Location restrictions

[greyf1]

Hello everyone.
Yesterday I was shopping for an eBook at PDM.
I found a book that I wanted but PDM won't sell it to me because I live in the Philippines and not in North America.

I saw the same book at Fictionwise and bought it there.
I really didn't mind that it was double it's price compared to PDM but I got a 40% Micropay rebate which I can use for future purchases.

I love and support ebooks ever since my TRGpro days.
I really don't see why this restrictions.

They are losing potential sales everyday from international customers because of this restrictions.
I hope they do someting about this.


Below is the response I got from PDM support team.


From: "Palm Digital Media" <support@palmdigitalmedia.com>
Subject: RE: Feedback
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:04:28 -0500

Grey,

The publisher controls the rights as to what region we are allowed to
sell ebooks to, and we have no control over these restrictions. You
may
have been able to see N. American books in the past, but we recently
updated our site and fixed some bugs where people were able to buy
these
books only allowed to be sold in North America, but these have been
fixed. I understand how frustrating this is, but there is nothing we
can do about it. We are as frustrated as you are as we lose hundreds
in
sales per day. Sorry about this.

Thanks,
Josh
Palm Digital Media Technical Support

[jglover]

I'm sure this has to do with restrictions on sales due to distribution rights. The publishing office which serves PDM may not be the same one which serves the Asian markets. Hence, if you buy a book from PDM, the North American publisher gets credit for the sales, shortchanging the Asian distributor....hence the restriction on where the books can be sold........it's all profit driven.

[greyf1]

I asked PDM why Fictionwise can sell those books.
PDM simply said:
<snip>
Fictionwise is selling these books illegally. They have been informed
of this but continue to violate the copyright laws.
<snip>
Is this true or a smear campaign of some sort?

[jglover]

Originally posted by greyf1
I asked PDM why Fictionwise can sell those books.
PDM simply said:
<snip>
Fictionwise is selling these books illegally. They have been informed
of this but continue to violate the copyright laws.
<snip>
Is this true or a smear campaign of some sort?

The only way to find out would be to contact the publisher of the book(s) in question. I know with electronics, especially with the US market, warranties and profit centers dictate which products are sold n the US. Many products, especially from Sony, are released only in Japan with no US release. And Sony is very tough on their overseas vendors with regard to what they can sell, even with regard to posting their prices online. So it could be true, but it could also be PDM making the same assumptions here that I'm making. Only Fictionwise and their publishers know what kind of marketing deals they've cut. But overall, it is annoying to the consumer......

[greyf1]

Thanks, jglover.
I posted my concern here to get lots of input.
But you are the only one who understands.
Thanks.

What if I change my country to somewhere in the US?
Do you think I can buy those books with a Philippine credit card?

[bryus]

Unfortunately this is just another example of the media industry's continued attempts to control distribution and profit as jglover said.

Fictionwise may have different agreements than PDM as to where they can sell the eBooks. Copyright laws vary from country to country. For example, some books are available from Project Gutenberg Australia, that are not available from the American counterpart due to differences in copyright law. This is just one reason that the books are restricted.

It is similar to the regional codes on DVDs.