Canadian Kindle Owners Forced To Leave American Kindle Content & Features Behind
from the nothing-in-it-for-the-customers-if-they-move,-and-even-less-if-they-stay dept
Something strange and potentially awful is happening to Amazon's users in various locations outside the US. Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader reports that Amazon's Canadian Kindle customers are being locked out of purchasing ebooks through Amazon's .com domain.I have received multiple reports (here, here,here) today that Amazon is now refusing to allow their Canadian customers to buy Kindle ebooks from Amazon.com.What seems to be happening is a push by Amazon to move customers from other countries over to their local domains, something that has been reported in Brazil, Japan and France. Other news has filtered in that this is not necessarily Amazon's doing, but is a result of publishers "moving" product to non-US regions where pricing is still advantageous (i.e., not subject to the terms of the settlements reached with the Justice Department in the ebook price-fixing investigation).
Over the past couple days several of those readers have reported that many Kindle titles are showing up on Amazon.com as not being available to Canadian customers even though the same titles will show up on Amazon.ca as being available.
So far as I can tell, the only ebooks still available to Canadian Kindle owners are titles distributed via KDP, seriously limiting their ability to make use of their Kindles.
No matter who is at fault, it's the users that are getting the shaft. Amazon has only been selling Kindle ebooks to Canadians since late in 2009, but many Canadians have been purchasing ebooks through Amazon's .com domain since 2007. (Its .ca Kindle store has only been around since December of 2012.) Forcing Canadian users to set up a new .ca account means that much of what their .com accounts contain won't transfer over.
First, while Amazon claims that any purchased ebooks will be available* after a Canadian Kindle owner transfers their account that’s not completely true. The ebooks might be transferred, but I’m told that a customer’s purchase history is not transferred and the wish lists are also abandoned. That’s going to make it a lot harder for some readers to keep track of what they own and what they want to buy.If it's publishers making this push solely to maximize pricing advantages in non-US countries, the prices being quoted by some .ca users don't seem to bear this out. (Others have reported higher prices as well, but it doesn't seem to be anything approaching "regulation-free" price hikes across the board.) However, one site did get a response from a publisher, which indicates the current issues are possibly at least partially their fault.
Oh, and that claim about the Kindle content transferring isn’t exactly true. Amazon.ca doesn’t yet support subscriptions, nor does it offer Kindle Serials. That means this Kindle content will be lost in the transfer process along with any back issues that had been saved. What’s more, Amazon.ca doesn’t offer music and video so transferring an account will prevent customers from accessing media they’ve already purchased.
After speaking to Amazon Kindle support they informed us that this change was not their doing. They said a change like this would have been made by the publisher only. One of the major publishers affected responded back to me saying, “It certainly wasn’t our intentional doing; although it may be a side-effect of our pricing model. I’ll investigate and see what I can do.”For Canadian users (and customers in Brazil, Japan, France, etc.), it doesn't really matter which party is forcing the migration. The end result is a very possible loss of purchased content and a definite loss of purchase histories, preferences and a number of other small, but essential, perks that are part of a long-term Amazon account. This is going to hit the most loyal customers the hardest -- the last thing Amazon should want to do.
While there are many ways to route around this new issue, the fact remains that migrating a customer's account should keep it intact, especially when there's no perceived benefit for the end user. If this is publishers reshuffling their offerings to take advantage of out-of-US pricing, it's in Amazon's best interest to point this out. If this is Amazon's doing, it needed to have the kinks worked out before pushing it on its customers.
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Filed Under: canada, ebooks, features, global restrictions, kindle
Companies: amazon
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whats a kindle
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These restrictions are the biggest factor driving people to piracy and it is beyond me how there are people who fail to see this. If the licensing industries are to remain relevant, they are going to have to give up a little bit of control. It will benefit everyone.
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Re: FTFY
-FTFY
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Plus even if they didn't pull this DRM and region locking crap, you don't know that the kindle format will still be readable in 10 to 20 years.
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Re:
Also what happens when someone tries to license a book while on a foreign holiday?
Can they still access their books if they move to a foreign country because of their job?
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This is why I hate DRM
Also, I prefer the EPUB format, because I know how to hack and modify that thing. The MOBI format, not so much.
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That's why…
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Re: whats a kindle
In fairness, the first thing I did when I bought it was root it and remove the ads. I haven't given a dime to Amazon (outside of the cost of the hardware) and purchase everything through 3rd party sources using Calibre to synchronize. It's an extremely locked down device, but credit where credit is due.
