Annoying restrictions on ebooks for non-US/UK Kindle owners

sceptre

Mod note guys: we don't do torrents or torrent discussion on boards (due to both legalities and policy) so if you could kill that particular part of the discussion that'd be cool. There's the rest of the Internet to be talking about them:)

ixoy wrote: »

Also - will Irish legislation change for e-Books with regards to VAT? To protect our cultural heritage, there's 0% VAT on books but this doesn't apply to eBooks as they're classified as electronic media. Government could surely apply a blanket policy on VAT for books, no matter what the media.

As far as I know, there's no particular intention to fix this. Realistically it should be done though, as buying an electronic copy of a book is just as valid as buying a paper copy and arguably does more for heritage protection (given the tiny outlay required on making ebooks available compared with printed books, which makes it far more likely that a special interest book will be produced as an electronic copy) so keeping the tax categories updated would be a good move.

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

I've heard about this happening, I wasn't sure whether it was true or not. I think there was a story about Amazon deleting 1984 from Kindles even though it was bought legally.

That happened (unfortunately while they were bought legally, they weren't sold legally). Have a look here and here for the details. Given the main themes of 1984, half the irony meters on the Internet exploded that day.

niall2701

With credit card in hand I'm trying to pay for an ebook but keep getting the message "this title is not available in your territory" and that's from Waterstones...the US sites that I joined via proxy server are giving me the same messages. I can buy ANY actual book from these sites but not ebooks .. I want to pay but no one wants my money.

SionnachOghma

niall2701 wrote: »

With credit card in hand I'm trying to pay for an ebook but keep getting the message "this title is not available in your territory" and that's from Waterstones...

Try ordering an Irish ebook from an Irish site and being told this. I was trying to buy 'How Many Miles to Babylon' on an Irish-owned website once and was blocked due to territorial restrictions.

These people are idiots. The ebook market would do much better if they'd pull their heads out of their @$$€;$, but they don't seem interested in running a market that works.

x_Ellie_x

SionnachOghma wrote: »

I didn't need to change the billing address, just the delivery addy, and Amazon never said anything about it. Also, the address I changed seems to apply specifically to my Kindle account. It was in the 'Manage your Kindle' section - I just clicked on 'Country' and typed in an address.

I didn't need to fake the whole address, either. I moved my real postcode (Co. Dublin) up to the 'City' field, slapped in the U.S State and Postcode, and changed my country. If I'd needed to change the billing address I wouldn't have done it. Might have been a bridge too far...

Does anyone know if changing your delivery address will also work for the tv series digital downloads on amazon.com too?

SionnachOghma

x_Ellie_x wrote: »

Does anyone know if changing your delivery address will also work for the tv series digital downloads on amazon.com too?

Haven't tried that, but it should work. If it doesn't I'm pretty sure you'll be stopped before any charge is applied to your card, so it shouldn't cost you anything to check.

Solair

I was thinking of buying a Kindle, but having read through this thread and others about all the ridiculous restrictions placed upon Irish customers, I really couldn't be bothered!

I find it utterly ridiculous that publishers seem to be able to just flout EU law. Why, as an EU citizen, in an EU country, can I not purchase content from any other EU country?

Why is the recording / publishing industry exempt from EU law on this one?
Has anyone challenged this?

Arbour T

I bought a new kindle a couple of months ago and registered it using amazon.com as I thought I had no other choice. However, from reading various internet discussions I decided to change my address in the "manage your kindle"section to a UK addresss so I could buy ebooks from amazon.co.uk. I used a friend's addrsess so I had a valid postcode etc.

This seemed to be working fine and I managed to buy several books from .co.uk with no problems. However a few weeks ago I received an email from amazon asking for ID to back up my new address. I just ignored this email and continued to buy books from .co.uk. But then this week I tried to buy books from .co.uk and instead of being able to download the book I get a message directing me to the .com website or else telling me to contact customer services.

I'm really annoyed about this as there is a book I want to get which is featured as the kindle book of the day on amazon.co.uk today and so only around a tenth of the price of the same book on amazon.com

Has anyone else using a UK address had this problem and is there anyway around it?

Solair

Publishers flouting EU law there.
It's ridiculous! What's the point of having the EU single market if these bullies just refuse to recognise it?

Doc Ruby

SionnachOghma wrote: »

These people are idiots. The ebook market would do much better if they'd pull their heads out of their @$$€;$, but they don't seem interested in running a market that works.

And you can bet there's some knuckledragging sloping forehead in marketing slapping himself on the back over it. I couldn't even legitimately buy an ebook reader (the nook) without going to ebay.

Oh the internet is going to teach these people a hard, hard lesson. The only pity is its the authors who will lose out at the end of the day.