identifying one's geographical location...

[al.adab]

hello,

hope I'm not crossing the line here. I'm a UK resident but constantly travel. I'm also an avid reader and a Sony e-reader user. Now, it's getting increasingly difficult to purchase e-books internationally, for some reason. One example is Waterstones - the message I get is

"Due to territorial copyright restrictions, we are currently unable to sell eBooks to many countries. We are currently unable to sell any eBooks to your territory."

I don't know what it is like if you use Sony Reader Store (it doesn't seem to work in Xubuntu), and Amazon e-books are crypted.

Bottom line: without getting into the rationale behind the message above, is there any way I can prevent Waterstones - or any website, for that matter - from locating my position? I feel this issue has also a lot to do with one's privacy/ethical stance.

Any suggestion/advice will be highly appreciated. Thank you.

[Zill]

...Bottom line: without getting into the rationale behind the message above, is there any way I can prevent Waterstones - or any website, for that matter - from locating my position? I feel this issue has also a lot to do with one's privacy/ethical stance...

I understand that these forums are not the place to discuss circumventing website blocks. However, as a UK resident, you are, in my view, ethically entitled to buy books from a UK website no matter where you happen to be. As such, I can see nothing wrong in using a UK proxy server to obtain such access when abroad. Unfortunately, this is outside my area of expertise and so others will have to help with this.

Having said that, would it be possible for you to simply download all the (DRM) books you require while you are actually in the UK?

You can also, presumably, download as many non-DRM books as you wish while abroad without any restrictions.

E-book managers, such as Calibre, also convert formats and so you should be able to read books downloaded in any format.

[al.adab]

Thanks Zill. You're perfectly right about trying to get books while in the UK - except that (often, like right now) it'd be very handy to get them while I'm abroad...

I don't know from where download non-DRMed books on Xubuntu and on a Sony reader - given that the vast majority of titles are for sale on Amazon (possibly Google Books is catching up?). I'm not sure Calibre can convert Amazon DRMed books (though I'm probably wrong).

But let's stick to the proxy issue: internet freedom - discussed in terms of ethics - seems to be (my understanding - correct me if I'm wrong) behind the philosophy of Ubuntu/Xubuntu/etc. Could we - in this respect - "discuss circumventing website blocks" on this forum and (specifically) discuss using a UK proxy server to access (any kind of) literature while being abroad?

Please advise. Somehow I feel that the issue is somehow linked to that of censorship, in some devious sort of way.

[nothingspecial]

We cannot support circumventing "territorial copyright restrictions" here.

Closed.