Amazon pursuing me for buying US books outside of USA

[HarryT]

DRM is "digital rights management" - the encryption system that "locks" a book to a particular device.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

DRM is "digital rights management" - the encryption system that "locks" a book to a particular device.

Thanx, I found something about it on the Wiki page. For the Kindle it seems to be a little more complicated, depending on the source of one's E-books. It's been a while since I felt this Newbie, kind of exhilarating in an inappropriate Freudian way.

[Pushka]

Dont worry, the kindle is worth it. And not everyone gets these emails either.

[joblack]

Originally Posted by ChristopherTD

I bought a couple of Kindle books from the Amazon (US) store and was able to send them to my iPhone (and thence to Calibre). Enthused I bought a couple more, but now Amazon have suspended my account because "I am buying from outside of the USA".

Is this something that HideMyAss VPN based in USA would avoid, or is this my quota for now?

Such nonsense - when you want to give them money...

The commercial information said you could buy all over the world. I would suggest to use gift cards. With them it's not clear who the customer really is .

[pietvo]

Originally Posted by BVLarson

As Brian was saying above, this really isn't Amazon's fault. They are contractually obligated to prevent book sales out of a given geographic area. This is all in the workings of contracts that are more or less antiquated concepts from the big six publishers. But they really can't fix it easily, as the contracts they wrote with the authors, often decades ago, restrict foreign rights. This was to protect the author in the old days from other people getting their books without paying a royalty. There was no concept of the modern ebook age at that point, especially if you fly overseas often as I used to do, a real pain.

I was refused ebooks by Amazon that I could buy at Kobo. Kobo does have regional restrictions and refused the sale when I entered my Dutch address. But it did sell to my Bolivian address. I guess some USA publishers may have rights for all of the Americas (except, maybe, Canada). But then Amazon is just too restrictive.

Anyway, let us get rid of DRM and geographic restrictions. I still want to find out on which laws this is based. I think I am going to ask a publisher.

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Reading this thread I get the impression that you won't be able to buy e-books from Amazon if you are located outside the US.

Congratulations on buying a Kindle. It's certainly possible to buy from the U.S Amazon you just have to take some precautions (gift card/u.s address), but as HarryT said the majority of books is available internationally and can be bought and downloaded right from your Kindle.

[ChristopherTD]

FWIW - I "arrived" back in the USA today, and was still denied. However, by using a VPN Proxy (HideMyAss) they once more allowed me to buy a book. It's all a bit too complicated to bother with long term, but will keep it in reserve for titles that are only on Kindle.

[Pushka]

I just think it is weird that some people get blocked, and other's dont.

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by ChristopherTD

FWIW - I "arrived" back in the USA today, and was still denied. However, by using a VPN Proxy (HideMyAss) they once more allowed me to buy a book. It's all a bit too complicated to bother with long term, but will keep it in reserve for titles that are only on Kindle.

This doesn't make sense at all, why would you have to use a VPN service like HideMyAss if you're back in the U.S? The whole point with HideMyAss is to give you a IP that pinpoint your location to the U.S but if you're already in the U.S I can't see why you would need it. Given that you used a US credit card.

My guess ChristopherTD is that your phone is using a UK SIM card. This is the only logical explanation I can come up with.

[suecsi]

Do the gift cards at Amazon work like they do at BooksonBoard (notwithstanding any IP tracking that might be at work, BoB didn't used to do that though I haven't bought from them for a while).

With BoB, if you pay with a gift card it doesn't have to do a country-card match so you can usually bypass the restrictions.

[markbond1007]

Originally Posted by HarryT

OK. The "edited highlights" version:

In most cases, a publisher buys the rights to sell a book in a particular country or region; eg many books have separate UK and US rights sold, for example. Under the terms of their contract, the publisher can only sell to retailers and customers in their region.

When you buy a book mail-order, you are considered (legally, I mean) to be buying it from the shop, no matter where you live. Thus Amazon UK can sell you books with UK only rights, even if you don't live in the UK, because the point of sale is considered to be Amazon UK themselves, in the UK.

With eBooks, as previously discussed, for whatever legal reason there might be (and we all agree that it's silly, but it is apparently legally binding) the point of sale is considered to be the customer's location, so an eBookstore in the UK cannot sell you an eBook that they have UK only right to unless you live in the UK.

Yes, it's silly. But that's the way it is.

I agree its silly but...

What I havent seen answered is the question of taxes.

I mean if a sale is considered to be the location of the buyer (and this applies to all "software" - how anyone can class an ebook as software I dont know but there you go). So ignoring the actual ability to buy (or not) certain books, by classifying the sale as happening at the location of the purchaser, that surely means that the seller is responsible for taxes in whatever country/location the purchaser happens to be in for every individual sale. For larger companies (Apple/Amazon/etc) this is fine as they just re-direct to your local site and you make the purchase there and they file their taxes etc. How do smaller businesses deal with it? and presumably if the point of sale is at the purchasers location, then the seller doesnt have to pay sale taxes for that purchase at their current location either (must be a logistical/VAT/Sales Tax nightmare)!!

Mark

[ChristopherTD]

Originally Posted by thinkpadx

This doesn't make sense at all, why would you have to use a VPN service like HideMyAss if you're back in the U.S? The whole point with HideMyAss is to give you a IP that pinpoint your location to the U.S but if you're already in the U.S I can't see why you would need it. Given that you used a US credit card.

My guess ChristopherTD is that your phone is using a UK SIM card. This is the only logical explanation I can come up with.

Sorry - I was being a bit obscure. By "arrived" I meant that I had changed my address to a USA address. It was a virtual arrival...

[loveangel]

The problem is the law. When they sell a paper book, the rights are defined according to the seller, when they sell an ebook, the rights are defined according to the buyer. It's a nonsense but...

Which law you are referring to

[pietvo]

Originally Posted by loveangel

Which law you are referring to

That's the problem at this forum. Several people are saying `It;s the law', but up to now none of them has been able to tell which law that is or even in which countries that law is valid. So it seems just like guessing to me.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pietvo

That's the problem at this forum. Several people are saying `It;s the law', but up to now none of them has been able to tell which law that is or even in which countries that law is valid. So it seems just like guessing to me.

Seems to be international agreements based on the OECD 1998 conference in Ottawa. They said that taxation should occur at the place of consumption, that electronic products was not goods, and that countries had to agree on how to define the place of consumption.
So the author/publisher contracts probably use a term like place of consumption that is defined by international treaties.