FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Manabi

Either doing so is kind of grandfathered into older accounts, or Kobo's gradually rolling out additional checks to prevent people doing it. I followed a link to a book on Kobo UK and immediately got a popup telling me I couldn't buy it because I was in the US, along with a link to change to the US site. I wasn't logged in, and haven't visited Kobo in quite a while.

Log in and set your account to the UK. It's been discussed before in this thread, so I won't go through all that again.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by isarl

All of this is overcomplicating things. Literally the only thing they check is the country you have set in your payment information.

Yes, that has been my experience.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Doesn't work here for eBooks or Kobo. They geolocate your IP.

Or by "travel" do you mean a paid VPN with outlet in a desired country? I'd not touch with a barge poll. I'd only use VPN in a public place to connect to my home ISP, for security.

Sorry, but I've traveled with both Kobo and eBooks.com and it is easy to do. I've never needed a VPN.

I know for sure that eBooks.com lets me buy from the UK even though my info says I'm in the US. I use PayPal to pay.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by isarl

All of this is overcomplicating things.

With that in mind, do you have to pay with your gift card balance when you travel, or can you still use PayPal?

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

With that in mind, do you have to pay with your gift card balance when you travel, or can you still use PayPal?

Good question; unfortunately I don't use PayPal so I can't say. But I would be optimistic given that:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sorry, but I've traveled with both Kobo and eBooks.com and it is easy to do. I've never needed a VPN.

I know for sure that eBooks.com lets me buy from the UK even though my info says I'm in the US. I use PayPal to pay.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sorry, but I've traveled with both Kobo and eBooks.com and it is easy to do. I've never needed a VPN.

I know for sure that eBooks.com lets me buy from the UK even though my info says I'm in the US. I use PayPal to pay.

On both I can't buy any title that's USA only published. They are geolocating via IP. Certainly I can buy on ebooks.com, in Ireland, but not all titles they list.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Quoth

On both I can't buy any title that's USA only published. They are geolocating via IP. Certainly I can buy on ebooks.com, in Ireland, but not all titles they list.

Did you try changing your country in your Kobo account payment information? Although they geolocate I have not found it to actually prevent me from buying in other regions. However I did have to change my account country – not just “Change Country” while browsing the store – before it would let me.

[Quoth]

Kobo have no address on my account I used for buying an ebook. Happens before checkout on Kobo and eBooks.com. Don't even need to log in on ebook.com

I used to be able to buy ebooks on Amazon.com with a Kindle account only registered from the Kindle via a Gift voucher. Then later they wanted a US address even for ebooks.
I had a USA address supplied by Irish Postal Service, An Post. But later Amazon added address checking and now the address has to be a USA residential address (Is there a database? Zip Code?).

Irish Kindle users can use either USA market place or UK Marketplace (the choice affects ALL your kindles), so what was the USA Kindle now has an Irish Address, but is still using Amazon USA. The USA titles not on UK Marketplace become "Unavailable" when you log in.
Often ebooks are cheap or free on Amazon USA and not at all on UK marketplace, or else at full price, even if KU and not a major publisher. Some people don't seem to know how to set up KDP, or mysteriously think it should be USA only.
There is a different historical reason for big publisher books in English only available in certain regions. UK & USA publishers agreed on a world carve up. This historically happened on other products too. Mallory/Duracell USA maker could sell in UK and Ireland, but USA Eveready (before Energizer) couldn't and UK Ever Ready (now gone) couldn't sell in USA. USA NCC/Eveready sold overseas as Ucars or Eveready and UK Ever Ready (Before 1906 actually UK subsidiary of USA parent) sold as BEREC, mostly in agreed separate territories.

The present Publisher carveup, mainly in English, is bad for authors and consumers as it can mean a title is unavailable due to the Publisher agreed for that region being uninterested in the book. I think Canada passed some strange law to ensure USA titles somehow get published there?

It's a disgrace as is region locking on DVD, BD and Games. Originally on DVD it was because Cinema still used film prints, so DVDs would be delayed till after the film print. Now DVD region locking is rarer because Cinema distribution is more world wide at the same time due to digital distribution.

The country based distribution rights and region locking now benefits commercial piracy than the publishers of any media. Book publishers will only changed if forced or as competitors are bought out by the Big 5 or 6 and Amazon.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Kobo have no address on my account I used for buying an ebook. Happens before checkout on Kobo and eBooks.com. Don't even need to log in on ebook.com

The geolocation happens before checkout but as I said, if your account address is set to the correct country then it should let you buy. If you have no account address then I would expect that to be considered as an address from the wrong country.

[Quoth]

I can buy Kobo ebooks as long as they are not USA only. Obviously my address is in Ireland. I have bought ereaders direct from Kobo using credit card, but that was a different account.

The problem isn't Amazon, Kobo or ebooks, the problem is caused by the big publishers agreeing decades ago to keep out of each others home markets; it's largely an historical English Language publishing problem.

The non-residential Shipping company addresses (which pay Irish VAT & customs) do still work for physical goods from Amazon USA, or anyone else. Some of the similar UK services to Ireland have ceased due to Brexit complications.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I can buy Kobo ebooks as long as they are not USA only. Obviously my address is in Ireland. I have bought ereaders direct from Kobo using credit card, but that was a different account.

I think we're talking about the same issue at two different levels here. At the higher level, yes, this all arises from publishers and rights management.

What I seem to be failing to convey is at the practical level. Obviously, my address is in Canada, yet I've had zero issue buying a UK-only ebook from Kobo. I don't know how this interacts with CC payments (which presumably perform proper address verification), but on Kobo's store, purchases made entirely with gift credit simply take you at your word for your account's country. The IP geolocation simply doesn't come into it. Account settings -> Payment information -> Change country -> Buy book from whatever country. The only snag with this I've found so far is that certain countries (e.g. Japan) are simply unavailable to change to in the list. If you already understood all this then I apologize for being repetitive, but my hope is to enable you to buy some of those US-only books you're missing.

[lkmiller]

This may be more locked down when you are actually in the UK or EU. Just a guess.

[Quoth]

Some UK publishers sell in Canada but not USA. An added complication. Some agreed to keep out of North America entirely. This is something major publishers agreed among themselves decades ago in English language rights, without any involvement of Governments, authors, or retailers. Not sure about wholesalers, some of those were in the pocket of various clubs of publishers.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

This may be more locked down when you are actually in the UK or EU. Just a guess.

Likely only the Ireland and Malta bits of the EU. They have English. None of the others have English as an official language. They may not care about Italy, or places involved with EU and not in it like Norway & Switzerland.

South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and UK-Ireland (almost always one market for rights, hence all UK TV channels actually have Irish distribution rights for imported USA content) all have carved up English Language rights agreed between the big publishers. I'm not sure if Malta or India (some regions have 90% English and one is even 90% Christian too) or Cyprus was assigned. Technically Isle of Man & Channel Is are not in UK, and by treaty UK can't make Gibraltar be in the UK (none of those return MPs), but they are regarded as part of UK for rights. I'm not sure about all the Glorious British Tax havens, the USA base in the UK seized Chagos Is (BOIT) and Falkland Is. Likely most are UK rights. Or the Bahamas, which is British Overseas Territory/tax haven but uses the US$ rather than £ Sterling.

[lkmiller]

Just speculating based on how Weightless Books closed sales to both UK and EU because of VAT back in 2021. Ebookstores might need to be more strict with "traveling" in that direction.

eta: Bahamian dollars are prettier than US dollars.