Jason Dunn
10-28-2007, 10:39 PM
I suspected this would happen eventually, but it happened a bit sooner than I thought: Amazon.com is now using geographical targeting to filter out everyone outside the USA. For the first month or so, as long as you had a US-based billing address (even if it was fake), you could buy MP3s from Amazon. I spent about $50 on music the first week Amazon's store was offered, but no more. Today, investigating the comment of a community member, I tried to purchase a song and was shown this message:
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/amazon-geo-target-blocking.gif
So it seems the "free ride" is over. As I said, I'm not surprised by this, but I am profoundly disappointed: I had hoped that Amazon was leaving this loophole open to gauge international demand, but they closed it so quickly I suspect it was an oversight and they never thought people such as myself would resort to using a fake address just to purchase DRM free MP3s. There are no good sources for DRM-free, mainstream music MP3s in Canada (and I suspect many other countries around the world).
I realize international licensing is complex to set up, but ultimately by restricting Amazon's MP3 store to being USA-only, it merely fuels piracy or decreases the potential sales of music because there aren't any other options. Lawyers continue to rule, and ruin, the world one piece at a time.
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/amazon-geo-target-blocking.gif
So it seems the "free ride" is over. As I said, I'm not surprised by this, but I am profoundly disappointed: I had hoped that Amazon was leaving this loophole open to gauge international demand, but they closed it so quickly I suspect it was an oversight and they never thought people such as myself would resort to using a fake address just to purchase DRM free MP3s. There are no good sources for DRM-free, mainstream music MP3s in Canada (and I suspect many other countries around the world).
I realize international licensing is complex to set up, but ultimately by restricting Amazon's MP3 store to being USA-only, it merely fuels piracy or decreases the potential sales of music because there aren't any other options. Lawyers continue to rule, and ruin, the world one piece at a time.