KOBO 40% - entire site - valid until Oct.31, 2017

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

This is not geo-blocking as your other post suggests. There are different pricing models and regional discounts based upon many factors. Grabbing a discount meant for people in Taiwan is not the same as buying an ebook that is not available in Australia.

Faking an address to get a discount is not that much different from piracy. While your government condones faking an address to have full access to Netflix, I doubt that they would look upon defrauding Kobo as legal, ethical behavior. Not that they would take the time to slap you over it... but certainly you should be able to see these are not the same things at all?

If you think the author and publisher are not deserving of the money they are asking for a book I see three ethical and legal solutions:
(a) don't read it,
(b) buy a physical copy second hand,
(c) check it out of the library.

Come on. This is geo-blocking. If they were really serious about stopping foreign buyers they could be a lot more rigorous in their check, for instance not allowing non-Taiwanese credit cards or requiring other proof of residency. It's dumb that exists in the first place. Kobo's still getting paid and the author is still getting paid. Maybe the publisher is getting paid less or maybe a different publisher gets paid. It's literally no different from Netflix or the like. You have to fake your location via. IP or some other method to view another country's Netflix.

People do the exact same thing with paper books all the time. An international edition of a textbook is often 20-10% of the cost of a U.S textbook. I've bought books from Amazon.com living outside the U.S because they were significantly cheaper than the local edition. I'm sure the local publisher would prefer I bought their copy but it's their fault the price is too high for it to be worthwhile.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

If you think the author and publisher are not deserving of the money they are asking for a book I see three ethical and legal solutions:
(a) don't read it,
(b) buy a physical copy second hand,
(c) check it out of the library.

Ironically, if I buy a (discounted) ebook at Kobo Taiwan, I'm paying the author and a publisher, but these three ethical solutions all mean no author or publisher gets money from me.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

This is not geo-blocking as your other post suggests. There are different pricing models and regional discounts based upon many factors. Grabbing a discount meant for people in Taiwan is not the same as buying an ebook that is not available in Australia.

Faking an address to get a discount is not that much different from piracy. While your government condones faking an address to have full access to Netflix, I doubt that they would look upon defrauding Kobo as legal, ethical behavior. Not that they would take the time to slap you over it... but certainly you should be able to see these are not the same things at all?

If you think the author and publisher are not deserving of the money they are asking for a book I see three ethical and legal solutions:
(a) don't read it,
(b) buy a physical copy second hand,
(c) check it out of the library.

You are entitled to consider this an issue of ethics, that is your opinion.

I continue to see this as an issue of geo restrictions, that is my opinion.

You are not entitled to suggest that I have stolen from or defrauded anyone ....

[ottdmk]

Take a look at the definition of fraud. I would say that under the first definition what is being suggested here qualifies.

As to salamanderjuice: the fact that it's easy to do doesn't make it right. Hacking into somebody's account is still wrong even if they picked a lousy password, for example.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

Take a look at the definition of fraud. I would say that under the first definition what is being suggested here qualifies.

As to salamanderjuice: the fact that it's easy to do doesn't make it right. Hacking into somebody's account is still wrong even if they picked a lousy password, for example.

Still trying to be noticed. Still trying to shove your notions down someone else's throat.