Comments on: Amazon Kindle will ship to Australia from October 19

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:39:39 +0000

The Kindle is a very nice device, but there are a view minors to consider. 1st it only allows you to buy books from Amazon, and with the current import rights, virtually no Australian books are available or likely to be available via Amazon soon.
2nd. You can not put your own documents on the Kindle
3rd. It is not serviced or backed up by an Australian Distributor.
Another option to the Kindle are devices that are open to read any documents from any ebookseller. The BeBook for example reads all documents (including Amazon books) and your own documents. BeBook will have a wifi/3G touchscreen model soon, but in the mean time there 6″ or 5″ models are perfect for book readers.
Have a look at the website http://www.bebook.net.au

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:44:48 +0000

Charlie, the map might have NZ covered, but when you go to the purchase page and select NZ, it says Amazon can’t ship or offer Kindle content for NZ.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:38:40 +0000

Just looking at the Kindle coverage map and NZ is covered (http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab).

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:02:23 +0000

I also thought it might be the telco partnership, but in that case why not sell the Kindle and allow users to download via USB? Unless for some reason Amazon doesn’t want to ship Kindles where wireless is not an option? Canada is also not on the list, apparently.

By: Edie

Edie — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:49:55 +0000

On the not in NZ @mcvane and @NadiaLee on twitter brought up an interesting point, maybe NZ and that are missing out on the Kindle due to not having an ATT affiliate – or the roaming not feasible..
They worded it better lol

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:40:32 +0000

Charlie, even if they did, I can't see how it applies to consumers buying ebooks. Under PIR, those purchases would be covered under the provision that allows customers to special order foreign copies. My understanding is that PIR applies to wholesale book purchases by booksellers.

I'm not entirely sure, though, if ebooks are treated the same by the law as print books. Maybe the fact that they're digital means they're subject to some other type of copyright law---I'm not sure.

And what about New Zealand? They have an open book market, yet they're not on the international Kindle list. It's all very confusing, so I look forward to any clarification you can provide.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:22:48 +0000

I’ve always assumed that the parallel importation rules applied to ebooks. I’d be amazed if they didn’t. Going to research it properly this weekend.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:22:27 +0000

I agree. My hope is that Kindle's market power will encourage/entice publishers to make more ebooks available to us. That said, I'm not sure how much of geo restrictions is about publishers not wanting to publish in digital format. I suspect it's to do with authors withholding rights, plus publishers not having the rights, and then a kind of muddle to determine who exactly has the rights.

Am hoping Bookseller+Publisher will have the facts soon, although maybe we'll have to wait until the Kindle ships and people start to rave/rant.

By: Edie

Edie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:19:11 +0000

Desperate for an ereader that is..

By: Edie

Edie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:18:19 +0000

It depends on the geo restrictions to an extent whether it would be a success or not, to an extent I would think? If every second book you go to buy isn’t available to your country, the glow might not last long. The AUS publishers don’t seem to have picked up that many ebook rights.. Or I could not be looking in the right places..
I am quite desperate for one, but don’t like kindles, due to being locked into their format, their shop and not actually owning the book..
And that was just a little sideways rant.. sorry