From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:52:45 +0200

I'd like to read Hesse's Glasperlenspiel on my iPad.  Looks like it
can't be done.  Amazon.de won't sell it to me, nor will buch.de -- not
for delivery to my country.  Amazon says it's the publishers' fault.
This means that Suhrkamp, who sells the print and e-book editions,
will sell me the print through various dealers but not the e-book.
Can this make sense?

(Never mind the chatter on Internet sites that you can re-register
your Kindle to Germany.  Quite apart from the risks of relocating and
then probably discovering that things you'd bought before won't work
any more, there's the nuisance value of having to get a credible
German address and likely a German credit card, etc., etc., etc.  And
the selection of German-language books purchasable through US Amazon
is pathetic.  Best solution I can think of is to suborn a German
friend to purchase the non-Kindle format [pdf] e-book edition and then
re-sell it to me -- legally?)

I'd welcome either news how to achieve my goal or some explanation of
how it can make sense in a globalized world not to sell books outside
your own borders.  As I understand the restrictions in print world,
they depend on having the rights to sell in X country, where at least
the publisher can make sure that the same artifact is available in as
many countries as possible.  But for now it appears that in-copyright
German literature may be read electronically only in Germany.  I have
every reason to think that similar restrictions apply at other
borders, in both directions.  All sorts of higher order educational
and cultural benefits flow from people being able to acquire "content"
in different languages.  Why would books be different?

Jim O'Donnell