
Kindle Unlimited - zeratul
https://www.amazon.com/kindleunlimited
======
jaysonelliot
I'm very disturbed by the steady erosion of ownership that has been happening
for the past few years. Subscription models are an attractive way to get some
digital content for a low price, whether it's music, software, movies, or
books—but the internet has a notoriously short memory, and I fear that we're
condemning ourselves to becoming cultural goldfish.

I have books and records from my youth that sit on my shelf and are there for
me any time I want to revisit them. Heck, I even have software from back then
because I never got rid of my Apple II.

Of course, there are emulators, and Spotify probably has 60%-70% of the
records that are in my collection, and I can find A Wrinkle in Time on the
Kindle. But how long is that guaranteed to be the case? And how can I be sure
that the digital simulacrum are really the same as the originals, if the
originals are gone?

For the moment, it's an easy answer—just don't use the subscription services,
and keep owning things. But will that always be an option? Why should
ownership continue to be an option ten, twenty, or thirty years from now, when
it's so much more attractive to companies to rent their products to you for a
constant stream of monthly income?

Will books end up getting unskippable "updates," or even being deleted at the
whim of the publishers or Amazon one day?

~~~
yan
I can fully understand your sentiment, and to some degree emotionally connect
with it, but rationally: my entire bookshelf of computer science and literary
classics has gone untouched since my initial read through the vast majority of
books.

I keep looking around and I'm not sure that I'm happy with the "ownership"
aspect of books, or a lot of stuff in general. (Having moved three times
during the last six years, moving books is an awful experience).

This is probably an expression of what I've been feeling in general as of
late, but I am extremely happy with the "subscriptionification" of media
that's been happening. Spotify's huge library is a net win for me, as opposed
to collecting albums for them to just collect dust. For me, revisiting what I
used to listen to in high school by over-hearing someone's playlist has a far
stronger emotional reaction than revisiting it by walking past a bookshelf.

Regarding stuff disappearing ten, twenty, thirty years from now: my
experpience has been the opposite. The Internet has been getting better and
better and archiving content of yesterday, and has provided better and better
access to it.

My personal lean has been to own less stuff in general, which includes books,
music and media in general. So needless to say, I'm pretty excited about
Kindle Unlimited.

~~~
jaysonelliot
Show me anyone's MySpace profile from 2006.

Tell me again how good the Internet's memory is.

~~~
jaysonelliot
The issue isn't about making a value judgment on what's worth having and
what's not.

Whether you like it or not, a person's social media profile is a part of their
life. I'm sure you don't care about someone's photo album, or their diary, or
the box full of concert ticket stubs they keep in their closet, either. But
they matter to the person who kept them.

Except that now, we've grown accustomed to keeping our personal memories on
Facebook, or Twitter, and used to keep them on MySpace, Friendster, and
LiveJournal. "Just back it all up" you could say—but how many average everyday
people even know how to do that?

The other day, I was looking for a podcast that I'd been on in 2010.
Unfortunately, the site where it was hosted had undergone a refresh, and all
content older than two years was gone. It reminded me just how quickly online
content churns and disappears, and how even someone as backup-conscious as
myself can lose digital media.

There's so much good about the planet-wide accessibility of digital data, and
it's certainly better to have, say, a podcast out there that might be on
thousands of computers than a cassette tape that's going to be lost or damaged
in your car.

I'm simply saying that we should treat digital media as just as inviolate and
permanent as physical media, and make it a better experience, not a more
ephemeral one.

~~~
WalterBright
Consider your ancestors. How far do you have to go back before you know
essentially nothing about them? I know a lot about my parents, know a few
stories about my grandparents, and nothing about my great grandparents beyond
a name and a couple old pictures and maybe a letter or two.

What they were, the things they possessed, are all just gone. I am not sure if
that's a good thing or not, but the idea that digital storage is ushering in a
new age of ephemerality is not justified.

------
swanson
I love the idea, but the selection is not good enough (for me) yet. I keep an
Amazon wishlist as a "reading queue" and none of the 60 books (technical,
business, pop-psych) in it were available on Kindle Unlimited.

