrywatson.com/home.htm

[Tulkas]

Kindle to launch globally...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8294310.stm

Well what now for eBook formats in Europe ~ .mobi I suppose? I'd expect Amazon to steamroller the competition.

[geertm]

Today I noticed that the Stieg Larsson books had a 100% credit card rebate (not mentioned on the homepage).
As usual I used my Dutch Visa credit card with a valid USA address, but payment was not accepted. My entropay card was also not accepted.
It seems there is an extra check now when paying with a credit card.

Hoping that the new check was IP based I bought an AlwaysVPN account (I did not want to send my credit card details using a site like www.hidemyass.com).
Using the AlwaysVPN connection I could pay with my Dutch Visa card using a valid USA addres.
So it seems they now check if the country of your IP-address is the same country as the one used for the credit card payment.

I also tried using micropay and country USA, that still works okay.

[HansTWN]

a Dutch visa card with a US address that is not the billing address worked?

[JohnnyD]

it's hard to believe, but I succeeded in buying 'The Lost Symbol' (Dan Brown) yesterday from BooksonBoard (my intention was to buy one of the books from Tom Holt, which I did as well)

Don't know what happened, but I'm glad it worked

details:
- Shipping address: The Netherlands
- Credit card: Euro/mastercard (Dutch)

[geertm]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

a Dutch visa card with a US address that is not the billing address worked?

Yes, this works. It seems that only the creditcard number and expiry date are verified at the creditcard company, but not the address.
Fictionwise does check if the USA address is a valid USA address (in the past you could use your Dutch address with country USA).
And since tonight is seems they check if the country that you use is the same country as the one of your IP-address.

[framwockle]

Originally Posted by geertm

Yes, this works. It seems that only the creditcard number and expiry date are verified at the creditcard company, but not the address.
Fictionwise does check if the USA address is a valid USA address (in the past you could use your Dutch address with country USA).
And since tonight is seems they check if the country that you use is the same country as the one of your IP-address.

I'm in Australia. I just bought a GR book using a US address and Micropay dollars. Worked fine. I get a message in my bookshelf saying I need to enter a US credit card to download but I downloaded it to my iPhone without any problems.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Tulkas

Kindle to launch globally...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8294310.stm

Well what now for eBook formats in Europe ~ .mobi I suppose? I'd expect Amazon to steamroller the competition.

Amazon only sells english-language ebooks, don't they? My WAG is that most people in Europe, apart from Britain, don't read english language fiction - Amazon would need to get into the ebook markets in other languages. Not that they are much of markets at the moment, but still...

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Ea

Amazon only sells english-language ebooks, don't they? My WAG is that most people in Europe, apart from Britain, don't read english language fiction - Amazon would need to get into the ebook markets in other languages. Not that they are much of markets at the moment, but still...

I'm not so sure. I suppose they will distribute the available books in other language. I think that, although they sell Kindle in Spain, it's difficult they sell a lot of Spanish books because they don't exist! (very few)