Digimonkey loves to travel. It’s a big, beautiful world out there and she wants to see it all! Travel is just plain fun, and many people who live outside the United States enjoy traveling to the All Romance/OmniLit site to purchase their ebooks, and that’s equally wonderful. Digi never knows when she’s going to be helping someone who’s halfway across the globe. Now that’s cool!
However, Digi needs those who live outside the United States to come a little closer so they can hear what she has to say. Closer, closer…stop! Don’t hit your nose on the screen.
The two words Digi needs to share with you are “Territory Restrictions”. What are territory restrictions and how do they affect your shopping experience at AR/OmniLit? Take a virtual stroll with Digi and she’ll tell you.
First, it’s important to note a few facts.
- Territory restrictions MAY apply, but do not ALWAYS apply to books that are supplied to us via a third-party vendor. That includes Secure Adobe, Secure Adobe ePub, Secure eReader, ePub (non-DRM) and Adobe Acrobat (non-DRM).
- Territory restrictions never apply to books that publishers directly provide us. We require publishers who contract directly with us to ONLY upload titles for which they hold worldwide rights. If the book you’re looking at is in non-secure Adobe Acrobat, Epub, Mobipocket, etc., then you can continue on your merry way and forget all about territory restrictions.
- Territory restrictions only apply to those customers purchasing from outside the United States.
- Different books can have different restrictions, even if they’re from the same author and/or publisher.
What are “Territory Restrictions”?
When an author and publisher sign a contract for a book, sometimes the agreement only allows the publisher to distribute the book within the country in which the contract was signed, in this case, the United States. That means the publisher can only sell to people who are purchasing within the U.S. Have you ever wondered why your AR/OmniLit Customer Profile asks for your address even though we don’t ship print books? Now you know it’s because the system has to check for territory restrictions.
So why would an author withhold the rights in other countries? In some instances, the contract with the publisher may have been for both print and ebook versions, and the publisher may not have been interested in distributing the print book worldwide, so the author retains the right for both print and digital in other territories so that they can contract with a foreign distributor for both versions.
How do Territory Restrictions affect your shopping experience?
When you click on the “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button for a Secure title, the system does a quick check of your mailing address to verify that you’re not in a restricted territory for that book. If it doesn’t see an immediate conflict, the order will be allowed.
What if you live in the U.S. and want to gift an ebook with a territory restriction to a friend in the UK who can’t buy it? Digi’s sorry to have to tell you that won’t work. While the Cart system checks your Customer Profile to verify the purchase is allowed to you, there’s also a different system that checks the location of the downloading computer and if it’s out of the authorized territory, which your friend’s computer would be, the download won’t go through.
What if your Customer Profile doesn’t list an address? What happens then? When you go to download a secure book with a territory restriction and your Customer Profile is incomplete, the system will block the download and send you a message that says:
An error was returned from OFS web service….
error code 1
Error message: validation error
error details: customercity is required for transaction
You will need to enter your address in your profile and click “Update” to get past this error. However, if the system then confirms you are subject to a territory restriction, you will see an error that looks like this:
Error 404
Due to geographic rights restrictions, this title (ID = 9839XX25-C17E-425A-90C8-85F41E0XXXXX) cannot be downloaded to the current country code.
In this case, you will not be able to download the book.
So what happens then? In the rare instance in which you end up with a book in your Library that you cannot download due to a territory restriction, then you need to contact Digimonkey and her friendly staff via the Support Ticket system and share your tale of woe so that she can help you. She promises she’ll have you back on your feet in no time. And then you’ll be ready to embark on your next great shopping adventure!
Filed Under: DigiMonkey eBook Tips
Tagged: digimonkey, ebook news, eBook tips, publishing, territory restrictions
Customer Satisfaction is now available!! mmmfm… 