eBooks from Waterstones.com longer selling eBooks outside of the UK and Eire

[zeb]

Originally Posted by flyblown

The reason for this is to make sure that Waterstone's complies with international rights, and so is beyond our control.

This is really bs. This is purely contractual. They could certainly do something about it. Anyway, this is once again old fashion business that leads to penalise honest and willing customers and incite people to acquire books on other "grey" channels.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by zeb

This is really bs. This is purely contractual. They could certainly do something about it. Anyway, this is once again old fashion business that leads to penalise honest and willing customers and incite people to acquire books on other "grey" channels.

Could not agree more with you.

They bleat about the rise of piracy and yet do nothing to offer ebook buyers unrestricted access to ebooks wherever they reside in the world.

Hypocritical behaviour by a bunch of ostridge's with an anachronistic business model.

[Blue Tyson]

Kobo's selection is pathetic for Australia - good chance it is more pathetic for Denmark.

This is a shop that has georestrictions on excerpts of books, remember.

Although Amazon does too I suppose - they can't manage excerpts on their website at all though, generally - but won't let you download a sample of a book not in your region.

Nice marketing and advertising fail, this.

[zeb]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Could not agree more with you.

They bleat about the rise of piracy and yet do nothing to offer ebook buyers unrestricted access to ebooks wherever they reside in the world.

Hypocritical behaviour by a bunch of ostridge's with an anachronistic business model.

It is like the DVD regions all over again, but now by country! I even wonder if that is really legal in Europe.

[Roger Manley]

I have written to my Euro MP and received a reply saying she will look into it. However, as such things take a long time I am not going to hold my breath!

I suggest all Europeans who feel the effects of this action by booksellers write to their Euro MP. It seems to me that this agreement between publishers and retailers is a breach of the EC's guarantee of free movement of goods and services within the Community.

It is easy to write to your Euro MP, go to "Write To Them.com" and you will be guided about to whom you must write and how.

Roger Manley

[tompe]

Since the point of sale is were the customer is I do not see how any.movement is involved

[Kali Yuga]

*sigh*

The primary issue here is contractual. Namely, the publishers have contracts WITH AUTHORS that restrict where the book can be sold.

If a publisher hauls off and internationally distributes a book without the permission of the author, it's a violation of the contract. Authors, in turn, may not want to fork over international rights to a single publisher, who may not be willing or able to put a lot of work into promoting the book abroad; or the author may want to use "international rights" as a negotiating tool to get a better royalty rate and/or advance.

This problem almost certainly will get resolved, but unless you support wide-spread trampling of author's rights and violations of contracts, it will not happen overnight.

Good to see that y'all support an author's rights and contracts only so long as it doesn't inconvenience you.

[mikaelalind]

Courtney Milan has an excellent post on her blog about Geo-restrictions. I really recommend it!

Personally, I try to ignore geo-restrictions. I succeed most of the time. I only get frustrated when I try to buy Macmillan books. Oh, and the fact that Kobo gives me pre-agency discounts really helps

[Hellmark]

I understand that if a book from a certain publisher is only available in certain markets, however, not all have georestrictions in their contracts. Waterstones has just blanket banned sales to non UK residents, even on books that they're able to sell to them.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

*sigh*

The primary issue here is contractual. Namely, the publishers have contracts WITH AUTHORS that restrict where the book can be sold.

If a publisher hauls off and internationally distributes a book without the permission of the author, it's a violation of the contract. Authors, in turn, may not want to fork over international rights to a single publisher, who may not be willing or able to put a lot of work into promoting the book abroad; or the author may want to use "international rights" as a negotiating tool to get a better royalty rate and/or advance.

This problem almost certainly will get resolved, but unless you support wide-spread trampling of author's rights and violations of contracts, it will not happen overnight.

Good to see that y'all support an author's rights and contracts only so long as it doesn't inconvenience you.

Hm. But if the contracts themselves contradict local law, such as the EU agreements about free movement and markets, then the contracts are legally invalid.

So I think EU citizens probably do have a legitimate legal argument.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Hm. But if the contracts themselves contradict local law, such as the EU agreements about free movement and markets, then the contracts are legally invalid.

So I think EU citizens probably do have a legitimate legal argument.

There are no movement taking place since the point of sale is at the customer.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Hm. But if the contracts themselves contradict local law, such as the EU agreements about free movement and markets, then the contracts are legally invalid.

AFAIK the "free movement" only applies to things like customs and labor. If I decide to sell a product exclusively in Germany and not in France, that does not run afoul of any EU laws.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question...8030325AAQVaU4

A law that basically requires a vendor to sell their products in the entire EU would be a nightmare and would undoubtedly clash with countless local regulations.

[sabredog]

Interesting though that Australian authors are geo-restricted to selling ebooks to their country of origin.

Contracts and the conditions within are drawn up by the publishers themselves then offered to authors. Once the publishers start offering authors better options to sell their books in ebook format to other regions then nothing will ever change.

The fault lies at agency 5 publishers. When we draw contracts up for contractors they must abide by the conditions we set as a local council, not negotiate for a better one.

Better known and more successful authors naturally do have some scope to negotiate, but not a great deal.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Interesting though that Australian authors are geo-restricted to selling ebooks to their country of origin.

That's only going to be the case if the Australian author signed with a non-Australian publisher. Considering that its population is 1/2 that of England and less than 1/10 that of the US, I'm gonna guess that might happen more often than you'd expect.

Originally Posted by sabredog

The fault lies at agency 5 publishers.

No, it really doesn't.

The overwhelming majority of contracts were written and signed long before ebooks became a viable sales channel (which, I might add, is really only happening now).

Thus, the contracts are already written, and can't be modified without the consent of the author or their estate. The publishers are abiding by their contracts. Even though it inconveniences a small handful of readers, it is patently absurd to blame a company for actually honoring its contracts with its authors.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

I understand that if a book from a certain publisher is only available in certain markets, however, not all have georestrictions in their contracts. Waterstones has just blanket banned sales to non UK residents, even on books that they're able to sell to them.

Probably because for a significant majority of books that they sell they don't have the rights to sell internationally, and for the small number that are left, the effort to confirm that they do have the rights, plus the extra hassle in selling to and supporting users in other countries means that it just isn't worth their time.