I usually buy 2-3 Kindle books a month at around $9/per, so I would definitely
use this service if the selection improves. I kind of wonder if Amazon could
get away with charging $9/month for any book they have and just cash-in on
folks that "spend" less than that a month.

~~~
uptown
Agreed. I don't read many books, but I asked my wife about the last 3 ebooks
she'd read. One of the three was already a free book due to Amazon prime and
was also included in Kindle Unlimited. The other two weren't available as part
of Kindle Unlimited.

So comparing Kindle Unlimited to Netflix's online streaming is actually a
pretty accurate correlation. It's currently comprised of second-tier (or
lower) books that aren't likely to yield the same profits as new and currently
popular titles, so they're used as filler for this service.

~~~
walterbell
Free, top-tier pre-1920 ebooks from centuries of book reviews:

[http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/themes/](http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/themes/)

------
kenny_r
Very saddened by this:

    
    
      We're sorry. Kindle Unlimited is currently only available for US customers.
      Please visit us again when it is available in your country.

~~~
leviathan
I still don't understand why, when content is digital and distribution doesn't
cost anything extra, things like this are restricted to specific countries.

~~~
AndrewDucker
Contracts.

See this explanation by author Charlie Stross:
[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/07/some-
ram...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/07/some-rambling-
thoughts-on-regi.html)

~~~
msh
But amazon have no problem selling me ebooks and audiobooks even thou in am
located outside the us.

~~~
gdilla
Sure, because those books have rights to be sold in your geo. OR, your account
is based in the US (billing address).

~~~
dingaling
I think the OP's point is some subset of the Kindle ebooks are already
available in his locale, so why not roll-out this service for those titles?

~~~
icebraining
Probably because the license they have to sell those titles doesn't allow them
to rent them on this service.

------
mrt0mat0
To all the "this is just a 10 dollar library card", I ask you this: if library
books are the way to go, why do people buy endless amounts of books from
amazon. Amazon became successful by selling books. Audible is another
successful company that offers a feature that according to you, can be
achieved at a library. Clearly libraries are missing something or else we'd be
using them more. Maybe it's one click instant access. Maybe it's the larger
selection, or that lack of having to wait. Regardless, it's not the same.

~~~
orbifold
This of course all depends on which country you live in. Where I am from
libraries already offer ebook and audiobooks and university libraries have
bought licenses from most academic publishers, so that students can download
most of their course material and almost all journal articles free of charge.
Also all libraries are a 15 minute bike ride away. All of them combined carry
a higher quality selection of books than Amazon with their 600.000 could
possibly have. Of course they probably won't have some obscure medieval
vampire romance novel.

The only books I ever ordered from Amazon were books in foreign languages and
academic books that Amazon apparently prints on demand on behalf of
publishers. Books in my mother tongue can only be sold at a fixed price set by
the publisher, so there is little incentive of buying from a company that
mistreats their warehouse workers.

------
hospadam
Can anyone offer any guidance on the audiobook aspect of this? What is a
"Kindle book with narration"? If I'm an audible customer... doesn't this seem
like a far better deal? Their page seems very light on details for audiobooks.

Edit: I just found a link that includes Kindle Unlimited books with Narration:
[http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=9630682011](http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=9630682011)

~~~
Echo117
There are about 2,000 audiobooks available through Kindle Unlimited. Compared
with 150,000+ available through Audible.

So yes, if the books you want to listen to are on KU, it's a better deal.

*Full press release embedded here: [http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-unlimited-reading-2014...](http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-unlimited-reading-2014-7)

~~~
hospadam
Full press release ended with me finding a link that shows the narrated books
they include. Edited above.

------
fleshgolem
To anyone complaining about country restrictions:

Selling books is actually quite the complicated matter in some countries. At
least in Germany you are not allowed to sell a book at a price of your choice
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price_agreement](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price_agreement))

It can be pretty fucking annoying to have these laws in place (they do have
their merits, but... that's a completely different debate), but I can
understand Amazon not having worked out all the legal issues to go worldwide
with this

------
Tloewald
Given that Amazon royally screws independent authors (not being a publisher, I
can't speak to whether they screw larger publishers too) who want to price
their works about $9.99 (if you're after a vertical market, Amazon hates you)
I can only imagine they'll extend the screwing to authors who won't also make
their works available via Unlimited.

(How do they screw us? They cap the 70% less download fee royalty at the $9.99
level. In order to make more than $7 (less download fee) per sale, you need to
price a book at over $20. So if I sell a $20 book on Amazon, BN, and iBooks --
I get twice as much from BN and iBooks as I do from Amazon. To make the same
royalty from Amazon, I need to charge $40, but Amazon won't let me do that. So
I pulled my book from Amazon and revenues _increased_.)

