The Bookseller has an article today that is the result of their investigation into territorial rights and ebook downloads. They were able to crack Amazon’s controls by buying 10 US Kindle editions, all of which have different UK publishers, by inputting a valid US address and using a credit card with a UK address.
… One c.e.o. of a major translatlantic publisher said: “Territory on Amazon is on the verge of non-existent. Our digital team in the UK regularly cracks it. This is a problem we have notified Amazon about. They’ve said: ‘Don’t worry, [a customer] can only [crack the territory] before the IT kicks in.’
“That’s a response, even if it’s true, I’ve found to be astounding and unacceptable. Once is too much.”
More info in the article.
Of course, the publishers miss the point.
The point is that the current sales model is just not adapted to the current purchasing model – and it is the purchasing model that will drive the industry in the long run. This is just another thing that will eventually have to change if publishers are to survive. Those publishers who can figure this out are those publishers who will be around in the next decade. The denial of books to customers based on their location is simply a) stupid, b) motivated by an outdated view of protectionism and c) ultimately unsupportable in an age of freely transferrable information. If it is the case that the death of territorial rights kills off some local distribution channels, then so be it. As a consumer I couldn’t care less. I want the book and I don’t care who provides it to me – be it a US channel or a UK channel. I don’t have any brand loyalty to a publisher, I simply want the product. And to tell me that I can’t have it when my neighbor across the water can have as many copies as he wants is not a tenable position. Sorry.
I hate the territory blocks. I much prefer the Kindle app for reading, but often find i need to buy from Kobo to get the book I need.
It’s not just Amazon, I haven’t bought anything from FictionWise for months because they have so many books unavailable for Canadian readers – despite the claim that Canada is one of the countries that has the least restrictions.
Why does the publisher care?
Why is this suddenly news? Geo-restriction at most e-books stores can be easily circumvented, and this has been possible for years.
I live in The Netherlands and I buy most of the e-books for my Nook at B&N. I also buy e-books at Fictionwise, Kobobooks and WH Smith.
Bookstores have only implemented geo-restrictions because the publishers forced them to. The bookstores themselved do not care to whom they sell their books. Information about how to circumvent geo-restrictions can be found everywhere, and if bookstores really wanted to, they could make circumventing those restrictions a lot more difficult.
Perry: The publisher cares because they want to control prices, and soak the rich or niche markets (Japan being one of the former, Australia being one of the latter).
There’s no difference in content between the American edition and the Australian edition, and yet the Australian edition cost (proportionately) twice as much.
Perry: in many cases it’s the retailer who cares, because Canadian law seriously restricts US companies selling cultural materials such as books and e-books in Canada. The Investment Canada Act puts up some pretty high barriers in order to protect Canadian publishers, Canadian bookstores, and Canadian culture. Write your PM.
what are publishers really thinking, with geographic restrictions? content is unique, so it’s hardly as if the u.s. customer wanting to read t.h. white’s ‘the once and future king’ will read some u.s. author’s arthurian story instead, any more than killing snow white made her stepmother more attractive. and translations from other languages aren’t going to gain market share, because translations are only for people who aren’t speakers of the original language. those who are will generally wait as long as it takes — even until their next trip abroad — to get a copy of an original-language edition.
Geographic restrictions are basically a holdover from the days of print-only, when a single company wasn’t big enough to publish, print, promote, and ship a book in more than one geographic area, so they had to license the rights out to other publishers who were better suited to handle the book where they were.
E-books don’t have those restrictions, but in publishers’ rush to make e-books behave more like printed books, they have nonetheless imposed them.