The next book has no eBook option?

[Luis]

To those of you who will respond, yes, I did see that you can change your region. Not exactly sure why I feel weird about doing it, but I do...don't ask me to explain. :-/

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Ian wrote: "Now I just hope Amazon police don't come and get me :P "

Well, I can't be sure about this, but I get the feeling Amazon really doesn't mind this kind of thing. From what I've heard, Amazon would like all books available to the kindle in all regions, but unfortunately they have trouble with publishers who have different requirements. :)

[Kim]

Luis wrote: "To those of you who will respond, yes, I did see that you can change your region. Not exactly sure why I feel weird about doing it, but I do...don't ask me to explain. :-/"

The author will still get paid for it regardless of region bought.

[Noel]

Ruth wrote: "Ian wrote: "Now I just hope Amazon police don't come and get me :P "

Well, I can't be sure about this, but I get the feeling Amazon really doesn't mind this kind of thing. From what I've heard, Am..."

Playing devil's advocate here but very technically, is some kind of criminal offence being committed? You are purporting to live or be based in area which you are not. As a result of that 'deception' you are obtaining property or a service. I can think of several offences that may come under. Surely someone, perhaps the publishers, perhaps Amazon, are not supposed to sell you the book in that format because you live ina certain area.
Don't get me wrong, I hate all this artificial restriction of trade but I think that the legal points could be clearer.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

No crime is being committed as you are paying the author and publisher for the work.
The "deception" does not harm anyone financially.

Don't forget we can legally buy the work (dead tree version) from an overseas country via snail mail.

If it was illegal Amazon would have closed this loophole long ago.

The only time a law could possibly be broken is if a book was legally banned from sale in your country.

[Thurman]

Kim wrote: "Luis wrote: "To those of you who will respond, yes, I did see that you can change your region. Not exactly sure why I feel weird about doing it, but I do...don't ask me to explain. :-/"

The author..."

I don't think its illegal. It just goes against the contract Amazon has with the publishers. Amazon doesn't care what you do. They still get paid. And the publisher does get paid too but they want more in different regions. ie $10 in the U.S. and maybe $12 in Canada.

[Noel]

Tassie Dave wrote: "No crime is being committed as you are paying the author and publisher for the work.
The "deception" does not harm anyone financially.

Don't forget we can legally buy the work (dead tree version) ..."

I hear what you say although there are some really catch all offences on the statute books in the UK. For example under Section17 of the Theft Act the offence of False Accounting is complete if you make, or cause to be made, any false entry on any document kept or used for accounting purposes. It doesn't matter if some somebody gains or loses. Still, I'm sure that everything is ok but.......

[Jack]

This is a great example of why the myth that ebooks make print obsolete are wrongheaded. I have had people argue that libraries are obsolete because you can get everything online. Clearly this is untrue, lots of books are not only not available online, but also out of print. This is why I am so fond of used booksellers. Even major authors (in my case thinking of JG Ballard) have works that you can only read by purchasing used physical copies or getting them in physical form at your local library.

[Bryek]

I'm not going to read through all of these posts but at first search, mine also said that it was unavailible to me in kindle but I typed "tigana kindle" into the search and now it says that i can buy it with one click.
Might be because I am in Canada though. (although I am using the american site)
http://www.amazon.com/Tigana-ebook/dp...

[Thurman]

Darren wrote: "It is because you're in Canada."

lol

[Tim]

When the Kindle first came out in the UK, there was no "UK Kindle store", and the only option for buying books was through the US store, in US$. That situation held true for many months, and so of course we had logins for both ".com" and ".co.uk" sites.

Now that the UK Kindle bookstore is well established, my old ".com" purchases still show up on my bookshelf, and although by default I now go to the .co.uk store, I have no trouble logging in to .com or buying from it. (It definitely knows I'm from the UK though, since it always asks if I'd prefer to go to the UK store).

[Thurman]

Tim wrote: "When the Kindle first came out in the UK, there was no "UK Kindle store", and the only option for buying books was through the US store, in US$. That situation held true for many months, and so of ..."

That is messed up. But I guess the UK publishers are alright with it. I'm sure the US Publishers would never go for that :(

[Bryek]

I use the US site more than the .ca one and kindle always knows what books i have bought on either site. I can't see why it wouldn't work that way for the american one too

[Thurman]

Kp wrote: "I use the US site more than the .ca one and kindle always knows what books i have bought on either site. I can't see why it wouldn't work that way for the american one too"

Because publishers hate us. I tried going to the .ca site. I could login but i didn't get the ebook option for this book.