~~~
tjdetwiler
I assume it's a technical book? There are very few novels I'd pay even $10
for.

~~~
listic
That's a pity, too, from the writer's point of view.

~~~
rdl
$7 to the _writer_ for a fiction work is pretty good, IMO. There's probably no
way you're going to achieve that otherwise. (I'm part of the "fuck the legacy
publishers" camp; I do care about compensating writers and some editors, but
in general, I'd rather pay less, read a lot more books, and have writers paid
more, and fewer useless NYC publishing house employees playing games and
acting as gatekeepers.)

~~~
listic
Oh, now I remember hearing something about how high the margins in the
publishing business are. Probably you're right: $7 to the _writer_ should be
more than a writer can count for, with any reasonable retail price, in the
traditional publishing model.

------
ryanklee
If I have a digital copy, it's important for me to have a physical copy, as
well.

At different times, I prefer different media.

Until I can buy a book and get a digital version for either free or for a
(very) small added fee, I'm just not getting on board with kindles (or
whatever e-reader device).

Amazon _did_ roll out some version of this book+ebook service a few months
ago, but it included such a small number of volumes that it was virtually
worthless.

~~~
walterbell
It's dependent on publishers. At any time you can ask Amazon to search through
your _entire_ history of Amazon print purchases and it will give you free
access to the Kindle versions, if the publisher enabled this feature.

~~~
ryanklee
Yup, I know. But out of the hundreds of books I've purchased through Amazon,
only a small handful offer free Kindle versions.

The complications between Amazon and publishers are deep and messy and I
surely won't get what I want as a consumer for some time, if ever.

Just thinking about the ideal situation _for me_ , however unrealistic it is.

------
ghshephard
Perhaps my reading behavior is atypical - but "Hyperion", "I Robot",
"Ringworld", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Dune" \- none of the books I read
were in the Kindle Unlimited List, and they were all in the Vancouver Public
Library.

I love the concept - but I need at least a 50% hit rate on the books I read
before i'll be willing to pay $120/year to use it.

------
lukev
Well, I looked up a small handful of books I have been interested in reading
next, and while all are available on Kindle, none are on the Unlimited
program.

Looks like I'll be giving this one a pass.

------
WhatsName
Can someone explain to me, whats the difference between Kindle Unlimited and
Amazon Prime[1]?

[1]
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000739811&ref=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000739811&ref=primedp_koll)

~~~
cottonseed
Kindle Unlimited gives you unlimited access to about 600,000 ebooks and audio
books on Kindle devices.

Prime gives you free 2-day shipping on a large number of Amazon products and
gives you unlimited access to Amazon Video.

I personally was a little surprised (and disappointed) Amazon didn't roll this
out as another Prime perk. I'm not sure why making Amazon Video available to
Prime members makes financial sense to Amazon, but making Kindle Unlimited
doesn't.

edit: With Prime, you also get access to music, some ebooks, and something
called "Amazon Pantry". There is a description here:

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200444160)

~~~
ToastyMallows
Probably because Amazon is known more for their books than their movie/TV show
selection.

Also: Prime gives you access to the lending library, but you can only lend one
book a month.

~~~
cottonseed
> Prime gives you access to the lending library

I'm a Prime subscriber and I didn't know about this. It seems the lending
library has 350K-500K books, not dissimilar to Kindle Unlimited. And like
other commenters, it looks like both unlimited and the kindle lending library
has pretty small intersection with my reading habits.

~~~
will_work4tears
Lending library, though, only allows you to check out one book a month, and
you have to have a physical Kindle device. The Kindle unlimited, it seems,
allows you to use any kindle app, which is a nice change. I did just recently
get a Paperwhite, so it doesn't affect me as greatly now.

------
unicornporn
So let's see... 10 bucks for books, 10 bucks for Spotify, 10 bucks for
Netflix. That's $360 a year. It kind of adds up, doesn't it? :)

When I was little I went to the local library. There I had unlimited access to
movies, music and books, for free. Sure, it's hard to compare the music
collection to Spotify. But at the time I was content. And I actually think I'd
still prefer both the movie collection and the book collection of the library
(especially as my native tongue is Swedish).

