lifekludger

Wanted - virtual address

Virtual Geographic Kludging

Here’s the story. I had been hearing lots aboiut David Allen’s book “Getting things done”. I had heard it was available through audible.com and so wandered over there, credit card at the ready, to purchase a audio download of the book.

Having a disability that severely restricts my ability to handle physical “paper” books, the prospect of an audio book meant this would be more accessible to me. In fact, there is no way I would buy the physical book.

Little was I to know.

As it turns out, audible is more inaudible. It appears that because I have an address that is in Australia, and I foolishly gave my true address, the system will not let me access the audio book.

You can read below what audible said when I enquired.

A lot of bloody good that does me! All these publishing people may have their “legal” reasons for justifying their geographic discrimination, but whatever justification spin they want to put on it IT STILL DOESN’T HELP ME ACCESS THE BLOODY BOOK!

Just more barriers to overcome!

So, as a kludge I am asking anybody who does not live in Australia who may be willing to have a “virtual boarder” reside with them and donate their address for the sole purpose of lying to audible so I can actually PAY them to get access to a book.

Anyone who feels they will be able to help me out in this, please email me or leave a comment and I will email you.

Dave - Lifekludger

(I wonder what someone like Seth Godin would make of this response)

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Subject - Geographical restrictions

Discussion Thread
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Response (Arun V.) - 02/26/2006 08:59 PM
Dear David,

Thanks for contacting Audible, the world’s largest online destination for downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment.

I apologize for the inconvenience. This one is an issue of Geographical restrictions. Not all books are available worldwide.

When publishers decide to publish a work, they acquire the rights to distribute that title in certain parts of the globe. Sometimes they buy “world” rights, but frequently the rights for a book are split among several companies, each of whom publish for certain countries. As a distributor, we need to abide by the restrictions that publishers assume when they publish a work. Thousands of our titles are available for “world” distribution. You can find a catalog of our “world” titles at or by clicking on the “View All Categories” link on our left nav bar on our homepage.

If you need further assistance, please try our online Help Center, where you’ll find quick answers to many common questions and issues. You may also contact us directly during our regular business hours:
Mon – Fri we are open 24 hours
Sat & Sun 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST.

We appreciate your interest in Audible, and wish you many hours of great listening.

Sincerely,
Arun

Technorati Tags: disability, Seth Godin, publishing, drm, subversion, barriers, lunacy, gtd, david+allen

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