[Thurman]

Thurman wrote: "Kp wrote: "I use the US site more than the .ca one and kindle always knows what books i have bought on either site. I can't see why it wouldn't work that way for the american one too"

Because publ..."

btw I know I could change my country and it would work. But why go through the hassle? They just won't get my money.

[[deleted user]]

For the kindle version:

Go to Amazon's website, manage your kindle, Country settings (under your kindle account).

Then I simply changed my address to a London, UK address. Purchase the book, then switch your address back to your home address.

Is it gaming the system? Probably. Did you do it legally? Pretty sure, yes.

[Paul R]

actually I'm sort of tiffed at the tie in to a dedicated account- with prices what they are the publishers have also removed the second hand option and the old- :hey- you might like this book: option

nice drm- but drm just the same. so if you can change your region - still pay the cost- i don't see the issue- you still meet the needs of the publisher and the DRM

[Noel]

Meet the needs of the publisher? Which publisher? The publisher in the UK? the US? Australia? Presumably different publishers own the rights in different countries. The book is not for sale in that format in one country or another for some reason.

[Nimrod]

@Noel, Authors can chose to accept the terms and agreements for each country as needed... when it comes to the ebook in the US, I am sure the author chose not to accept the terms... I say this, because I know quite a few scenarios where that was the case.

No matter where you buy the book, the money goes to where it needs to go... if the American publishers want to offer Tigana as an ebook, they need to make the terms agreeable to the authors.

[Paul R]

The world is still a free economy- if you are buying licensed material it never mattered before if you purchased oversees - it just meant that warrenty's may not be honored.

that's assuming you are not bypassing certain criminal laws- such as importing firearms, pornography etc.

for ebooks there should not be a problem- then again I have not read the agreements - so read them- but I doubt there is language this early in the game precluding you from purchasing an ebook from a different region.

as i said- drm still applies- publishers and the writer are getting their cut- it's not like you are downloading illegally ripped material.

I'm going to bow out of this one- drm rules get me cheesed off and people worried this much about purchasing books just gets me more cheesed

[Thurman]

Noel wrote: "Meet the needs of the publisher? Which publisher? The publisher in the UK? the US? Australia? Presumably different publishers own the rights in different countries. The book is not for sale in that..."

Nope the publisher of a book is from a country. It is about money. For example 10 years ago the Canadian dollar was 80% of an american dollar. Look at the back of your books. They charges them $12 when they charged us $10. When the Canadian dollar was the same or more then ours they kept the price. It is all about them charging different prices in different regions. Just like music every is differnt :(

[Thurman]

Nimrod wrote: "@Noel, Authors can chose to accept the terms and agreements for each country as needed... when it comes to the ebook in the US, I am sure the author chose not to accept the terms... I say this, bec..."

I don't agree. I think most authors don't have a say unless they self publish. The pupisher makes the deal and gives them 5% :(

[Jonathan]

Also a little annoyed that I can't get this through Kindle. I was very excited all week. But I guess I'll start working through the complete list of S&L reads. Only 30 behind. woowhoo.

[Luis]

Interesting post by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, senior editor at Tor, about why eBooks aren't available worldwide:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/06/13...

So basically, if you want an eBook which isn't available in your region, you are left with two options: fraud or theft.

I'm very hesitant in using the 5 letter f-word with regards to obtaining eBooks. I'm assuming that most people on this forum are law-abiding citizens (I mean, c'mon, it's a Science Fiction and Fantasy book club after all) and wouldn't purposefully want to break any laws. But, think about it, in order to obtain this eBook if you live in the United States, you will have to falsify your address. That sounds like fraud to me. Is it a hard thing to do? Nope. Is it a big deal? Probably not. Are consumers of eBooks forced to do this because of archaic publishing rules? Yeah, if they are dead set on the format and want to pay the author. Is it something I'm willing to do in order to read a book? Not a chance.

I realize that this is a much bigger problem for people who don't live in the US. I imagine that you've been dealing with this for years with regional settings on DVDs, and now eBooks. I'm just hoping that the rules change sometime soon and eBooks can be purchased worldwide without regards to the country you live in.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Luis wrote: "But, think about it, in order to obtain this eBook if you live in the United States, you will have to falsify your address. That sounds like fraud to me."

I think it's a little different. I may be mistaken, but I don't think amazon asks you to enter your home address, just an alternate address in that country - I don't think you declare it to be your true address, so technically I'm not sure it really counts as fraud. If a printed book were only available in England, you could easily buy it while on holiday, or ask a friend to send it you, and to me, entering an address in another country and temporary registering your kindle elsewhere is a little like this. True, it does feel a little dubious and dishonest, but I don't really think anyone has any cause to be concerned.