geographic restrictions at Fictionwise

[Margrete]

I'm really really annoyed at the moment. I just wanted buy a couple of ebooks from fictionwise to read tonight and now they've added geographical restrictions only for sale for those in US and Canada on some books. This must be very resent because the book I wanted was released on the 7th and didn't have it then. I know this because I bought Turn Coat by Jim Butcher on the 7th and it also has geographic restrictions now and didn't when I bought it. How am I now going to get the ebooks I want when I don't live in the US. Any ideas? This has totally ruined my day

[Gibbo]

Originally Posted by Margrete

I'm really really annoyed at the moment. I just wanted buy a couple of ebooks from fictionwise to read tonight and now they've added geographical restrictions only for sale for those in US and Canada on some books. This must be very resent because the book I wanted was released on the 7th and didn't have it then. I know this because I bought Turn Coat by Jim Butcher on the 7th and it also has geographic restrictions now and didn't when I bought it. How am I now going to get the ebooks I want when I don't live in the US. Any ideas? This has totally ruined my day

Just change your country to US make your purchase then change it back.

[Margrete]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

Just change your country to US make your purchase then change it back.

Won't work since it's keyed to the billing address of my credit card. I had the wrong address for my credit card once (didn't notice I wrote the wrong one) and then I couldn't get transaction done. I got an error with regards to my address not matching or something.

[Idoine]

I read a post where it was said to use Micropay (that is put money on micropay account, and then use Micropay to pay things that are geographically restricted)...

[Gibbo]

Originally Posted by Margrete

Won't work since it's keyed to the billing address of my credit card. I had the wrong address for my credit card once (didn't notice I wrote the wrong one) and then I couldn't get transaction done. I got an error with regards to my address not matching or something.

Sorry forgot to add that it only works if you have money on your micropay account, I've done it myself a few times.

[Margrete]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

Sorry forgot to add that it only works if you have money on your micropay account, I've done it myself a few times.

I'll try that, thanks

[T3_reader]

The same thing also happened to me this evening while trying to purchase books at ereader.com. Is this the first major change implemented by Barnes&Noble, the new owners of Fictionwise?

Purchasing through an account that doesn't allow Fictionwise to detect that one does not live in the US or Canada is not a good solution. If you ever run into some kind of support issue and they can use IP-addresses or whatever to see that you are not a US or Canadian citizen, you're going to be screwed. It is always better to stop buying at a company when they clearly indicate they are not interested in your business...

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by T3_reader

Purchasing through an account that doesn't allow Fictionwise to detect that one does not live in the US or Canada is not a good solution. If you ever run into some kind of support issue and they can use IP-addresses or whatever to see that you are not a US or Canadian citizen, you're going to be screwed. It is always better to stop buying at a company when they clearly indicate they are not interested in your business...

The problem with that idea is that it isn't Fictionwise driving this decision, it is the publishers. Although I am sure Fictionwise wants to cover their posteriors, I am also sure that they don't mind you buying from them.

If you want to boycott someone, it will have to be the publishers.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by T3_reader

It is always better to stop buying at a company when they clearly indicate they are not interested in your business...

It is some publishers who are requiring this, and they are doing so because regional restrictions are in their contracts with authors. The entire thing is crazy, and many publishers (practically all the UK publishers for example) seem to have decided to ignore the issue and see if it will go away. US ebook stores used to ignore the issue too, but some publishers stopped selling to them so now they have rules that are as lax as they can make them without the publishers getting mad at them again. FictionWise might have less flexibility under Barnes and Noble, but I don't see it as likely that they will go after previous purchases because of geographic restrictions. This is particularly the case for eReader ebooks, where they control the DRM.

[T3_reader]

I am pretty sure that I can order printed books from Amazon for which the ebook versions are now no longer available to me.

I actually cannot imagine an author asking a publisher to please not sell his work in Europe or some other region.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by T3_reader

I am pretty sure that I can order printed books from Amazon for which the ebook versions are now no longer available to me.

Yes. This is because the paper book is deemed purchased from the shipping location, but the ebook is deemed purchased from your PC. I already told you it was crazy.

Originally Posted by T3_reader

I actually cannot imagine an author asking a publisher to please not sell his work in Europe or some other region.

It is routine for an author to separately sell the US and UK rights to the same book to different publishers. This maximizes the authors profits for paper books. It makes less sense for ebooks, but the same geographical restriction language is used for them too.

[sirbruce]

Ahh, but why does Amazon UK let me buy UK editions of Harry Potter and have them shipped to me in America?

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Ahh, but why does Amazon UK let me buy UK editions of Harry Potter and have them shipped to me in America?

As wallcraft said earlier, when you buy from Amazon UK the sale is considered to take place in the UK. So a UK edition is perfectly fine; where it gets shipped after that is something the publisher cannot and should not be able to control.

By comparison, when you purchase an eBook the location of the sale is a much more difficult question. Does the sale happen at the eBook retailer's server? At the eBook retailer's corporate headquarters (possibly or probably a very different location than the server's location)? At your location? Who knows!

For some reason the publishers or perhaps whoever wrote the contracts with the publishers considers the customer's location to be the relevant locus for the eBook sale. And that leaves the publishers having to require their retailers to do the geographic restriction thing. It also makes me understand why Baen insists on universal (but non-exclusive) eRights.

Xenophon

[Margrete]

Originally Posted by T3_reader

Purchasing through an account that doesn't allow Fictionwise to detect that one does not live in the US or Canada is not a good solution. If you ever run into some kind of support issue and they can use IP-addresses or whatever to see that you are not a US or Canadian citizen, you're going to be screwed. It is always better to stop buying at a company when they clearly indicate they are not interested in your business...

you might be right that its probably not a good idea if something happens but when I don't have any other options (except buying the paperback which takes at least a week from I order it untill I get it) then I'll use it untill I get in trouble which I probably will as I wrote an email to fictionwise asking about it.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

As wallcraft said earlier, when you buy from Amazon UK the sale is considered to take place in the UK. So a UK edition is perfectly fine; where it gets shipped after that is something the publisher cannot and should not be able to control.
...
For some reason the publishers or perhaps whoever wrote the contracts with the publishers considers the customer's location to be the relevant locus for the eBook sale. And that leaves the publishers having to require their retailers to do the geographic restriction thing. It also makes me understand why Baen insists on universal (but non-exclusive) eRights.

Xenophon

Different things for different formats is crazy, because going by the latter, they shouldn't send you a dead tree book, either.

'Arbitrage' by buying the cheaper version is done in paper, as well, so strange. If we pay money to postage companies we have less money for books, so even nuttier.