The kindle

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

For those of us living in France, why does Amazon force us to buy it from the US? Doesn't make sense seeing as England is in the EU and the US isn't.

[Théière]

Because the US, IS the centre of the world and everything else revolves around it

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

But UK buyers can buy it from the UK.

[Théière]

Must be OUR SPECIAL relationship [;-)]

Or that there is a Paris in America [:)]

[tel]

[quote user="Théière"]

Must be OUR SPECIAL relationship [;-)]

Or that there is a Paris in America [:)]

[/quote]

26 Paris but only 11 London in the U.S.A.

[nmc]

You need to think outside the box.  Go to the Kindle account management page and change your location to the UK.  Give them an address (any address) and lo and behold you will be able to buy titles from the UK and pay in Sterling.

Enjoy!

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

My question was why can't French residents buy it from the UK in France (which makes sense seeing as the UK is not far from France), but are forced to go to the US Amazon site to buy it which is far away.

Where you obtain the books from after, makes no difference.

[Quillan]

Possibly because if you use the link on the UK site that takes you to the US site it then asks which is the prime country in which your going to use the machine and if you look and read each countries terms and conditions of licence they differ. This make be because of specific copyright issues in each country. I don't think its so much to do with the download contend but more to do with the operating software but I may be wrong.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Could be Quillan, I did find this link where many people have theorised.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/kindle/forum?cdThread=Tx3UGJSBC3GVFOK

Just seems bizarre that the same machine cannot be bought in the UK. Obtaining the books isn't an issue as I already have hundreds of ebooks anyway.

[Iceni]

We bought our Kindle in the UK and had it sent to a friend in the UK and he brought it over. We can now download from the UK site - so far.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Bought an ebook in epub format, thinking I could transfer it to my phone and read it on mobipocket.

How wrong I was. Could only be read on Adobe's Digital Editions on my pc.

That was until I cracked it, and then converted it to mobi format. Took me a couple of hours, but what a nightmare to do.

In future, I will buy in kindle format as that is easier to convert.

So many formats though. Getting confusing.

Good book though, called Austerity Britain and is about life in Britain from 1945 to 1951.

[Chancer]

I have not the slightest clue what most of the things you speak of are, I assume it is some way of reading books on other than paper.

Luddite that I may be I still enjoy reading books written on paper.

Am I really missing out on anything? My feeling is that it would be better to carry on in my state of complete ignorance than become confused between formats.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Don't think you're missing out on anything Chancer, but for me, I have my entire book collection on my phone, so I've not any space used up by books (for me in my circumstance this is good), and can read whatever, whenever I want.

I do prefer reading paper too, but it is handy just reading on the phone, and setting it to scroll up at a nice pace. For me, ebooks are fantastic.

My friend has a kindle and it's a very impressive bit of kit, but again, I find reading on my phone more convenient.

[Chancer]

Well the books are certainly taking over all my habitable space, I now have a big library in both countries plus loads more in boxes in lofts etc so I can certainly see the advantage.

I guess on the downside that you have had to pay for all these books, probably some of them, your favorites perhaps after buying the in paperback or hardback.

Sounds to much like the great music/film  media swindle to me, I got off the merry go round when my LP's and betamax cassettes became redundant media, I have bought neither music, films or the kit to play them on since.

I will probably carry my books with me to the grave though [:(]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Well, like music, there are other means and ways of getting them...

[Iceni]

IMHO one of the pre-requisites for running a successful business is making it easy for the customer to spend his/her money. And Amazon certainly does that for Kindle books, though one has to be careful with 1-click anything.

Now to start looking at freebies.

John

 

[bluecat51]

This is the answer I've been looking for and was convinced it's the right one.  Thanks even though I've only just joined the conversation.  Assume this is for the 3G version only?