Comments on: Fictionwise E-book Sales Restricted Outside US- the Real Story

By: Mike Romani

Mike Romani — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:50:17 +0000

Any updates on eBook sales outside the U.S. and Canada?

I can use the Kindle app on my Mac and iPhone to purchase books although I live in Japan. However, some books still have geographic restrictions. Are there any other options?

By: mhikl

mhikl — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:07:18 +0000

This action will just encourage more people to join the pirate crowd. I'm from Canada and all the non-fiction books I want to purchase are restricted and I cannot download them - a number have been purged from my wish list. I would have purchased another Sarno book before the change took place had I known restrictions were upon us. Have downloaded and stored all my purchases and should my iPod touch crater on me.

By: albert

albert — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:44:10 +0000

just change country code on credit card to US

won’t they confirm your billing address before charging?

By: NMinogue

NMinogue — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:04:55 +0000

just change country code on credit card to US

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:02:10 +0000

This is not new, it’s the way they’ve always done business. It’s just now coming to our attention due to the rising popularity of e-books.

By: R. Sweeny

R. Sweeny — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:34:20 +0000

As an American citizen living abroad, I find this new “ebooks geographic restrictions” situation a really sorry state of affairs.

Strange move of the publishers, especially during a worldwide economic crisis, to go down the path of “free trade out”, protectionism in.

By: Alternative

Alternative — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:13:44 +0000

There’s an alternative in some cases, just like for tv shows and movies they won’t show or sell. Although there are many more books than there are videos, as such.

Unlike tv shows of course, books aren’t shown for free in the same manner. (Take a while to get to libraries, etc.)

By: Ana

Ana — Sun, 03 May 2009 05:41:23 +0000

I wonder how many ebook buyers are not from the US and Canada. All those people, me included, not being allowed to buy their ebooks. There’s no alternative either. That has got to be affecting Fictionwise where it really hurts: their profit.

By: Steve P.

Steve P. — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:42:07 +0000

Cybertactix,

I don’t think we said anywhere that the problem was “simple”, in fact I believe the article above indicates that it is complex. There are some books that actually have different rights in dozens of different countries.

Yes, you are correct, there are many cases where the author (or the author’s agent) has carved up rights and sold them geographically and that is the crux of the problem. This is not the USA publishers’ fault, they literally do not have rights to sell outside their geographic area, and they feel they might be liable for infringement if they do not take steps to enforce the geographic restrictions.

In fact I can’t really put my finger on any one party that is “at fault” for this situation. It’s a matter of 500 years of publishing business practices suddenly colliding with the Internet. As indicated in the article, there may be a technological solution, but it is difficult to implement and can’t be done overnight.

-Steve P.

By: Levi

Levi — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:41:38 +0000

I am still not sure all the necessary details are known. For example, I have a US bank account and billing address but I live in Hungary (and I am a Hungarian citizen, my wife is American). Can I buy?

What if I was not in possession of US billing info but I was (say, traveling) in the US?

Is it enforced on the basis of IP tracking or billing info? It makes a difference (for me at least).

Take for example iTunes. I have full access to the US store with my US billing info. The Hungarian content sucks. But Netflix I absolutely cannot use.

They need to figure this out as the best way to fight piracy is good availability and low prices. Neither are met in most cases.