~~~
jonknee
Less than a dollar a day for unlimited media consumption doesn't sound like a
lot to me. It's still significantly less than 1 cable subscription.

------
baddox
It looks like I was incorrect when I predicted that the ebooks would only be
available on true Kindle devices (and not for example the Kindle app on iPad).

Unfortunately it looks like the Lending Library (which comes with Prime
membership) still only works on true Kindle devices. I wonder if this is a
licensing issue, or just a deliberate choice on Amazon's part.

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000739811](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000739811)

------
edent
"We're sorry. Kindle Unlimited is currently only available for US customers.
Please visit us again when it is available in your country."

That's ok Amazon. My local library lets me check out as many ebooks as I can
read. And audio books. And paper books.

Total cost? FREE _!

_ via taxation which works out as £13 per year (budget is £8 million,
population is 650k)

~~~
watty
Amazon isn't intentionally discriminating against your country, they don't
have a choice.

~~~
edent
I'm well aware of that. And, I don't think it's discrimination to only sign
complex licensing deals in only one territory.

I'm just not sure why people in the UK would go for this when the Library
already does a fine job of "all you can read".

~~~
thefreeman
I haven't been to a Library in probably 20 years, so this is a legitimate
question, not being snarky. Can you somehow check out e-books at libraries
these days? Some people actually prefer that experience.

~~~
adestefan
Usually you can even do it online without having to go to the library. Go to
your local library's website and see if they have anything there.

------
makmanalp
This service would have the extremely interesting effect of replacing itself
with all your reading sources. Consider: Given a choice between buying a book
elsewhere and reading it here, you're going to choose the latter because it's
free. But also, if you normally read a book per month, since you're paying for
it whether you read or not, you'd have to basically read more from here to be
able to make it "worth it". So given a choice between buying a book elsewhere
or reading a _different_ one here, you're still going to lean towards reading
it here. Pretty smart!

~~~
rahimnathwani
Are books fungible?

If you're in a rich Western country, the time you spend reading a book
probably has an opportunity cost much greater than the cost to acquire rights
to read the book. Why would you spend 10 hours with a book whose marginal cost
is $0, when you could pay $10 and spend those ten hours with a better book?

~~~
makmanalp
Wow, never thought of it that way. Although I don't think that'd factor in as
much if there's books I want to read on _both_ sides, which I assume is the
case. So it's not so much an absolute ranking of books. If it's over a
threshold, I want to read it. Given two books I want to read, it might not be
that clear that I want to read one over the other, but when you add the cost
difference it'd become clearer.

------
phaus
I think Amazon's always done a pretty good job of rolling out new services,
but this is a train wreck. About 3 minutes after I signed up for the free
trial, I cancelled it. 99% of the books are the same type of low-quality,
spammy nonsense that I was already getting free through Prime.

I was hoping for something along the lines of Safari Books, only with a much
wider range of categories. As hard as it might be to imagine, the selection of
books here is far far worse than Netflix's selection of movies. That's pretty
fucking sad.

~~~
gcb0
this is the first comment in this thread that is not predicting the future.
there is some 200 i just scrolled past above.

yeah, amazon prime content is anything but prime. odd seasons of old series.
movies that even late night open tv is embarrassed of showing, and now teen
romances.

------
programminggeek
I think the audiobooks part is going to be more interesting than the rest. I
spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, so listening to unlimited
audiobooks is something that might be amazing.