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Re:
I honestly feel that the internet was better in many ways over a decade ago. Sure, broadband speeds were slow, CPUs weren't as powerful and HD storage left something to be desired, but we had something better -- namely, freedom. People could make fansites for their favorite artists, movies, wrestling promotions, video games, etc. and include content without fear of being shut down. We had fun, we shared, discussed, learned, and nobody got hurt. But then the big mean corporates stepped in and ruined it for everybody.
We need a revolution in culture to placate the old one.
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Struggling For Sympathy
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This applies to android apps as well
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Or for the more open minded.. File sharing. Two problems solved. They don't want my money and I want to avoid spending it.
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This noise
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Re:
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*blinks*
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Re: Re: whats a kindle
I'm always on the lookout for more 3rd party sources... do you mind sharing the ones you use? I tend to use Smashwords whenever possible, although that's mostly for the indie stuff I buy.
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Re: This is why I hate DRM
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The Canadian version never has what I want or the price is unacceptable. It's already bad enough that many sellers are unwilling to ship to Canada (though Alaska/Hawaii is okay?).
If I am forced to use .ca I will stop using Amazon altogether.
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US to CAN price differences
I will never enter the ebook market until it is fair, equal and more of a free enterprise model. I'm not the only one who feels this way, and really they are forcing people to go to piracy.
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One problem with the theory
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With all due respect...
I've been the happy owner of a Kindle for three years now, I have never purchased a book for it, and I've used it to read almost daily.
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Re: With all due respect...
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Re: Re: Re: whats a kindle
as far as third party sources, you might google "mobilism forum ebooks" i suspect you'll find an amazing place.
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Re: This applies to android apps as well
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Indie FTW
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Re: One problem with the theory
Amazon may not have any control over this as ultimately the publishers control how, when, where and at what price their books are listed.
Again, there's very little solid evidence that publishers are doing this. But I would imagine that if it was 100% the publishers' fault, there's still be very little publicly-available evidence. It's not like they'd want customers to know they were moving to country-specific catalogs SOLELY to take advantage of pricing flexibility.
If this is Amazon making this push... it's much more inexplicable. There's very little benefit for the company and much more potential for negative fallout.
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Re: Struggling For Sympathy
I'd rather my favorite authors get paid, somehow. The way the **AAs and now the publishing industry go on is that if I don't pay *them*, artists will stop creating. We know that's crap, but I'd usually still rather pay for something I enjoyed enough that I want the artist to keep on doing it.
What I often do is go ahead and pay (if the price is reasonable), and then go ahead and pirate the same thing so I have the "unlocked" version of whatever it is.
Add to that, especially with books you really do get what you pay for. The formatting on most books I've "acquired" is atrocious, those I've gotten through the Kindle ecosystem, or storybundle.com or other legit sources have been much nicer. No weird watermarking, no OCR errors. On music and movies, I don't care if the metadata is all messed up, but when I have hundreds of books on my Kindle, I need that metadata to work.
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Re: *blinks*
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Having reently moved from the US
This service routes you through a US IP address so you can watch US Netflix (Netflix Canada is pretty much of a scam) and hulu. I haven't tried it with a kindle, but it's worth looking into.
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Re: Re: Re: whats a kindle
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Re: This noise
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Re: Re: With all due respect...
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Until the process is an open as buying a paper book I will not buy a kindle or any other reading device or ebook.
I have a tablet and can read books on it if I wish.
I also have access to many books in epub and mobi format that I can read on my tablet any time I want to.
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Re: Re: Re: With all due respect...
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Re:
The only barrier to readability in 20 years would be availability. Can the end user keep track of a digital file for 20 years? Will the retailer still be around and allow you to re-download after 20 years? These are problems that all digital files have--whether bought from a retailer, downloaded for free, or even self created.
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Re:
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Re: *blinks*
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Re: Re: Re: whats a kindle
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Re: Re: This is why I hate DRM
And why would Amazon change? They are the dominant e-book retailer, and are in a position that is any retailers wet dream--all their customers are locked into their system. The only reason they would have to change is if they start to lose that dominance--either in the hardware/software or content--to some other retailer. I don't think that is likely to happen any time soon, as their only real competitor (Apple) likes their ecosystem just as locked up as Amazon's.
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Amazon.ca Kindle
Bottlom line...no new Kindle for me until Amazon and the publishers get their respective acts together!
BG
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Seriously I actually PAY for books, and now they want to F*** me over? If that's the strategy, then I have an alternative strategy that involves getting books PERMANENTLY for FREE.
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Re: Re: Re: This is why I hate DRM
Also, EPUB files work on the Nook, Kino, Sony E-Reader, etc.
