Reply to: Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Ireland

[Sysman]

It's not a limitation of the Kindle, it's a limitation of the international legal frameworks surrounding intellectual property rights. Complain to the rights holders. There's not a lot Amazon, or any other company that just sells content owned by the rights holders, can do about it. I've seen albums from the 1970s that are available to purchase in the US iTunes Music Store, but I can't buy them in the UK store; same deal.

I get the same in Switzerland. When the iTunes Store opened up folks on this forum were recommending various albums and following the links all I got was "Not available in the Swiss iTunes Store".

And until just a few months ago trying to watch any artist signed up with Sony got a message like "Not available in your country". That's now been fixed, but it takes time, and is probably to do with the fact that the telly licence here is now mandatory if you have an internet connection.

Pressure from Big Content, we assume

[TheFaQQer]

My folks, on a recent trip to the UK went and bought a kindle Fire as they were flying back. But as they live in Ireland, they can hardly use any of the features as it wants to use amazon.co.uk rather than amazon.com that they ahve to use over there.

Does anybody know if its possible to get it to use amazon.com?

Probably should have been in Technical, but only a handful of people look in there!!

Have they tried contacting Amazon and asking them? Generally their support are pretty helpful so it might be worth a shot. Failing that, there's always the Amazon forums where this may well have been discussed.

I'm surprised that you can't just change it over to the Irish site to be honest. I bought my mum a Kindle in the US and just registered it to her in the UK with no problems, but it may well be different with a Kindle Fire rather than an ebook reader.

[Moose423956]

This is one of the reasons I didn't buy the Kindle, and went for the Kobo Arc instead. Plus the number of apps on Amazon is far less than the number on Play Store. And Amazon wanted an extra £10 to get a version of the Kindle that didn't include pop-up adverts.

[BoredBloke]

You'd think by now the content providers would have cottoned on to this thing called "the internet" and worked out how to treat online content globally, and separate from all the existing local deals.

A quick search reveals instructions on how to root a Kindle Fire HD, which probably means you can then install a custom ROM and turn it into a useful regular Android tablet.

Yes - I know that it will be possible to root it, but it won't be possible for me to talk my parents through the process of doing it.

[VectraMan]

You'd think by now the content providers would have cottoned on to this thing called "the internet" and worked out how to treat online content globally, and separate from all the existing local deals.

A quick search reveals instructions on how to root a Kindle Fire HD, which probably means you can then install a custom ROM and turn it into a useful regular Android tablet.

[NickFitz]

I still cant believe the kindle, designed for internet use worldwide, is so limited that you can only purchase stuff through the amazon domain where the thing was bought.

I can understand certain items with have contry specific rights but dont see how that stops them being bought internationally over the net.

It's not a limitation of the Kindle, it's a limitation of the international legal frameworks surrounding intellectual property rights. Complain to the rights holders. There's not a lot Amazon, or any other company that just sells content owned by the rights holders, can do about it. I've seen albums from the 1970s that are available to purchase in the US iTunes Music Store, but I can't buy them in the UK store; same deal.

If you have a Penguin from the 1970s on your shelf, take it down and have a look at the bottom of the back cover, where the price is. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred it'll have a note that it's not for sale in the US or Canada, sometimes Australia and New Zealand too. That's exactly the same thing; a different company had the rights to publish the paperback in those territories. The problem is that we have the technology to distribute published material to a device just about anywhere in the world in seconds, but the legal framework is still built around Penguin buying the rights to publish and distribute a book in the UK and Eire, while some other company buys the rights to publish and distribute it in a different region. The only way Amazon can get the right to distribute that content at all is by respecting trade boundaries drawn up in the days when crates of books were shipped to shops in vans.

[Pondlife]

Numpty question: Have they tried changing the system default settings to Ireland?

[BolshieBastard]

Their app store uses a different system and uses rules designed to match media property rights. To play the game you need to pretend to be English as Irish rights may be owned by an entirely different company.

I still cant believe the kindle, designed for internet use worldwide, is so limited that you can only purchase stuff through the amazon domain where the thing was bought.

I can understand certain items with have contry specific rights but dont see how that stops them being bought internationally over the net.

[eek]

I cant believe this. I dont see amazon linking the kindle only to the country bought in. Surely its just a question of changing some setting either on the kindle or the amazon account?

I've logged into amazon.com to buy stuff before and never had a problem. They're probably only hitting the product page and their basket and not actually completing the purchase so think they cant do anything.

Their app store uses a different system and uses rules designed to match media property rights. To play the game you need to pretend to be English as Irish rights may be owned by an entirely different company.

[BolshieBastard]

My folks, on a recent trip to the UK went and bought a kindle Fire as they were flying back. But as they live in Ireland, they can hardly use any of the features as it wants to use amazon.co.uk rather than amazon.com that they ahve to use over there.

Does anybody know if its possible to get it to use amazon.com?

Probably should have been in Technical, but only a handful of people look in there!!

I cant believe this. I dont see amazon linking the kindle only to the country bought in. Surely its just a question of changing some setting either on the kindle or the amazon account?

I've logged into amazon.com to buy stuff before and never had a problem. They're probably only hitting the product page and their basket and not actually completing the purchase so think they cant do anything.

[eek]

Cheers eek - never thought of the prepaid bit.

You want one with credit / debit card loading. Its not a recommendation but this one should wortk

Kalixa Card - the contactless prepaid MasterCard

[BoredBloke]

Cheers eek - never thought of the prepaid bit.

[eek]

The address is not an issue, they can use mine. Its the card. Never thought of using a prepaid credit card. Can they top a uk prepaid card up using an Irish account?

Would of thought so. Either that or just give them one of your card numbers and charge them for what they use.

[BoredBloke]

Who did they come and visit? Either use their details or fake an address and buy a prepaid credit card. Its the only way you'll get round a system based on:-

is address in the uk
does credit card number match cards issued in the UK.

I've £4 odd on a uk prepaid credit card they can use that if they like.

The address is not an issue, they can use mine. Its the card. Never thought of using a prepaid credit card. Can they top a uk prepaid card up using an Irish account?

[eek]

Amazon.co.uk requires a UK card and address - they have neither.

Who did they come and visit? Either use their details or fake an address and buy a prepaid credit card. Its the only way you'll get round a system based on:-

is address in the uk
does credit card number match cards issued in the UK.

I've £4 odd on a uk prepaid credit card they can use that if they like.