Buying ebooks not available outside the US

[Hellmark]

What gets me is when a book is distributed by the same publisher in multiple regions, but they charge different price. For instance, Bob Burke's book The Ho Ho Ho Mystery. Harper Collins publishes it in the UK and the US. In the UK, it is 8.99 pounds for the paperbook, and 2.99 pounds for the ebook. In the US, it is $10.99 for the hardback, and $19.99 for the ebook. Anyone care to explain that one to me?

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by seagull

I can import the hardcopy so I don't see anything wrong about circumventing geographical restrictions other than the obvious fraud involved.

???

It's fraud.

It's like saying there's nothing wrong with theft, except the obvious stealing involved.

[seagull]

Originally Posted by Catlady

???

It's fraud.

It's like saying there's nothing wrong with theft, except the obvious stealing involved.

A better analogy would be stealing an item that is free anyway.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Catlady

It's fraud.

It's like saying there's nothing wrong with theft, except the obvious stealing involved.

If you steal something then there is a victim. In the case of buying an ebook from another country, you are paying the "wrong" publisher but the "right" (local) publisher has chosen not to release an ebook even though they almost certainly have the right to do so. It is hard to see how the author is hurt by this, and overall it seems preferable ethically to downloading the ebook from the darknet. Also, the fraud isn't directly against either publisher, it is against the retailer - but the retailer gets paid (you tricked the retailer into taking your money).

[seagull]

What I don't get is why there are geographical restrictions in the first place. I know that different publishers have rights in different areas but with hardcopies you can still import them from another country. The only differences (that I can see) with eBooks is the reduced delivery time and postage.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by seagull

What I don't get is why there are geographical restrictions in the first place. I know that different publishers have rights in different areas but with hardcopies you can still import them from another country. The only differences (that I can see) with eBooks is the reduced delivery time and postage.

The difference is where the sale is "deemed" to have occurred. When a physical book is shipped, the sale happens in the store (or its warehouse). When an ebook is purchased the sale happens in your PC. There isn't a reliable way to tell where you are when you buy an ebook, so the publishers require the retailers to use a proxy like where your credit card is holmed. There have been some recent cases in the UK that suggest that web sales might indeed occur in the host web server (at least for streaming and interactive media). I don't know what case law supports the "sale at the customers location" for data sales, it might just be that big publishers decided that was the interpretation they wanted.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

What gets me is when a book is distributed by the same publisher in multiple regions, but they charge different price. For instance, Bob Burke's book The Ho Ho Ho Mystery. Harper Collins publishes it in the UK and the US. In the UK, it is 8.99 pounds for the paperbook, and 2.99 pounds for the ebook. In the US, it is $10.99 for the hardback, and $19.99 for the ebook. Anyone care to explain that one to me?

Are you referring to the book to be released this summer?

I see Amazon has it on pre-order for $8.61 and $3.18 for ebook. Perhaps, you looked to soon after Amazon's posting.

[Hellmark]

I didn't look at amazon for the ebook pricing, because I do not have a Kindle, so would prefer ePub. Prices I got were from Borders, and also Kobo. I also looked up on inkmesh.