One of the drawbacks of living outside of the USA is that you can’t do business with most of the major e-reader content distribution systems. Complex ebook, video, audio and magazine licensing restrictions are ironed out for specific geographical locations. This means that if you have any Nook e-Reader or Tablet or any iteration of the Kindle Fire, you can’t purchase most content or even register for an account. What methods can users employ to take bypass these locked regions to purchase content?
Barnes and Noble has employed new measures for registration for the entire Nook HD, HD+, and Simple Touch Reader line of devices. You need a USA billing address AND USA credit card to register an account and make purchases. With the Kindle Fire, unless you have a USA account and credit card, you are unable to download apps, newspapers, magazines, video. The one thing that is irksome is that you can’t even download free apps or games. The only thing international users can do is buy ebooks and audiobooks. This is quite limiting for the vast majority of tech savvy users living in Europe, Canada, Asia, and most countries.
The best solution found thus far is via e-commerce giant Shop e-Readers. They offer USA Visa Gift Cards and a USA Billing address to customers worldwide. Attaching these to your Amazon and Barnes and Noble accounts will open up their entire ecosystems of content. You can buy games, apps, newspapers, magazines, kids books, interactive content, audiobooks, and much more! About the only thing you can’t do is unlock video access, because both companies lock you out by geographical restrictions. You can bypass this by installing a VPN, like HideMyAss, which physically changes your router’s settings to a USA address, letting you access video and television content from Amazon and B&N.
Many people are going to be receiving Nook and Kindle devices today for Christmas and will want to get content right away. If you are outside the UK and USA, your options are tremendously limited. With the Shop e-Readers Credit Card, you can buy it in increments of $10 to enjoy a wide array of media! Visit their website to get the full scoop and order it today.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