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Re: Re: One problem with the theory
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That being said I do love Books and own around 1500 of them.A huge Collection of Science Fiction Rarities and 1ST Edition World War 2 Eastern Front Books.
I am Willing my Collection to my Son and I fully Own every Single One to do with whatever I want.I could even Burn them if I felt like it.
I keep my Books Displayed and people see them when they visit.They have nice Plastic Rare Book Bags and never any Sunlight so the Paper has not Faded.
Right now it is Appraised Conservatively at $16,500.
I really love my Books.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: whats a kindle
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Internationalization
On the one hand, as an author, it's a pain in the butt to have to look at each location separately to see sales. However, it is interesting to see where the buyers are from; it can help improve "internationalization" of future books.
I don't know if this will be a good thing or not for authors, but it looks to be a pain in the butt for consumers. I don't understand why (beyond short-sighted publishers) it matters where someone buys a digital book from, especially with VPN services being widely available. It won't stop anyone from going "outside their country" to get what they want.
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Amazon Policies
Two days ago I attempted to order some low cost merchandise from Amazon (under $10.00). Each item had a flag beside it "ADD ON ITEM". When I added the item to the cart it did not give me an opportunity to go to check out. When I clicked on the ADD ON ITEM flag, a text box appeared indicating that the items were add on items and would include free shipping if I purchase merchandise that costs $25.00 or more. I was not given a way to pay for shipping in order to obtain the merchandise without purchasing other merchandise for $25.00 or more. When I purchased my prime membership one of the features of the membership was free shipping even if the cost of the merchandise was less than $25.00.
It took me several minutes to find a way to contact Amazon. The customer service representative had to manually enter my order in order to enter it into their system.
I wonder if the scheme effecting customers moving to Canada, preventing customers from taking books that they purchased to Canada, is another method to squeeze more money out of the customer. The reason I like hard copy books is that the publisher cannot dictate where I can read the book and when traveling, an airline stewardess cannot force me to put my book away during takeoff and landing.
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annoyed Canadian
Called customer service who had no idea what was going on. i had seen the info boxes that you could change to amazon.ca but hadn't heard they were going to force us. was told not to purchase anything else or change to .ca or we would lose all our books which is over 2000. she couldn't change the country though she used to have that option wasn't coming up
woman did call back 6 hours later to tell me we had been switched to amazon.ca and our books would transfer. to be honest I'm not sure they did because we had so many. my husband did lose his subscriptions which i was told were cancelled the day before.
however my gift card balance did not transfer!! because I'm in Canada can't sound it on non kindle items they won't ship here. was told a gift card specialist would contact me to resolve gift card balance we now can't spend on kindle books or anything else since they won't ship here.
got an email today saying its not transferable from amazon.com to amazon.ca. to use it on amazon.com. which again won't ship to Canadian address. no option to refund my credit card which purchased it and is same one used for kindle purchases.
IF we had been notified we were going to be forced to amazon.ca I could have decided to make sure it was spent before switched, waited and bought amazon.ca card instead or just not purchased it.
So we were switched without notification, unsure if all books came, subscriptions loathing not just stopped but already paid issues gone from kindle and archive. customer service with no clue what happened and gift card balance we can't spend on anything.
We love our kindles obviously, we bought one for all 5 family members. similar Canadian readers don't compare. This was handled horribly. We hadn't heard anything about the switch just that little info box that we could purchase from amazon.ca
at the very least should have notified Canadian users this was going to happen. have customer service know it was, Smooth transfer or refund of gift card balance or notice to spend before switch.
And personally my family could really have done without those 6 hours of thinking once switched to amazon.ca we were going to lose all of our over 2000 books.
Christa
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Switching to Indigo, a Canadian bookstore
I hope this doesn't work out for Amazon quite the way they were expecting. I know I'm only one customer, but I buy a lot of books, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Just seems like a dumb move and a waste of the potential that is available with these technological advancements.
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US and Canadian Kindle PaperWhite
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. Also I cannot get access to free books or books on special.
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Canada's parochial distribution laws.
The same happened with Canadian Satellite service.
The same happened with cable blackouts of home games.
The criminalizing of digital tape players.
There is one thing that no country can compete against.
The spread of English internationally through the internet communication.
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Set Goals Like A Tiger: Personal & Spiritual Guidance To Keep You On Track
Book Link
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TTB3EP4
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00TTB3EP4
CA: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00TTB3EP4
AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B00TTB3EP4
Blog Link
http://insoutcentre.blogspot.com
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