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I wonder whether this is related to Linn living in Norway, purchasing from Amazon.com and somehow Amazon.co.uk are getting in the middle, perhaps because they r

I wonder whether this is related to Linn living in Norway, purchasing from Amazon.com and somehow Amazon.co.uk are getting in the middle, perhaps because they run Europe from there. It's the game that many people play - trying to find the best Amazon (or Apple) store when they live and travel between countries. This means a constant struggle to find a combination of credit card, store with enough content (The US is best) and a local address (virtual and actual) to satisfy arcane internal rules. Please Amazon - please move to one global store where any credit card from any country can purchase any edition of any book. Please Amazon and Apple, let us combine content from multiple stores into one account, and let us have a global price based on the best market. Yo usell more stuff, we but more as well. Meanwhile take the chance to collect, and pay to the local authorities, consumption/sales tax based on the location of the IP address, not the credit card or address of the buyer. That way if someone is standing in the UK, buying content from the USA, then they pay UK tax (VAT), making it fairer versus the physical and local virtual alternatives.

werid 14y ago
Why would Amazon.co.uk run "europe"? The europeans outside UK, FR or DE are forced to buy the international kindle from the US.
- rmc 14y ago
  Seconded. I have a Kindle, I'm in Ireland. I have to use Amazon.com, not Amazon.co.uk. Amazon don't let you choose (unless you were to do fradulent things like use a fake address / credit card with other address etc.)
- lancewiggs 14y ago
  I assume for tax and logistics reasons. A search for "Amazon Europe" delivers an http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/gateway-eu http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/gateway-eu. I'm making assumptions after that.
  - werid 14y ago
    all international kindles are shipped from the US. ebooks must be bought from US too. the UK ebooks rights are ONLY for the UK, same with FR and DE. the US store handles american and international rights. other markets not quite big enough yet. if you're thinking about physical books, that's wrong too. a book sold in both the US and UK shop will usually have a different publisher, so which one you get depends on where you ordered it, not where you live.
capisce 14y ago
I live in Norway, and I've always ordered books from Amazon.com with my Norwegian address and credit card. I bought my Kindle the same way and have been buying Kindle e-books without any problems. Thus it appears that Amazon.com is fully willing and able to handle Norwegian customers.
praptak 14y ago
> Please Amazon - please move to one global store where any credit card from any country can purchase any edition of any book. Not gonna happen without a huge change in international copyright law, probably only possible if the Pirate Party gets constitution-changing majority in all of the key countries at the same time :) Currently, for the most books there is no such thing as the right to publish a book globally, the existing deals are limited to geographic regions.
- PhantomLobe 14y ago
  Wat? I've bought in .com, .ca, .co.uk, .fr and .es with (both) France and Spain based credit cards with no problems whatsoever.
- zizee 14y ago
  PhantomLobe replied to this comment: Wat? I've bought in .com, .ca, .co.uk, .fr and .es with (both) France and Spain based credit cards with no problems whatsoever. PhantomLobe, you were hellbanned* for making a comment that didn't fit the the community guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Looking at your comment history, you don't seem to be a spammer or a troll, I think it is more that your second comment didn't fit the guidelines and because you didn't have enough karma your account went under water, never to be seen again. I don't know if it was by a mod, or by a robot, but to keep commenting with our PhantomLobe account is an effort in futility and a waste of your time. I recommend that you review the guidelines doc above and avoid making comments that may be seen as not adding to the discussion. Also, start spelling words correctly. Wot is not a word and won't win you friends here. On a related note: I wish HN would would stop hellbanning users for making comments that are not constructive. That's what downvotes are for! I have been seeing far too many people wasting so much time because they don't know they are hellbanned. Hellbanning should be reserved to obvious trolls and spammers, not people getting used to the standards of these discussions. *http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/06/suspension-ban-or-hellban.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/06/suspension-ban-or-h...
  - andybak 14y ago
_djo_ 14y ago
In my experience the Kindle store is typically only available at Amazon.com when buying from most other countries. For instance in South Africa while I can buy physical items from both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, if I try to buy anything from the Kindle store on Amazon.co.uk I get told to go to Amazon.com instead.
curiousdannii 14y ago
And it's more complicated than just which store you use. I'm an Australian and I have to use the amazon.com store. But even though I use that store, I can't buy "active content"/applications, which AFAIK is limited to US customers only. At least there's the book depository for paper books!
- thaumasiotes 14y ago
  I discovered when I was in China that Amazon will not sell music to you there (interestingly, iTunes will). I don't remember whether or not I had the same problem with ebooks. However, solving the problem was as simple as visiting them from a US-based IP address. (Granted, my credit card was based in the US, so that's a hurdle I cleared implicitly.)
DanBC 14y ago
> Please Amazon - please move to one global store Aren't they stuck by territorial rights deals? It's weird that books have region lock out.

