I gave up waiting.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by toholio

Not only is the situation in Australia not getting better, it's actually getting worse!

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/10/wh...-kindle-store/

Where did the 5,000 books go? Why is there zero communication about this?

I started a thread about books being removed from sale on Amazon's forums but the bottom line is nobody really knows why it's happening or when it will stop.

Zero communication; how's that for being customer focused?

Have you contacted Amazon, and if so, what was their answer?

[tautologico]

Originally Posted by toholio

All I wanted from Australian publishers was some indication that they will be bringing their books to the Kindle. Anything would have been good. A short "We're looking into it" to keep me happy.

Instead we've had some press releases about a terrible idea for in store downloading kiosks that will be available sometime next year.

Not enough guys...

So I've changed my Kindle billing address to Disneyland. Suddenly the books I want are available to me. I suppose I should feel slightly guilty but I don't. The author is getting paid and so is the same publisher as if Amazon had sent me a paper book.

Should I feel guilty? Does anyone have the vaguest hint as to what Australian publishers are doing?

You seem to be conflating two different problems here:

1. Not having some of the content available to you because you're not in the US
2. Not having Australian content available to the Kindle

Issue 1 is actually about the international rights negociated between author and publisher; publishers must enforce the rights accorded with authors, so if the author gives a publisher only the rights to publish his books in the US, the publisher can't sell them anywhere else without breaching a contract (and thus being vulnerable to lawsuits). It's a quite stupid distinction between paper books and e-books, but it's there, and Amazon can do little besides ask the publishers to renegociate with authors.

Right now I have registered a US address too, to be able to buy books I couldn't with my real address. I don't think Amazon will do anything to close this loophole; legally it is selling to a US address, so it is respecting the publishers' restrictions, which in turn are abiding to their contracts with authors. It is you and me who are breaking the law here, but I don't think anyone is interested in prosecuting (btw, IANAL).

On the other hand, Amazon can do something regarding issue 2. It can make its digital publishing platform available to international publishers and, as it was said before in this thread, it is working to do exactly that. It would be quite stupid to not do this, considering Amazon is now selling the Kindle to more than 100 countries besides the US, and most people in these countries are probably interested in local content (I know I am). When the platform is available to international publishers, the amount of local content which will be actually available depends on the publishers. If Australian publishers aren't willing to sell their books to Kindles, again there is nothing Amazon can do...

[toholio]

There's at least a little good news coming out of Australian publishers.

I sent this letter to Random House Australia a while ago: http://hazy.stupor.org/blog/archives/38

This morning I was tweeted at by them saying they're in productive negotiations with Amazon. Awesome.

Hopefully the others big publishers are too.

[fugazied]

Nope I wouldn't feel guilty. There is no reason in the age of the Internet for consumers to be handicapped by incompetent publishers or retailers in a particular region. The power of the Internet overcomes all*

* - I am possibly an Internet zealot.