Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
It doesn't only matter in the UK. Most US publishers buy first North American rights only. That means that Sony cannot set up a "storefront" in either Sweden or Italy and sell those books. They do not have the rights to do so. Individual bookstores in those countries may buy books from the US for resale, but the publishers of those books do not sell to distributors that cover those territories.
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Thanks for your detailed analyses of the whole rights issue - do you work for the Sony (or Amazon) legal department?... just kidding!
This is not a criticism of you, but rather the whole "rights" explanation - it seems like so much sophistry to provide an
ex post facto justification of a somewhat bizarre decision. The logic seems to break down for me - by the "rights" logic you explained:
Amazon, Sony (or whichever US corporate behemouth you wish to insert here) do not have the right to set up a store-front in UK, Sweden, Australia, Timbuktu, etc. So why distinguish between paper books and eBooks in this case?
Since 1998 I have ordered books from Amazon US, but have never lived in the US. They have never refused a sale, claiming they have no "rights" to sell to me in my place of residence. This is in accordance with your
from side of the equation, as I understand it - they are selling
from the US a product they have the right to sell there.
So why differentiate when it comes to eBooks? Why can't I buy the "US edition" of an Amazon or Sony eBook and have it shipped to me (i.e. download it) somewhere else, just like a paper book? After all, Fictionwise or whoever, sell PDF, MOBI and LIT eBooks which are "tied" to specific readers (in principle). The argument of "bundling" books with a reader (e.g. Sony or Kindle) doesn't really make sense either.
And why, oh why, if I live in Europe can I order the 505 and Sony eBooks from Waterstones online? What happened to the whole UK rights issue there? You could argue EU rights, but last I checked Saudi Arabia and Madagascar are not part of the EU, yet they're on the list of possible address locations I can select, amongst others.
But we can go round and round dissecting the various issues - suffice to say that decisions have been made which happen to disadvantage me (and others) outside the US market. Then again, this is not an isolated incident (I can't buy an Apple dual English/Russian keyboard because I live in Western Europe, and they are only sold in Eastern Europe - go figure!).
To quote your signature: "
DRM is like saying if you want to read our book, you have to wear our glasses. If you want non-DRM content vote with your dollars and buy it. No one will offer it if there's no market."
I agree regarding DRM. I think DVD regions are similarly wrong. And I feel the same way about the Sony and Amazon artificial restrictions against all those avid readers outside the US. Hence, I choose to send my hard-earned Euros elsewhere... BeBook and iRex are some choices for now...
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