werid 14y ago

Why would Amazon.co.uk run "europe"? The europeans outside UK, FR or DE are forced to buy the international kindle from the US.

rmc 14y ago
Seconded. I have a Kindle, I'm in Ireland. I have to use Amazon.com, not Amazon.co.uk. Amazon don't let you choose (unless you were to do fradulent things like use a fake address / credit card with other address etc.)
lancewiggs 14y ago
I assume for tax and logistics reasons. A search for "Amazon Europe" delivers an http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/gateway-eu http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/gateway-eu. I'm making assumptions after that.
- werid 14y ago
  all international kindles are shipped from the US. ebooks must be bought from US too. the UK ebooks rights are ONLY for the UK, same with FR and DE. the US store handles american and international rights. other markets not quite big enough yet. if you're thinking about physical books, that's wrong too. a book sold in both the US and UK shop will usually have a different publisher, so which one you get depends on where you ordered it, not where you live.

capisce 14y ago

I live in Norway, and I've always ordered books from Amazon.com with my Norwegian address and credit card. I bought my Kindle the same way and have been buying Kindle e-books without any problems. Thus it appears that Amazon.com is fully willing and able to handle Norwegian customers.

praptak 14y ago

> Please Amazon - please move to one global store where any credit card from any country can purchase any edition of any book. Not gonna happen without a huge change in international copyright law, probably only possible if the Pirate Party gets constitution-changing majority in all of the key countries at the same time :) Currently, for the most books there is no such thing as the right to publish a book globally, the existing deals are limited to geographic regions.

PhantomLobe 14y ago
Wat? I've bought in .com, .ca, .co.uk, .fr and .es with (both) France and Spain based credit cards with no problems whatsoever.
zizee 14y ago
PhantomLobe replied to this comment: Wat? I've bought in .com, .ca, .co.uk, .fr and .es with (both) France and Spain based credit cards with no problems whatsoever. PhantomLobe, you were hellbanned* for making a comment that didn't fit the the community guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Looking at your comment history, you don't seem to be a spammer or a troll, I think it is more that your second comment didn't fit the guidelines and because you didn't have enough karma your account went under water, never to be seen again. I don't know if it was by a mod, or by a robot, but to keep commenting with our PhantomLobe account is an effort in futility and a waste of your time. I recommend that you review the guidelines doc above and avoid making comments that may be seen as not adding to the discussion. Also, start spelling words correctly. Wot is not a word and won't win you friends here. On a related note: I wish HN would would stop hellbanning users for making comments that are not constructive. That's what downvotes are for! I have been seeing far too many people wasting so much time because they don't know they are hellbanned. Hellbanning should be reserved to obvious trolls and spammers, not people getting used to the standards of these discussions. *http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/06/suspension-ban-or-hellban.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/06/suspension-ban-or-h...
- andybak 14y ago

_djo_ 14y ago

In my experience the Kindle store is typically only available at Amazon.com when buying from most other countries. For instance in South Africa while I can buy physical items from both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, if I try to buy anything from the Kindle store on Amazon.co.uk I get told to go to Amazon.com instead.

curiousdannii 14y ago

And it's more complicated than just which store you use. I'm an Australian and I have to use the amazon.com store. But even though I use that store, I can't buy "active content"/applications, which AFAIK is limited to US customers only. At least there's the book depository for paper books!

thaumasiotes 14y ago
I discovered when I was in China that Amazon will not sell music to you there (interestingly, iTunes will). I don't remember whether or not I had the same problem with ebooks. However, solving the problem was as simple as visiting them from a US-based IP address. (Granted, my credit card was based in the US, so that's a hurdle I cleared implicitly.)

DanBC 14y ago

> Please Amazon - please move to one global store Aren't they stuck by territorial rights deals? It's weird that books have region lock out.