thoughts on region restrictions in ebook DRM

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/07/some-rambling-thoughts-on-regi.html

In principle, I oppose region restrictions. As a reader, they make me itch. But in practice, the way book distribution works across international borders is worse than imperfect: it’s broken. If I sell world English language rights to one of my books to a publisher, that publisher can’t just print and distribute the book everywhere in the English-speaking world. Publishers used to be regional, not global, players. And even in the wake of the wave of takeovers that resulted in the Big Six Five owning about 70% of the business, mergers between publishing houses are incredibly slow and complicated due to contractual encumbrances.