~~~
jawns
I completely agree with you. Right now, I mostly rely on audiobooks from my
public library system (the price point -- free -- is hard to beat). Audible
(also owned by Amazon) is really the only other decent option for
professionally narrated stuff (I've tried non-professionally-narrated stuff,
and it's generally really bad). And since people don't generally listen to the
same audiobook over and over again, the way they do with music, I don't think
many people will mind that they don't get to "own" a copy of the book, like
with Audible. If it weren't for the fact that Audible has a far better
selection, I'd say it would be ridiculous for anyone to continue with Audible
over Kindle Unlimited. I mean, one audiobook a month vs. unlimited? No hard
decision there.

------
hugh4life
Hmm... how can you tell which books are available for it?

I searched for a philosopher I like to read and none of his books had the
"unlimited" indicator... so I don't think this is for me.

~~~
Nogwater
To answer your question: Try searching the Kindle store for something that is
in Kindle Unlimited. For example:
[http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-
alias%3D...](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-
alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=harry%20potter) You'll see "$0.00
kindleunlimited" for books that are available. The selection is grim.

------
bennesvig
As an author with two books enrolled in KDP select, I didn't know they'd be
included in Kindle Unlimited. It will be interesting to see if this has any
effect on sales.

~~~
wiremine
Do you know how you and the publisher are compensated in this situation? I'm
assuming there is some sort of royalty stream coming back to you? (I'm not
asking for details, just generalities).

~~~
geoelectric
I'll answer since they didn't. Kindle Select is direct publishing only, so
they don't have another publisher.

They get paid based on number of their reads (that's anyone who reads >10% of
their book) as a proportion of number of total reads across the library,
calculated against a money pool that Amazon determines month over month and
tunes to keep the program attractive.

More details here:

[https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3BQJE2QV37M1B#kll_calc](https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3BQJE2QV37M1B#kll_calc)

------
ntaso
Is this the same as the Lending Library you'll get with Prime, where you can
get 1 book for free per month if you're Prime customer? If so, the offer in
Germany is absolutely terrible. I found only 2 books in that library, because
they count endless self-published garbage-titles to their library of
"600,000+" titles.

From the comments here, I assume that the model is similar in the US and 9.99$
is only so cheap, because there's mostly junk in the library.

------
Eleopteryx
Sadly, I don't read nearly enough to justify a $10/mo subscription. (This is
something I'd like to improve, but I have ADHD and poor reading
comprehension.) This is contrast to a service like Google music that I use
nearly every day. I wish there were a cheaper tier with perhaps fewer rentals
at a lower price. Based on the current volume of reading that I do, the most I
can see myself paying for a subscription is about $3~5/mo.

------
api
I notice few commenters have brought up the obvious deflationary pressure
being brought to bear against authors and publishers here. The same thing has
occurred in music and film.

In the future is art and literature going to once again be the exclusive
province of either those who have taken a implicit vow of poverty or the
independently wealthy? Are we seeing the end of the era when a person could
actively earn a living doing these things?

------
samirmenon
Just as an alternative, the NYPL (which is the New York City public library
system) allows you to get a library card, and browse from their online ebook
collection, as long as you are a resident of New York state. It's a bit of an
annoying process, but their large selection makes it worth it.

[http://www.nypl.org/help/library-card](http://www.nypl.org/help/library-card)

------
tokenadult
I signed up for the 30-day free trial, and immediately found books that I'd
like to read that are on long request waiting lists at my friendly county
public library. Now I can look up those books any time I like during the next
thirty days. I'll see whether or not I think there is enough value here to pay
ten dollars a month indefinitely to keep this service, but I think I will.

------
cnaut
This is also interesting from the cloud storage perspective. Amazon is slowly
making personal cloud storage almost irrelevant by providing all these
subscription streaming services. You don't event have to digitally own
something anymore you just rent it and stream it from the cloud. No need to
back up the majority of the files you have.

------
xux
Looks like Amazon is trying to do to ebooks what Spotify and Netflix have done
to music and content.

The pricing is interesting. At $9.99, it's more than Netflix and the same as
Spotify. I'm not sure if anyone will binge read books the same way people do
with the other two services.

~~~
xhrpost
There are plenty of people already on the $15/mo plan with Audible. Myself
included. I listen to audio books on my commute. The difference with my more
expensive plan is that I get too keep the audio books. Though I have not re-
listened to any so this is something for me to think about.

~~~
mimighost
It is a surprise that Audible is an Amazon company. Will the launch of this
service create self-competition?

