Now this happened again. Wanted to buy two albums I have been waiting for. Added them to cart. Went to payment. And... got the idiotic "Due to agreements with record labels...bla bla... this download is not available in your region" message. Frustrated but hopeful went to the next site I use to buy music. And... the same thing. Frustrated but hopeful went to the next site I use to buy music. And... the same thing.WTF! Felt a sudden burst of rage and quit. The end result: not very likely I'm ever going to buy those albums. I'm not interested in ordering the physical cd, paying £5 more for it to wait for weeks for it to arrive and then rip it into digital files for listening.
It's just stupid. In a weeks time the albums will be on the net anyway for everyone to download. How hard can it be to understand this very simple fact?
Stupid region restrictions on digital downloads
-
- KVRAF
- 2648 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
No signature here!
-
- KVRAF
- 1987 posts since 29 Apr, 2010 from NYC
-
- KVRAF
- 1987 posts since 29 Apr, 2010 from NYC
its almost certainly not illegal to use in his country, wherever that is.
but you probably meant illegal to use for this particular purpose, which it may be.
still fixed though.
but you probably meant illegal to use for this particular purpose, which it may be.
still fixed though.
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2648 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
Using VPN would obviously help in many cases but it's not that easy on others. Often you have to provide a country specific credit card and billing address or Paypal confirmed billing address.chk071 wrote:That's what i meant, yeah.chaosWyrM wrote: but you probably meant illegal to use for this particular purpose, which it may be.
Moreover, it should not be up to customer to beg for normal purchase options or jump through hoops bordering on legality.
Region restrictions on digital sales are just dumb and make no sense.
No signature here!
-
- KVRAF
- 1987 posts since 29 Apr, 2010 from NYC
just out of curiosity, who exactly is being blocked?
like, does anyone know what the actual law says?
on which side is the block? is it illegal for someone to buy out of region...or is it illegal for someone to sell out of region?
i would be very surprised indeed if it were both.
ive never ever ever been blocked from buying something because of my location, so im genuinely curious as to how it works.
like, does anyone know what the actual law says?
on which side is the block? is it illegal for someone to buy out of region...or is it illegal for someone to sell out of region?
i would be very surprised indeed if it were both.
ive never ever ever been blocked from buying something because of my location, so im genuinely curious as to how it works.
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2648 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
Most of the problems I have had have been related to UK artist. It seems that the sellers have been restricted by record labels to sell any digital downloads to outside the UK. It's a constant problem with Amazon for example. But these particular albums were restricted also on all the other sites (like 7Digital that usually have more lax restrictions) I regularly use.
I think it has to do with most of the record labels still having a pre-internet mentality. With physical distributions it was understandable to certain extent as the logistics had to be in place for worldwide release. You had to ship the albums, you had to organize the advertizing, you had to pay off the radio dj's and record stores and so on. But it is completely idiotic in a the age of digital downloads when the albums will be soon out there to download anyway.
In this case especially as both of the albums are fairly obscure releases that are not likely to have any kind of coordinated worldwide release with big advertising. So obviously any sale would help and it feels particularly dumb to arbitrarily make life difficult for people who actually want to purchase the album.
I think it has to do with most of the record labels still having a pre-internet mentality. With physical distributions it was understandable to certain extent as the logistics had to be in place for worldwide release. You had to ship the albums, you had to organize the advertizing, you had to pay off the radio dj's and record stores and so on. But it is completely idiotic in a the age of digital downloads when the albums will be soon out there to download anyway.
In this case especially as both of the albums are fairly obscure releases that are not likely to have any kind of coordinated worldwide release with big advertising. So obviously any sale would help and it feels particularly dumb to arbitrarily make life difficult for people who actually want to purchase the album.
No signature here!
-
- KVRAF
- 1987 posts since 29 Apr, 2010 from NYC
interesting.
i agree it sounds exceedingly stupid. on the bright side...if the seller is restricted and not the buyer you need not worry over the legality of using a vpn to make the purchase as the rule doesnt apply to you.
i agree it sounds exceedingly stupid. on the bright side...if the seller is restricted and not the buyer you need not worry over the legality of using a vpn to make the purchase as the rule doesnt apply to you.
-
- KVRian
- 928 posts since 3 Sep, 2011
On a related note, what if someone buys a software digital download but with region restrictions. The license and download links are delivered to the buyer's email. If he/she has an email account with say Google, then can't it be argued that the delivery is actually happening in the US (if this is the allowed region, and the buyer lives somewhere else), since it IS a US based company.
-
- KVRAF
- 1987 posts since 29 Apr, 2010 from NYC
no, the purchase is considered to be wherever the buyer is at the time of the purchase...not the location of the delivery, and especially not the location of the corporate headquarters of the company running the servers...or in fact the physical location of the servers themselves. besides...those are only links sent to the email...the product isnt delivered until its been downloaded. thats not the issue anyway, where the product goes is of no concern, only the location of the purchase.maschinelf wrote:On a related note, what if someone buys a software digital download but with region restrictions. The license and download links are delivered to the buyer's email. If he/she has an email account with say Google, then can't it be argued that the delivery is actually happening in the US (if this is the allowed region, and the buyer lives somewhere else), since it IS a US based company.
like im allowed to buy a bottle of vodka and then take it home...or to a friends house, or to a party, but i can only buy the bottle of vodka at a state licensed liquor store. i cant buy it at the supermarket, or the corner deli, i cant even buy a bottle of vodka at a bar (unless i drink it all there). they arent concerned about where the bottle of vodka goes or who drinks it, they want to control access to the bottle of vodka.
if one were to physically go to a location where the purchase is not restricted, they could buy it and still have it sent to their email regardless of where that is. one of the reasons its so stupid. they dont care who buys it...or where it goes, they only care about the (electronically perceived) location of the buyer at the time of purchase.
-
- KVRAF
- 25849 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
+1 completly counter productiverobotmonkey wrote:And... got the idiotic "Due to agreements with record labels...bla bla... this download is not available in your region" message.
There was an issue earlier about artists complaining about how little they earn from Spotify.
Would be interesting to hear how artists jusitify these kind of rules, which are very unfriendly to fans.
In the end It's the artists who signs the contract with the record labels, and these kind of restrictions must then be OK with artists.