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Old 02-07-2010, 08:36 AM   #1
lente
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Thumbs down If only I lived in the US.

I don't know if this is the right place to vent my grievances with the way things are going with ebooks so feel free to throw this away or move it, trample it, spit on it, anything you like.

I'm a big fan of ebooks. I own a BeBook ereader for a while now and I have already enjoyed reading many books on it, but that has changed. Geographical restriction. I think most you can guess my problem from these two words. I can no longer buy the ebooks that I want, because I live in the Netherlands (yes, that's in Europe) and not in the US. I'm super pissed.

Oh I understand the reasons, but the reasons mean shit to me. I'm child of the internet age and I want my ebooks. I don't care if they come from the US, china or the moon. I used to just pirate them, yes I was a bad, bad boy, but I grew a conscience. This is costing me a lot of money, but it makes me feel better. Yet now that I am finally spending money on ebooks they begin to tighten their geographical restrictions. This isn't new, but it used to be that most books didn't have these restriction. The opposite is now true, I can no longer buy most ebooks.

Oh sure, I can still buy a lot of crappy title's. You know the cheap title's no one buys. Most ebook stores are now useless to me. The only exceptions are Bean's webscription (I love these guys, and you should too!) and Smashwords (I haven't used this one yet, but I've heard good things about it). I can no longer use my favourite ebooks stores - booksonboard, fictionwise and diesel-books -, because most of the good books from my favourite author's are now US, CA only. I know, they can't help it, it's those greedy publishers.

I can tell you I have been seriously tempted to go back to my wicked ways, but in the end I decided to remain on the path of righteousness. I will have to go back to buying paperbacks, because I don't think this will be sorted out any time soon. They will probable begin to sell more ebooks internationally, but at a higher price, just like amazon is doing now with their kindle machine and ebooks weren't that cheap to begin with. I will not pay more money for a ebook than I will for a paper version.

That's it, can think of anything else to complain about. If you have read this far: thank you for your time.
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Old 02-07-2010, 08:52 AM   #2
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Go back to your wicked ways, just don't tell anyone.

If you find an author that you really like, and you've read a lot of his work for free, go buy his latest hardcover. He'll get the royaltys, and you'll feel better.

Doesn't have to be a black and white world, there are many many shades of gray.
You made the right choice when you started buying your books.
If the geographical restrictions push you back to the darknets, is that your fault or theirs?
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:09 AM   #3
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I just think it's a shame. Here we are in 2010, and dealing with a business model designed before there even was an internet. I hate to say it, but I agree with GhostHawk. It is not your fault that content is being denied to you. Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands...
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:09 AM   #4
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Or you can look at it another way. This is good for the Netherlands. Your money stays there, doesn't go to the USA.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:12 AM   #5
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I hear you. Have the same experience and will try a couple of times more then look other places. Thank God for Baen and Smashwords. This is how it ought to be.

Geo restrictions is far more insidious than DRM ever was and pretty much the sole reason for ebook consumers looking to the darknet for obtainable copies because they cannot purchase them fair and square.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:12 AM   #6
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Or you can look at it another way. This is good for the Netherlands. Your money stays there, doesn't go to the USA.
It's not about the USA. The USA isn't doing this... it's the publishers.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:15 AM   #7
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It's not about the USA. The USA isn't doing this... it's the publishers.
Absolutely right. It was, in fact, a British publisher (Hachette) who started the whole mess by threatening BoB with legal action for selling US editions of eBooks to which they had exclusive UK rights to British customers.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:22 AM   #8
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Go to Feedbooks or manybooks.net. They have thousands of titles, some PD, some self-published, free or very reasonably priced (like mine, puff puff!) No DRM, no geographical restrictions, many formats including plain ASCII. You may have to trawl a bit to find what you want, though.

Every book that you read from such sources is one less book from the dinosaurs, with their overpriced and absurd distribution chain, each link of which you, the reader, must pay for.

If you find a self-published ebook you like, be sure to pay the requested price or the model will die. And, however brief it may be, post a positive review somewhere popular so that others can follow in your footsteps.

Self-publishing of ebooks offers a great future for readers and writers alike, but only if the readers keep their side of the bargain.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:22 AM   #9
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Hi lente and welcome to Mobileread.

I am increasingly finding the same problems as you.

As an British ex-pat living in Spain, not only can I not buy ebooks from the USA but nor can I buy ebooks from my home country, apart from odd items.

Why geographic restrictions to a country that does not speak the language the ebook is published in?

I can understand the restrictions USA/UK, but surely in the main it is only the expatriate English speakers or servicemen who are going to want to download English language ebooks outside their home country.

Pbooks tend not to be an option when you factor in the time and postal charges. So I buy second hand - no profit to the publisher or author.

Ok so maybe something I want is available here in Spanish. Problem is, although reasonably fluent, I don't speak it well enough to enjoy the reading experience.

So what to do when the English version of an ebook is denied me? - the same as everybody else will - walk on the dark side until the money grabbing publishers see sense.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:25 AM   #10
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It's not about the USA. The USA isn't doing this... it's the publishers.
Sure it is. If he was planning on buying from: 'booksonboard, fictionwise and diesel-books'

then those are American, are they not?
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:26 AM   #11
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I just think it's a shame. Here we are in 2010, and dealing with a business model designed before there even was an internet. I hate to say it, but I agree with GhostHawk. It is not your fault that content is being denied to you. Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands...
Agree!
What happened to globalization in publishing industry??
They are in denial and dark ages!!
No wonder pirates are unleashing their forces.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:27 AM   #12
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Absolutely right. It was, in fact, a British publisher (Hachette) who started the whole mess by threatening BoB with legal action for selling US editions of eBooks to which they had exclusive UK rights to British customers.
Yes, it is the fault of all these publishers, I agree.

However, in this particular instance of named favorite shops, it is the USA that misses out on the cash.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:27 AM   #13
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Sure it is. If he was planning on buying from: 'booksonboard, fictionwise and diesel-books'

then those are American, are they not?
But they are not why he/she can't buy the books. Those companies are in the U.S. and will make some profit but so will the publishers and authors who may or may not be in countries other than the U.S.
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:28 AM   #14
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Absolutely right. It was, in fact, a British publisher (Hachette) who started the whole mess by threatening BoB with legal action for selling US editions of eBooks to which they had exclusive UK rights to British customers.
But they will not sell their ebooks to me, I am a British customer with British credit cards who happens to live elsewhere in Europe most of the time.

(Thought Hatchette were French)
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Old 02-07-2010, 09:29 AM   #15
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Sure it is. If he was planning on buying from: 'booksonboard, fictionwise and diesel-books'

then those are American, are they not?
They are American bookstores, but exactly the same would apply if he wanted to buy from Waterstones or W.H.Smiths in the UK. It's not that the bookstore doesn't want to sell you the books, but that the publishers in other countries won't let them do so.
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