~~~
walterbell
Amazon also own GoodReads, CreateSpace, Shelfari, Abe Books, The Book
Depository, BookFinder and 40% of LibraryThing. Some of those compete.

------
msoad
I mostly read software and technical books. None of the books I am interested
in is in the collection. Maybe the improve the collection later, but for now
it's cheaper to buy for me.

------
beauzero
I think this is good for "candy books" like thrillers, etc. but for books that
I want to keep...no. I don't care as much about movies but for books...this is
not for me.

------
davidw
I wonder if you get to keep the notes you make from books in this? Of the last
5 books I've read, only 2 were in this, so I'm not sure I'll sign up.

------
WalterBright
It seems that the debut of $10/mo Kindle Unlimited was accompanied by the
demise of the one per month free Kindle lending library for Prime customers.

~~~
geoelectric
Where did you see that? The KLL page is still up and accepting Prime
memberships, and the Kindle Select (author program behind KU and KLL) terms
are clear that authors can opt their books into or out of either or both.

Edit: I do notice that the website doesn't display the KLL option for me on
eligible books, but I assume that's because my KU subscription enables less
restrictive access to the same book.

~~~
WalterBright
My books which were formerly enrolled in Kindle Select are no longer. They are
now in Kindle Unlimited. I didn't change anything.

------
lowlevel
We're sorry. Kindle Unlimited is currently only available for US customers.
Please visit us again when it is available in your country. (figured)

------
grn
It looks really great! So bad it isn't available in Poland. Does anyone know
when they will expand to other countries?

------
fideloper
How do authors get paid with this? I don't imagine a pay per play scheme work
like it does with the music industry

~~~
bennesvig
I assume the same way they do with KDP Select where prime members can borrow a
free book once a month. Amazon will set aside a pool of money and divide it
among the books that were read each month as part of the program.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Yes. As a Kindle author, I got an email this morning stating that's how it
will work.

------
zeroDivisible
This offer is only available to US customers - I think it's worth to reflect
that one in the title in here.

------
wiradikusuma
Let say I'm not in the US, what are my options if I'm interested to subscribe?
Will VPN work?

------
weisser
This has a ways to go in terms of content before I would actually use it.

------
tonyblundell
Does anyone have any info on how royalties will be calculated yet?

------
epaladin
Are they making the whole Audible library available through this?

~~~
drcode
nope... very limited audio selection compared to the audible.com catalog.

------
knerd1
What does this mean for oyster?

------
mimighost
It is like a paid pass to amazon's selected digital library.

------
jwr
"We're sorry. Kindle Unlimited is currently only available for US customers.
Please visit us again when it is available in your country"

Again.

Companies just don't learn. This is the Internet. If you sell digital content
online, there is no "US customers". There are exactly two groups of customers:
those with credit cards that are willing to pay you and all the rest.

This whole idea of segmenting by country is not only outdated, but harmful to
business and outright offensive to customers that were not "included" in the
"segment" that was "chosen".

Let's see, what will those people left outside the door do? Will they wait and
"visit us again when it is available in your country"? Surely! They will
patiently regularly check the webpage to see whether Amazon has graciously
agreed to take their money. Or they'll just turn to Bittorrent and get the
goods anyway, right now.

Anticipating responses: yes, I know, the usual narrative is that it's the evil
publishers. So what? Amazon fights the publishers on other fronts, why can't
it arrange for worldwide licensing here?

~~~
dynamic
The copyrights are often dispersed, with different publishers owning different
rights. It's not a matter of just "arrang[ing] for worldwide licensing." It's
dealing with a completely different set of owners who may have no interest in
signing on.

Of COURSE Amazon wants to access customers in other countries, it's not like
they haven't thought of it!

~~~
jwr
> Of COURSE Amazon wants to access customers in other countries, it's not like
> they haven't thought of it!

Actually, I believe they are not fully aware of the adverse effect these kinds
of restrictions have: as much as many people try to explain that it's not
Amazon's fault (just observe the downvotes on my previous comment!), it is
Amazon.com that rejects me as a customer.

But perhaps I should refrain from commenting, as downvoting based on opinions
seems to have become the norm recently.

