geographic restrictions at Fictionwise

[dpierron]

That's really weird considering that I succeeded in ordering a restricted book (Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey) with a french VISA (attached to an address in Metz, France), after having set my billing address to the White House - yes, I sublease from M. Obama ;-)

[Tulkas]

Just visited Fictionwise and hit the geographic restriction issue on all 12 of the books I wanted to buy. To say I was pretty p##### off would be a mild understatement particularly as there appears to be no UK ebook retailer selling the titles I want in mobipocket format.

Wading through this thread it appears my main option is to change my billing country in Fictionwise to US then use micropay, is that correct? Unclear whether changing my address in Fictionwise then allows Paypal payment?

This seems to be a case of ebook suicide for the non-US/Canadian market just when interest is increasing.

[pdurrant]

Having done about every option myself, you can get around the restrictions quite simply like this:

At Fictionwise: Change your address at fictionwise to be in the US. Just a country change should do.

Paypal: If you already have a US delivery address in your account, just select that on checkout. If you don't you can't use your usual paypal account to pay.

Credit Card: I'm told that if you enter all your credit card detail correctly, EXCEPT for entering USA as the country of the CC address, it should work fine. Apparently the country doesn't get passed to the CC company for verification.

Originally Posted by Tulkas

Just visited Fictionwise and hit the geographic restriction issue on all 12 of the books I wanted to buy. To say I was pretty p##### off would be a mild understatement particularly as there appears to be no UK ebook retailer selling the titles I want in mobipocket format.

Wading through this thread it appears my main option is to change my billing country in Fictionwise to US then use micropay, is that correct? Unclear whether changing my address in Fictionwise then allows Paypal payment?

This seems to be a case of ebook suicide for the non-US/Canadian market just when interest is increasing.

[Tulkas]

Thanks for your reply

Country is certainly validated for card transactions, not exactly sure how ~ but it's flagged if there's discrepancies between card issuing country/contact country/IP address.

I can't add a non-UK address on Paypal

[Argel]

Originally Posted by Tulkas

Country is certainly validated for card transactions, not exactly sure how ~ but it's flagged if there's discrepancies between card issuing country/contact country/IP address.

Well changing the country of my UK card to US worked perfectly for me (as for others) - along with entering a US delivery address.

[pdurrant]

Umm.. try the CC trick. I've heard several times that it works.

Otherwise, the other way to do it is to sign up for a new paypal account, at paypal.com, giving a US address. You can add a non-us card to the account to fund it, and once verified you're all set. You just pay fictionwise from this new paypal account, which has a US delivery address.

Originally Posted by Tulkas

Thanks for your reply

Country is certainly validated for card transactions, not exactly sure how ~ but it's flagged if there's discrepancies between card issuing country/contact country/IP address.

I can't add a non-UK address on Paypal

[FixB]

I've missed the anniversary sales due to those restrictions, and I really don't like being unable to buy a single book from my wishlist (I've paid recently my annual fee to be a member of a website from which I'm not allowed to buy anything !)

[Tulkas]

Thanks for the tips

I've got the books. Hopefully there'll be a UK focused ebook retailer / shopfront to sort this issue out sooner rather than later.

I checked out the titles at Mobipocket too.. it made me laugh on one that the 'allowed' countries list was basically every country you could name, apart from the UK

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Tulkas

Thanks for the tips

I've got the books. Hopefully there'll be a UK focused ebook retailer / shopfront to sort this issue out sooner rather than later.

I checked out the titles at Mobipocket too.. it made me laugh on one that the 'allowed' countries list was basically every country you could name, apart from the UK

yep - mobipocket restricting sales to the UK is also annoying .....

[pdurrant]

It's not fictionwise or mobipocket that's the problem. Nor is it even the publishers. It's that contracts drawn up for paper books didn't give sufficient consideration to ebooks.

So there are lots of contracts between authors and publishers that give exclusive publishing rights for paper and ebooks in a particular geographic area to one publisher, and in another area to a different publisher.

One might even argue that it's not the contract that's at fault, but the interpretation of where a sale takes place....

I /hope/ that current and future contracts specify exclusive geographic rights for paper, and non-exclusive world-wide rights for ebooks, but I've no idea if that's so. It the only thing that would make sense IMO, but that rarely means that it's what's happening.

Originally Posted by GeoffC

yep - mobipocket restricting sales to the UK is also annoying .....

[columbus]

Originally Posted by pdurrant;

It's not fictionwise or mobipocket that's the problem. Nor is it even the publishers. It's that contracts drawn up for paper books didn't give sufficient consideration to ebooks.

So there are lots of contracts between authors and publishers that give exclusive publishing rights for paper and ebooks in a particular geographic area to one publisher, and in another area to a different publisher.

One might even argue that it's not the contract that's at fault, but the interpretation of where a sale takes place....

I /hope/ that current and future contracts specify exclusive geographic rights for paper, and non-exclusive world-wide rights for ebooks, but I've no idea if that's so. It the only thing that would make sense IMO, but that rarely means that it's what's happening.

Makes you wonder how long it will be before ebooks are "region coded" a la DVD's & look how effective that was.

Greed by the publishers just playing into the pirates hands.

[Tulkas]

As usual it's the customer that suffers.

No doubt they'll find a way to charge more to UK customers too (like iTunes). They're already lining their pockets with many ebook titles as dear as the paper equivalent.

[Jellby]

I wonder... is it possible to buy an ebook for someone else as a gift?

If it is, person A, living in the US, could buy a restricted ebook for person B, living in the UK. In exchange, person B buys an unrestricted ebook for person A (or sends the money somehow). Maybe some group or community could be created to manage this?

[GeoffC]

whatever the rights and wrongs or perceived otherwises, in order for me - in the UK - to get the books I wish to read - I either do without or fiddle the country section of my address.

[dpierron]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

One might even argue that it's not the contract that's at fault, but the interpretation of where a sale takes place....

I couldn't agree more : imagine that I, a french citizen, with a french credit card, happen to wander in the Big Apple, NY, USA... I enter a bookstore, and purchase an american edition of a book, printed in the USA, and published by a publisher who has secured the publication rights for the USA.

Would I be allowed such a purchase ? I guess that I would, although maybe I should give proper consideration to taxes...

What's the difference between this scenario and when I try buying a (e)book at Fictionwise ?

It could be interesting to explain this to the publishers, wouldn't it...