On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 4:10 PM, LIBLICENSE <
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> From: Jim O'Donnell <
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> 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